Vule

Hi,
This is going to be my first winter with this car and 19" M172 wheels. I would like to keep this wheels and I would only like to buy winter tyres. Car is lowerd 3cm and the tires are michelin super sport 245/35 and 275/30. What size should I buy on this wheels for best winter performance?
Thnx

Sarge

It depends on how much snow you get there. Where I live we got over 2,000cm (800") up in the mountains last year. I'll be using 215/60/17's, which is the same width I used on my allroad. Tall and skinny is best on ice. Wider is worse unless you're trying to float a Jeep or similar vehicle on top of the snow (like they do in Iceland).

The less snow and ice you get, the lower profile and wider you can go, but I would never go over 235 width with any snow tire on this car. 225 might be a happy middle ground for less snowy environments. Narrower = more lbs/square inch, which is critical in ice/snow. Bigger sidewalls help give a little more flex, and thus more stability on ice (more dexterity = lower tendency to break the surface tension between the tire and ice).

Kell

Has to be said, it's not the ideal way to approach winter driving - but it's better than standard tyres.

As mentioned above, winter tyre/wheel set up tend to be narrower so that you get more lb/ft for each area of rubber. All of which equates to more grip.

I'd recomend 17" or even 16" wheels and tyres - you may even save enough on buying the smaller size tyres to pay for the wheels.