04E55 AMG

Was cleaning my driveway and was looking at my SUV which I drove home in and my beast in the garage just begging me to take it out and test my new Dunlop WinterSport M3's.

The result was, freaking AWESOME! I just drove around in my neighborhood which had about 2 inches of fresh snow that had not been driven on. Winter tires do make a huge difference from the stock tires which I had on the car last winter. I would of never tempted to drive with those tires in the snow.

Very impressed how stable the car was. I would have no problem taken the car on the roads in the snow with these tires if I needed to.

JAYCL600

You are nuts...stay inside, you do not have the AMG 4Matic lol

SamE55

They should actually start making AMGs with AWD to compete with RS6. AWD nowdays is becoming a standard option for most luxury cars so I wouldn't be surprised if we see AWD AMGs in the future

moa4r

good to hear, e320 + pilot sports were a complete disaster last season in an inch of snow (stuck in my neighborhood for 2+ hours, LOL) but now audi quattro + all season tire = in the snow....only driven a little bit, but VERY impressed so far... hey, its good to know mercs can be useful in the snow, all it takes are the right tires keep us updated

moa4r

IIRC there was a W210 e55 AMG 4maitc definately a good idea

BoBcanada

I drove today in a 2CM snow and as long as you gentle with the pedal its all fine, AND yes i'm on stock conties.

04E55 AMG

Imagine how much finer you would be with dedicated snow tires. The new WinterSports are great.

JAYCL600

Hey Mo,

That S4 has to be awesome in the snow...mine unfortunately goes nowhere at all. Summer tires do suck.
Jason

Beowulf

In Maryland, winter tires make a lot of sense. Here in the Atlanta area, no winter weather to speak of yet, but that could change in a hurry. We rarely get snow, but when we do, it's a mess (largely thanks to folks with no winter driving sense or skills).

Doubt I'll spring for winter tires, but knowing the limitations of PS2's in any kind of snow, I'll probably keep the stock wheels and Conti's on there until the chance of snow has passed.

Marcus Frost

Another E55'r here on M3s... had M2s on my W210, and now M3s on my W211. I don't think people realize just how good these cars are with winter tires. They are fairly heavy which keeps them on the ground most of the time. This car is seriously almost as good as my old A4 Quattro with all-seasons on it. I was over at my parents house and their driveway is a fairly steep incline and they had a combo of ice and snow on it. To see this car's capabilities I went from a dead dig up it all the way to inside their garage. No so much as even any wheel spin. The only problem I have sometimes is with braking, and that's just due to the weight. Driving around normally you cannot tell there is snow on the ground. This car truly is the ulimate year-round daily driver (with a tire swap for the seasons )

-m

04E55 AMG

Marcus,

Agree. Had a 2000 A4 2.8 Quattro for five years and it came to mind today as I was driving the beast in the snow.

Have my 19' AMG rims in the garage until about March.

Corey140

LOL. I was rollin in early 2004 when the whole metro area closed when we receieved about a quarter inch of snow. I mean, the snow didn't even cover the grass and road good and it was gone by the afternoon. . Just weird compared to Baltimore even though, it takes about 3-4 inches and we close everything down.

Then again, 04E55 AMG, how's the bread, milk and tissue aisle looking at Giant?

flaw

Yeah, thought I'd do similar after a friggin cold snap here in Vancouver. Hit a monster pothole, blew the RF tire and bent the rim. I am really pissed now

04E55 AMG

Giant was a freaking mess today. Do not forget the eqq whites :v

vraa

Great, that's what we need. More weight.. actually that'd be a good thing.
Would AWD help reduce launch times then compared to RWD significantly to offset the (some) additional weight?

ELIGHTNING

When you put winter tires on do you just change the rear or all 4? Do you keep them on a spare set of rims or actually take the conti's off and have them mounted and balanced on the stock rims?
I just got my E55 and I wasn't sure what the hell to do with it in the winter... other than leave it in the garage. Sorry to sound stupid but I am definitely a novice with these cars.

04E55 AMG

Asking questions shows smarts not stupidity I have two sets of rims for my car as many board members do who live in cold climate states. I have a set of 19' AMG rims for fall/spring/summer driving and my stock 18' rims are solely used for winter driving with dedicted snow/ice tires. I went ahead with the same size on all four rims for winter tires since that is recommended for the car.

You may be asking yourself what I did with my fairly new Conti's, I gave them to my buddy who has a BMW 7 series and he loves them. I was never going to use them since I had my 19' rims with wider and lower profile tires.

Hope this helps!

xraymd

You definitely want to switch all four tires to take full advantage of ABS and stability control. With a second set of rims, it's easy to change tires whenever you want. With a torque wrench and a floor jack, I can do all four in about 30 minutes.

Marcus Frost

Just to echo what others said. I kept the staggered tire sizes front and back with the M3s because I feel that I drive through snow only 10-20% of the time, and that I don't need that heafty of a compromise. The wider meats give me better traction in the dry and are still more than adequate in harsh conditions.

Seriously, with the M3s you would not believe how well the E55 does in the snow.

-m

ELIGHTNING

Thanks a lot for the advice. I'll check the M3's at Tire Rack.

Vic

Good luck getting M3s at this point. I tried every place locally, and Tire Rack and was SOL. So, I made that commute on Wednesday in DC on my stock Contis.

The car did fine although it did have some problems getting up hills after beginning from a stoplight. Traction control helped, but I was definitely wishing I had gotten the winter tires before they sold out.

Since we're now expecting 6 to 8 inches of snow, I think the Beast will remain parked for a while.

ThemisN

Well, I have the stock contis on. Snow started here around noon, and I made the trek back home from work at around 2 or 2:30. A good 3 inches were on the ground, but it was slippery as I had just been in my father's S430 4matic to get something. In any case, Our brakes absolutely reacted better than the S430's and when I didnt have traction the ESP did exceptionally well to slowly get it to catch. I never got stuck and I felt this car could handle even 6 inches, not just these 3. I felt more sure of myself than the idiot in front of me who was braking and staying in the middle of a main 2 way road in an MDX. If I had snowtires too, I wouldnt even think twice of this car's ability. We have one great car guys!

MBH

We got about 2 feet of snow here in Central Jersey. My 2005 E55 is in my climate controlled heated warehouse under car cover next to my 1969 SS big block Camaro. I drive a brand new 2005 Jeep Grand Cherokee with Hemi power as my winter beater. It's awesome, I passed everyone on the roads today in the snow. This thing just goes like stink on Sh#%!!!!

I would never attempt to drive any E55 in 2 feet of snow.

Best Wishes,
MBH
2005 E55 Delivered 01/07/05, Silver/Charcoal/Charcoal

jefrose55

I bought the dunlop m3's and put them on the standard AMG 18" staggered set-up (04 e55). I was fortunate to order them in october (from tirerack) and put them on the car in november. The ps2's are in the garage until spring. Had the all season pilot sports on my w210 e55 and they worked in slush and light snow. Looking forward to spring.

jeff
04 e55 tectite
04 Range Rover
93 mercedes 500e

Marcus Frost

We got hit hard in Chicago over the weekend too... about 1.5 feet of snow. I could outlaunch SUVs from the stop lights. You don't know what you are missing. Everyone seems to think MB = sucks in the snow... they pull up next to you expecting to blow your doors off. The funniest one was an A4 who tried to pass me up from a stop light at a merge up ahead. He was presently surprised to see he wasn't going anywhere with the 55 next to him in the slush.

-m