FailCar on Winter Tyres

Looks like the arrival of winter has come at just the right time for @FailCar. Here are his early thoughts on winter tyres.

Like many other motoring journalists I have been to many a track testing set up to find out the difference first hand between summer and winter tyres. This usually results with plenty of articles from us lot moaning at Joe Public to go out and buy winter tyres OR DIE.

Thing is though, I have a confession. I have never previously bothered to take heed of all the advice. The major factors being that in my locality, I really don’t experience terrible weather, the main roads are mostly gritted and I’m just one of those people that ‘blags’ it and carries on with a bit of wheel spin and minor use of foul language.

A lot of time is spent with press cars anyway so I figured getting them for one of my cars was a rather large expenditure, unless I got on the blag. It can, however be a bit hard to get on my high horse and bang on about how it’s worth the money etc if I’m getting the tyres for free.

This year I decided to actually buy some winter tyres with my own money and everything. Now that I’m having to do the Christmas shopping on Amazon with a considerably lighter wallet, I may be regretting it slightly.

After testing many tyres I decided to do what the majority of people will do anyway. Go and buy the cheapest tyres with a decent brand stuck on the side. So I have ended up with a set of Goodyear Ultragrip 8s.

The plan was to have them fitted at the beginning of October, but delays in stock meant I actually ended up getting them in mid-November. This actually turned out to be a blessing...

Well, the weather has been bloody lovely, so for the past month I have actually been driving round with tyres that have significantly lower grip in the warm-ish conditions than the summer tyres that were on before. In fact, when I had to use them in anger when an Audi driver drifted into my lane they were simply trouser-messingly crap. Oh dear, we were not off to a good start.

I understand the main reason for winter tyres is improved grip in cold/wet BUT when it’s not that cold or wet at this time of year I actually found that they are considerably more dangerous.

Anyhow it’s started getting cold and wet the last few days and this weekend I had the joy of driving through a torrential rain storm that was flooding sections of road. The way the tyres dealt with puddles etc was exceptional compared to the summer tyres. Where I would usually be having a fight with the steering wheel, the water was instead getting propelled out of the arches at some rate and without so much as a shudder through the steering column. Impressive.

Driving in icy conditions the past few days I have found myself needing to keep imposing some restraint. I call this ‘Winter Tyre Syndrome’  At the back of my mind I’m thinking “I have winter tyres, go nuts” and where I would usually be driving cautiously on summer tyres with occasional sharp intakes of breath, I’m not actually changing my driving style for the conditions at all. In fact I think there is more chance of me stuffing my car into a hedge than ever at the moment. The tyres have held on well (so far) but I feel myself looking at the temperature gauge to remind myself to slow things down a bit.

So anyway that’s been my experience in the real world for the past month or so and I will keep you updated and will be following how @MajorGav gets on with his winter tyres, (also Ultragrip 8s), on the Saab over the winter. Would also be great to hear from any of you...