Does anyone here have sandbags in the trunk? I heard it makes a difference. Enough to care about?

Sue was able to get new tires on my car yesterday. She had arranged for a tow-truck to take the car into Willmar (28 miles from our home) but decided to test the road first. It was good enough, that she decided to drive it herself. The highway was ice-free and she did not have any problems until she got into the city of Willmar. Diving at 5 mph on the back streets, she was able to arrive a the tire company.

An employee at the tire company got into the car and tried to drive it into the bay. He watched the bay go by, so he put the car into reverse and watch the bay go by once again. Next time, he "snuck up on it" and tried to turn the car into the bay. Sliding sideways, we watched the bay go by. Going in reverse, he watch a the car traveling towards a busy road. Finally, he got the car aligned with the bay and made a running start. It could not get over the lip in the driveway and the tires were just spinning. Eventually, everyone got around the car and were able to PUSH it into the bay.

Sue and I had sticker shock when we got the bill of $1,100 for the four snow tires, but we did not have much of a choice. Those racing tires were deadly and something had to be done.

Driving my sports car into work this morning, the new tires were able to handle the snow and ice on the road. I am still rather scared of this car at the moment, but as I get to know what these new tires can handle, my confidence will eventually return. Perhaps testing the car at speed on the airport runway would help me know what it can safely handle

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How the hell do you keep your car still clean in winter?:Eyecrazy:

I used 120lbs on stock tires last year but killed gas.

I am using 90lbs this year and it does fine, and running Eagle F1 All-Season.

The Sandbags help with getting the car to go, but highway can be tricky. Its just feels a little more back heavy (obviously). All in all I think Sandbags help.. especially if you're running winters.

45lbs bags at home depot for like $10

Monday night was an effort. Slow is key :lol:

The massive wing kinda helped when wind was blowing toward me.. seems a little different with it.

Nice pic...I was like, whoa! Who has another Copper Red Shinka! Then I realized, the picture you post was my car...lol...

I may just pick some sand bags up...I mean, when it's snowing really hard, I just drive the winter car instead....It is super rewarding when you drive the RX8 right in the winter though.....

What tires did you pick up for 1100?? I am assuming you picked them up for your stock 18's of 225/45/18

I picked up some Pirelli's Winter 240 SnowSport last year right before winter and they've been great so far.

Here we go again. Still on the crappy stockers. Checking the weather to see if it's safe to play.

atleast you people can drive your cars... i cant drive mine at all... until 3 more years go by...

I didn't know I hated salt so much.

Snow whats snow?

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$1100 for one season or $2800 for a whole car? I didnt have to think much about that.:)

Is that the 1.8T or 2.8? I had an A4. I remember missing it as soon as I sold it....

Its the 1.8l auto (tip) :boring:

Well, if it's your winter car...auto is just fine ;) not like you're racing it..

I had the tire dealer order Blizzak winter tires, but had no idea that he was going to charge me $250 per tire. Oh well, I did not have much of a choice.

You are correct, those tires replaced the stock 225/45R18.

After last week, I am still TERRIFIED of driving my RX8 on these icy roads. Even with the new Blizzak winter tires (my wife thinks they are great) my brain has not accepted them yet.

Last week I was decending into the Minnesota river valley and had reduced my speed to 20 mph. Going down that hill, the back end of the car kept swinging around and I was fish-tailing all the way down.

When I reached the bottom of the hill, a snow plow came behind me and I decided to pull over and follow him. Great idea, but even on flat ground, the stock tires could not get any traction and I was stuck on the side of the road. Someone noticed my problem and helped push my car back onto the road.

Climbing back up the hill from the river valley, I turned on my emergency blinkers and crawled up the slope at 5 mph. Everyone behind me was totally pissed, but I knew how dangerous this situation was.

About half way up the hill, the car gave up and the tires no longer had any traction. I was absolutly stuck sideways in the middle of the highway and there was nothing I could do. As 18 wheeler trucks came over the hill doing 60 mph, they could not see my car until the last minute.

I got the hell out of that car before a truck hit me, and stood by the side of the road and expecting my RX8 would be destroyed at any moment.

Some people stopped and helped me out. One person blocked the top of the hill to warn traffic of a problem, and others helped PUSH the car to the side of the road.

These new winter tires are a major improvement, but it will take some time before I get over my phobia. Last week, I honestly thought that this car was going to get me killed.

I think the best thing to do for winter is learn how to go sideways in a controlled fashion. Learn to love it. Practice in an empty parking lot or something.

Sometimes i turn off my traction control because it will just screw up what i'm expecting the car to do in a slippery situation.

Glad to hear you didn't get yourself killed or your 8 destroyed.

You are correct and I need to learn how to controll my RX8 on the ice.

I was hoping to practice on the airport runway this week, but my boss did such an outstanding job of cleaning it, that the runway is dry.

This weekend, I will try to find an ice covered parking lot and learn what my RX8 can handle with it's new snow tires.

I know that this is a phobia, and just like being scared of spiders, this is something that I need to get over.

Let me clairify something....

Inside the city limits, the roads are white and covered with snow. With the new snow tires, my RX8 has no problems.

Along highway 71, snow had drifted across the road, melted during the day and became "black ice" in the evening.

Driving to work along this highway early Thursday morning, it was dark when I approached black but shiny sections. Even with the snow tires, all four weels would loose traction on this sheet ice.

Snow is one thing, but glossy ice is something that no tire can handle.

This morning, I refused to drive in the dark along a highway with known "black ice" and stayed home.

Snow will have tracks on the road and the wheels will follow them. I am not worried about driving on snow.

Sheet ice is something very different, and I ask myself a very simple question:

When my car spins out, how fast do I want to hit that ditch on the side of the road?

I don't blame you for still being afraid after driving in the snow with stocks. I remember having the same phobia with a different car years ago when I was running full summer performance tires.

I'm glad the Blizzak's have brought you some confidence back. I still laugh sometimes when I don't clean my driveway and can't make it up unless I reverse and slam it in first to get some momentum....

A little bit cleaner today....Still......ugh... :)

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if its that serious then park it and buy a piece for the winter

I hope you're not referring to me cause I do have winter cars. But the RX8 is just fun :)

Ummm.... shifted into second gear and lost power. CEL came on. No more power loss but CEL still on.

Any ideas on what it could be? Gonna try to disconnect battery and see if it comes. On again. I havee an 05 I better not need a new engine!

Hi fellow MN people.

This is my 2nd winter owning my RX8. Only have 15K on it so far. :D: I store it in my garage and drive my winter car. Also gives me a chance to do maintenance leisurely...

Today I replaced the Diff and MTX fluid with Redline 75W90 & MT-90. (Clutch out in neutral is QUIETER now - YAY!). But what a mess I made on the garage floor - so, drove the car out into the driveway, still some melting snow on the driveway. The driveway has about a 2 or 3 degree decline. I clean the garage floor, then start to back up into the garage, and barely could get in due to the snow and those CRAPPY :rl: CRAP-ASS Bridgestone stock tires.

BTW, I have an AccessPort - Anyone else around the TC area have one?

i was looking into getting one how is it working out for you?