I have purchased summer wheels and tires and plan on using my OEM wheels for the winter with Nokian Hakkapillitta winter tires. Heard very good things about those. Just waiting for them to make a tire that fits an 18in wheel.

 

I will be driving mine through the cold, cold Jacksonville, Florida winter. :p

 

I drove my 8 last winter with Blitzak snow tires on. It slices through snow and ice like a warm knife through butter. Costs $1100 for the set, but definitely worth it if the 8 is ur only mean to get around..... Unless you wouldn't mind asking ur Father In Law for his truck that is :p

 

Can you forego winter and summer tires and just get all season?

 

I will drive it during Winter. I will even drive it with the stock Potenzas...I am a daring fella' - Not too many people dare driving Summer tires in the crude TEXAS Winter.
:D
In my defense, last Winter we had some light ice...the 8 behaved like a charm w/stock tires.

 

I just ordered my Bridgestone LM22 winter tires for my stock rims. I have no doubts that it will work great with the traction control. Any car works 100% better with snow tires even over all season tires.....I should know...I live in Canada eh!

Another great thing that helps is the overall balance of our cars...its much easier than say a Mustang with is so tail happy to begin with.

 

Yeah, like I can afford a second car now.... seriously, I plan to go all winter (in Araknsas now but heading to Wisconsin by November).

I plan to "nut-up" and get some Dunlop Winter Sport M3's. I'll swap at the last possible moment...

 

I drove the past winter on the stock tires in STL. While caution should always apply when driving in inclement weather, the car still handled as I expected it to. The only thing that was different was that the tire pressure light would come on for a couple of minutes until the tires got warmed up from moving when the temperatures got well below freezing.

~ Geoff

 

I have to drive in the winter, it's my only car...however I am going to wing it without winter tires. Before people start saying I'm stupid, I leased this car, and can't really see the need for paying 800+ for tires that I'll probably really need 7 days out of winter for three years. I think driving slow and prudent should be ok. Unless, others who drove it last winter in snow can tell me otherwise? I don't know, if it gets really really bad I can borrow my mom's RX (300). Is this car completely undriveable in snowstorms? How about flurries?

 

I'm selling my winter tires (Used only for 4 months).

Michelin Pilot Alpin 225/40-18

I found a Pontiac Sunbird 1992 with only 47000km on it,., Old lady going to bingo and home.

Make me an reasonable offer or exchange for Rx-8 parts.
Worth $1800 CDN

Here's a picture

 

After your first accident...repost your comments on whether spending $800 for tires was a good thing. I am leasing too, but there is no way I'm going to run summer performance tires in winter. You should seriously reconsider. I'd hate to hear that you smashed up your car or yourself.

..look at it another way. Using your summer tires in winter will wear them down quite quickly. You will then have to spend money on replacing your summer tires. So why not spend it on the winter tires and be safe.


There is a reason why so many people in this forum swear by using winter tires. Check out some of the other threads.

 

Either get winter tires or put the car in the garage. Trust me the summer performance tires on this car didn't even let the car dealers here pull the cars out of their parking spots on flat ground at the dealerships here in town.

 

Why wouldn't you want to drive it during the winter? You bought the car because you enjoy it and it's fun, right? Why cruise around in a POS while the RX-8 sits? Not to mention if you do get another vehicle that is just more money in maintenance and insurance. I think $1k for wheels and tires is much cheaper than another car...at least for me it is. I guess I just don't get it. I drive my S2000 all year and it's a great car in the snow...with snow tires of course.

Just my $.02

 

my old mechanic is gonna get me a deal for 4 blizzaks and rims for like invoice so thats what im gonna do, and drive all winter....however i have a civic incase i feel ancy about driving the 8 in the snow

 

I drove last winter a once when it snowed and that was to get home from work one night when the snow just barely covered the ground. Big mistake. But no worries now got some new rims and snow tires on the way for this year.

 

I drove once last winter in the snow and it was just a dusting of snow. It was pretty tuff slipping and slidding everywhere and barely able to get up hills. I tried to back out my car and change parking slots on another occassion. The car couldn't make over the 2inches of snow. It almost slid into another car. Buy the winter tires or park it. The 800 or 1000 that you might spends is better than paying to get your car fixed. Or paying for a rental while your car is getting fixed. Plus peace or mind is priceless.

 

I live in California. What's winter? Is that when it drops down to 60? Brrr.

 

My Subaru XT6 AWD was sold this summer ; the Miata is no candidate for winter; so I have a set of 17" rims and a set of Dunlop M3s sitting in the garage awaiting a get-together before winter. Add a set of brighter fog lights and I'll be set for the winter. I thought winter in LA was when it got to 45. Silly me. Come visit us this winter when it's somewhere between 0 and 10 with 3-5" of snow. If you are in CA you can't be far from the mountains?!

 

You have obviously never driven a car with high performance tires in the winter. The stock tires on an rx8 are summer tires, the compound will get very hard in cold weather. You won't need any snow at all to start slipping and sliding, and the instant the first snowflake hits the ground forget it. Either get snows or park it.

 

Ok, so is it safe to assume that the stock tires will be alright in rain but not snow? I mean, California winters are cold and rainy, but snowy ... not really (at least not where I'm at).

 

Rain shouldn't be an issue on stock tires. I plan on garaging the 8 when I get it. I decided to keep the junk car for bad weather driving since I don't care if I wreck it, I wouldn't have gotten anything for the trade-in. It's an old '88 celebrity with bald front tires, lol. Maybe I should rotate the tires first, since it's FWD.

 

Tires and rims arrived yesterday via Tire Rack. I bought Blizzaks with cheap alloy rims for my AT -- just under $1k. Won't put them on until after Thanksgiving. Until then, I plan on a few fall foliage rides through the Wis. twisties.

 

LTABA: did you go with the WS-50 or LM-22? I got the WS-50 since my main concern in winter is being able to get to work. They're also much cheaper than the LM-22 or Dunlop M3.

 

Went with WS-50 for maximum traction in city driving on packed snow/ice, which is what we typicaly face in storm conditions. I didn't even consider the LM-22, since I won't be doing any high-speed driving in the winter. For general info, here's the tire rack's summary of the LM-22: "The Blizzak LM-22 studless winter tires are performance winter tires developed for use in Europe and around the world. In order to accommodate high-speed European driving, it trades some snow and ice traction for handling and high-speed capability by featuring a winter driving tread compound able to support its H-speed rating. Blizzak LM-22 tires are for the drivers of high performance sport cars, sport coupes and sport sedans."

 

Not a chance! That's what my truck is for!