I hear this many times and am truly not disagreeing with you. However, there are times when I have to stop in the snow on an incline. This may be from a light or just good ole Pennsylvania traffic. I know that when I take off, feel some wheels spin a little and see the traction light, that it was mainly the quattro in my A6 that got me moving. I know that me in my C32 would have to tell the driver behind me to move so I can coast down the hill and try to get a running start. Of course I have performance tires on the AMG and regular tires on the A6, but I think with evenly matched tires there will be times when only the quattro will suffice.

 

Yah, that is what these people were saying too. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxwgHGCrrS4

When I was younger I too did not care about tires. I simply was ignorant and did not know any better. I honestly thought that a winter tire was a tire with enough tread to see Lincoln’s head. I cannot even tell you what tires I had on my first 10 cars. I simply do not know. I too was not sure why so many people struggled in winter driving. After all I always managed just fine. My second and probably most warmly remembered car was 1980 Pontiac Grand Prix. It had a dead suspension and some non-OE extra wide racing rims and tires. The tires were bald and if I had to guess they likely were summer tires. However, after I got into road racing, I began to learn, among other things, about tires. I’ve been using winter tires for about 5 years and I will NEVER go back. Many of my friends and family members had switched to winter tires too. And I keep getting thank yous after major winter storms. Not all winter tires are made equal. Few years back I went to winter racing school with some friends. I was running RSi and a friend was running M3. I had fun and he kept getting stuck.

Here some holiday music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM2gLjfE_3Y

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Do what I did, put the car in the garage and drive your daily driver, and call it a day. lol

 

C55 is my daily driver.

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That's what I do. But my daily driver is currently waiting for parts to get back on the road.

These GS-D3's feel like I'm just running on tubes. Not tires.

 

Great advice in this thread -- use dedicated snow tires all winter on your AMG if you live in an area prone to snow and will drive in it. There is no choice and no option. That said, I´ve done fine with my C43 and C55 in the winter with snow tires, never as well as my wife´s four wheel drive but, well enough to get along. My quaife lsd will be installed by the time I return from south america. I let you know if that, along with snow tires, helps in the snow. I suspect it will.

 

you should run a winter setup bro. I'm running a winter setup now!

 

Well my car has been in the garage for about a month now. Something is telling me that I'm not going to be owning an AMG for long unless they stop being so cheap and start making AWD. BMW made the move....they have the 335xi....

 

In Des Moines , we tend to get alot of snow/ice/sleet mixture. I put on Kunmho exctas M/S and they were little better than my old Continental Contac2. A BMW didnt pick up a pair of nittos so I had the dealer put those on and all I can say is damn they make a diff. On a 0 degree day the rubber is still pliable to the hand. I cant find any info on these though, even on Nitto.com Can someone post some links?

 

If you're on ice, it doesn't matter what tires you have or what car you are driving. Not a valid point you were trying to make there.

 

I had an incident recently where I had to go up a long hill and the road was slick. Traffic was moving very slow, so I slowed my speed down to give myself enough space so that I could get a running start and not have to worry about a car in front of me stopping on the hill. A couple days ago, I was going to take the same route, but the roads had a lot more ice on them so I took a different way to avoid that hill. The C32 isn't a 4x4, and of course there can be times when it just isn't a feasible option to drive it. I'm just saying there are plenty of times when it's not as bad as people make it out to be.

 

Two Words: Winter Car (as in get one). F the snow tires....spend a bit more and get a beater car. You'll never regret it.

I'm on my third Winter Car in 11 years and I love it. This is by far the best one; 2006 Subaru Legacy Wagon.

The Subaru's rock....unstoppable in the the snow. I had a 97 before this and it was cheap. Maintenance is low.

Honda Civic's are good winter cars as well (had one of those first)

 

Absolutely untrue!!! Part of the winter racing school I’d mention earlier had to do with navigating a skidpad, which was a highly polished ice (think of a round skating ring). It was a challenging exercise for my C55 with RSi, but my friend in a BMW with M3s on, could not do it at all. An Audi S4 on all-season tires (do not remember brand) had a harder time than me. Of course we are talking about studless tires, but there is such a thing as a studdable tire. Each year my local Bimmer club sponsors an all winter long ice-racing events. Actually, it’s more like ice auto-x than racing. Anyway, it takes place on a frozen lake and competitors are broken into classes based on number of driving wheels and studless vs. studdable tires. You won’t find anybody showing up with all-season tires or even so called Hi-Performance Winter tires. Bottom line – a high quality true winter tire like RSi or WS-60 can easily deal with the slipperiest of ice and a good studded tire will make mincemeat out of any ice. I bet none of the drivers in the video used winter tires.

People keep talking about winter beaters like it’s some magic cheap car that bypasses the laws of physics. Any winter car, including AWD, which see significant amount of snow/ice should run on high quality winter tires. AWD does absolutely nothing to stop you and relatively little to steer you. Road salt, which kills paint and rusts metal is one of the main reasons people avoid driving Ferraris during winter. Huge brake rotors which prevent the use of 17 inch or smaller wheels is another. Low bumper and underbody clearances and/or stiff suspension are also good reasons. Some people worry about higher rate of fender benders. And some just want the luxury of AWD. However, none of these reasons eliminate the need for winter tires.

C55 is my DD car. I bought it because I want to enjoy my driving experience – EVERYDAY. Garaging it is a waste of money and defeats the purpose of buying it in the first place. C55 is NOT a summer only car. If it is for you – you might want to reconsider – get an Audi and call it a day. I have 2 fun cars. I have a fully prepped S4 as a racecar and a fully prepped Disco1 as a wheeler/expedition/hunter. My Disco can go anywhere in winter (you can actually see its tire in the pic), but I use C55.

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I hear what you are saying. My problem is that my C32 is the fastest car that I have ever owned. If I were to drive it in the snow, I would see how out of control I could get and end up hurting myself, the car, or others. That is why it is put up for the year and I am strictly driving the A6.

 

NOT giving up my butt warmer