Yep. You read that correctly. I drove my C230K sedan, complete with stock performance tires through a winter snowstorm in the Wyoming Rockies.

Seeing as there's been some debate as to how the W203 drives in the winter, as well as how far you can really go with the stock Conti performance tires they put on the C230k sedan, I thought I'd let you all know about my little adventure across I80 from California to Chicago on the weekend of 21 Nov. I would've posted this sooner, but I finally was able to get my forum registration issues sorted out this week.

Day One - Getting through California's Donner pass, across Nevada (Got the car up to 140, and that was carrying a full load in the trunk!) and Utah to the edge of Wyoming: Not a problem. The tires held well, never saw any issues or the traction control light, which was about to be my regular companion. Luckily for me, they closed I80 that night due to the snowstorm that hit Wyoming and went on to dump in Minneapolis, otherwise I most likely wouldn't be talking to you right now, but to an insurance agent when I got out of the hospital. So, I had to crash in a place called Evanston, WY. Coldest outside temperature: 3 degrees in Utah - apparently, it's not a great idea to use these things below 20 degrees because of the chemical compound of the rubber getting stiff.

Day Two - This one started off not too bad. The sun was out and it was a bit cold, but everything seemed to be okay. So, I headed out and by late morning, the situation had become very, very dangerous. The temperature dropped rapidly from 13 to 2, and the roads were a mess of ice and snow. I cannot count how many times I almost lost the back end of the car and even more times than that I saw the traction control light come on. I must admit, I have never been more terrified of winter driving in my life. There was quite a few times that I thought the car was going to go over the edge. I got through it all by taking as slow as possible and not caring if I was getting passed by an SUV or two, whom ironically made up the vehicle content of most of the wrecks that I saw.

I had stopped in Cheyenne because I wanted to see if I could get the damn tires swapped out as I had enough. No such luck as the whole bleedin’ town shut down on a Saturday... Cheyenne had gotten a ton of snow with no plows in sight. The car actually made it through an amazing amount of snow pack. But it was a pain getting it to move from a stand still - enough nudging, judicious use of the Traction Control, both on and off, got it moving. However, it really didn't want to stop at the bottom of a hill. If any of you saw a red Merc slide through a traffic light like a sled out of control, that'll have been me.

However, I knew that if I could get the hell out of Cheyenne before it got worse and down to the plains of Nebraska, I should have an easier time. Wrongo. Nebraska was a nightmare because of all the black ice on the roads. I finally lost the nerve and turned off at Kearney, when I was trying to make it to Omaha. As the next morning revealed to me, this was a very smart thing to have done. Especially as when I got out of the car, my *** was still shaking from the car's *** constantly shaking. BTW, frozen rain and snow on the front of your car makes for really good protection against stone chips! Coldest outside temp: 1 degree.

Day Three - The Storm was now well on it's way to Minnesota, but there was still the whole mess it had left behind. You hear stories about bridges having ice on them while the roads don't you? Yeah, well. That's true. Don't ignore those warning signs. I got a freebie on one, but I had a feeling the next one would've cost me if I ignored it. One of the tricky places as well was under overpasses. Saw a lot of ice under those things while the road was clear.

The day started out well, there was sun and some of the roads were clear. However, I saw a few signs that warned of icy roads ahead for the next couple of miles. They weren't kidding. It got to a point where it was getting fricking ridiculous. Once stretch said 2 miles, but it turned out to be over ten! I was seriously wondering if people in Nebraska Highways Department had more than a kindergarten education! As I got to the border of Neb. and Iowa, it got better and I was able to make up all the time lost in NB and WY.

I did run into some problems towards the end of the day and I got the familiar ***-wobble that I had experienced on the icy roads. The problem was, this was a heavy downpour in Illinois. Heavy rain isn't your friend, either.

Funny story: Cruising through Sioux City, there was this jerk in a Chevy Impala who thought he was all bad-***. Maybe he was making up for lack of size in the bargain basement or something. So, thinking he'd show up some a-hole in a Merc, he zoomed past me and gave me the "look". What he didn't realize was that the a-hole in the Merc had a radar detector. I waved to him as I went by him and the state trooper who just pulled his *** over.

My car arrived in one piece and the only damage sustained was a few stones chips. Given what I had been through, I considered myself lucky that was all and don't mind my "trophy scars". Will I ever do something like that again? HELL NO!!!

So, if any of you are thinking of attempting anything along similar lines of my experiment, you must ask your self this question:

"AM I F#$KING NUTS?!?"

Don't be an idiot and put on some damn decent tires, especially the guy in Illinois who didn't want to - you know who you are.


All in all, the car is very well engineered and I am either a skilled driver or more stupid than God intended.

Hey, I'm a newbie to this forum, so go easy on me...

 

Thanks, that was well written.

 

Should I not gotten snows on my tires?????

 

Better lucky than good. As discussed before, the performance tires get as hard as bricks at temperatures below freezing. Four snow tires are a must in a rear wheel drive vehicle even with traction control if you live (or drive) in the snow belt.

2002 C230K coupe 6 spd C7 C5 Bose paprika (4 Michelin Alpins mounted on Borbet rims installed)

 

Whether one has summer tires or snow tires, if it is ice, it does not make much of a difference does it???

 

Glad you made it in one piece.

That radar detector thing was hilarious.

 

I see your point, but actually snow tires can make quite a big difference on ice too. Driving on ice with summer performance tires is like driving on 4 hockey pucks!

 

Anything under 8° celcius is when summer tires perform shi!te and winter tires have more grip! Back in Austria, even with winter tires, the w203 handles terribly because of the rear wheel drive! MB dealers here offer 100 lb weights to put in your trunk for 50 bucks... all this to improve traction! if you fancy ice skatiing, take out your w203 on the roads on an icy day!!

greetings

 

Uh, yeah...what?

 

Is this a MB part or just some lead or iron? Where is it placed?

 

How about all season fellas? I just got my contiextreme's put on yesterday, to be honest, the performance is close to my pilot sport tires the car came with....It does have increased road noise, but Tire Rack gave them good marks....But we'll see how it holds up in snow

 

Almost found out today, my car and the roads had white on them when I left for work this morning, just not enough of it to say. I bet big on the Contiextremes by putting all four on the mr2 as well as the 230 to get a little more handling than the winter performance tire (like Nokian NRWs) I was running. So the jury is still out, but if they handle some snow like tirerack says, I'll know I bought the best year round tire out there right now for the $.

 

zimmer26-
Glad to see another MR2 turbo owner on the board here, good luck with the MR2 in the snow/ice, Im sure you know its a true nightmare.

Do you visit the MR2 Message Board?

 

How are they on dry and wet roads??? I have Pirelli P-Zero Rosso's on now and am thinking of the Conti's or Pirelli M+S's for my all season driving. The Pirelli's have better dry ratings and corner ratings, but I think both are rated higher than the current tires, except maybe dry.

 

LoL interesting adventure with your c230k sedan. haha good thing i have snow tires in the garage

 

Actually it went pretty darn well with the Nokians I had on it- weight over the drive wheels, front end is a bit floaty but you can just steer with the throttle. Haven't visited an mr2 site in awhile but I should. The MB takes my attention away from it but I still love driving that little rocket. 157k w/o any engine or turbo work, still bury the boost gauge (often.)

 

They are a bit softer than Contisports so you'll notice slightly less bite on turn in and they don't stick quite as well when pushed hard through corners. The Pirelli's look real good (I think the numbers came out after I ordered the Contis for the MB) and they didn't have ones to fit my mr2 otherwise they actually look like the choice for a performance bias, Contis for a foul weather bias.