watup guys, guess im just a little paranoid about my wheels and tires. Do you guys really think its necessary to buy winter tires? I mean i have driven with stock wheels all my life and never had a problem. Why do you need winter wheels and tires, is it for safety or to preserve your stock wheels, which brings me to another question, does snow damage your stock tires and wheels?

Im sorry for all these annoying questions, im new to the 8, please help me out
thanks

 

What snow and Ice will do to an RX-8 with stock tires is GREATLY increase the chances you will get into an accident, get stuck miles from home in a storm, cause all your neighbors to laugh at you as you cannot pull into your driveway. There are MANY threads on this subject and it is a universally accepted fact that the stock tires are DANGEROUS in ice/snow. This has nothing to do with the 18” wheels, the stock tires are designed to provide great traction in spring / summer conditions. By it’s very nature the tire will give poor, if not dangerous performance in ice & snow. As for your past cars with the stock wheels chances are those cars came from the factory with “All season tires” which make compromises across the board in order to be drivable year round.

Here is a link to Tire Rack page on the Stock tires
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....=Potenza+RE040
Notice the snow rating, not even a .01.
There is a ton of info on the net and this board on the subject and I myself have been contacting some sites and will purchase a set of wheels / tires for the winter. The optimal set-up I think would be a 215/55/17 tire on a 17 X 7 40mm offset rim. I will keep the group posted. Having winter wheels will make the summer tires also last longer so in the end the cost of the rims is the only expense. Your other option is to have a "beater car" around. I have one of those for the real bad storms.

 

Thanks, but no need! That's the setup that I used last winter, and many others as well. (although my wheels are 45mm offset, stock is 50mm). In that size, we use the Toyo Garit HT winter tire. Lots of people used 225/50-17 as well, but narrower is preferable.

Your post is excellent - as you mention, there are dozens of threads here from last fall and winter discussing appropriate winter tires and wheels (and also discussing the disastrous consequences of trying to drive on snow/ice with the stock tires). Veilsidev1, please do a search for "winter tires" and "winter wheels" to read some of those threads.

Regards,
Gordon

 

I will be contacting John at Talon Tire to see if I can get a group buy going for those of us who bought our 8's this spring/summer and missed out on last years group buy.
Gord do you have any contact info on where you got your winter package?
Were they open to a goup buy?
Out of curiosity how did your price compare to the Talon package? I cant remember where you got yours but I do know it wasnt through Talon.

 

OK this may be a stupid question but can you just not put all season tires on the stock 18 inch rims???

 

Yes you can, a quick search on www.1010tires.com came up with about eight tires in 245/40/18 that are all season; zero in 225/45/18 (stock size) some get great reviews. The thing is how much “aggressive” driving are you going to do in the winter? The tire company has to make some concessions in summer performance in order to get the all season rating. So my line of thinking with this car is to have the best tires for the winter and the best tires for the summer. If I had an Accord then all season would be the way to go but for this car having the summer/winter set up seems to be the way to go IMO.

 

Sure - it was www.tiretrends.com , out of Vancouver. They would be happy to do a group buy, but their prices were already competitive with Talon. They were fantastic to work with - remember, last fall nobody had tried many different wheels on the 8 yet. For me, these guys took several different 17" wheels down to a Mazda dealer to test fit on a showroom RX-8, then they shipped me a bare wheel to test fit on my car, all at no extra charge. I've bought from them before, and their customer service is absolutely the best. Another example - 2 years ago, I bought the first set of Konig Heliums sold in Canada from them (for my Miata). A year later, one of the centre caps broke and fell off. I called them to buy another cap, and they insisted on sending me a full set of 4 centre caps at their cost instead! Nothing against Talon, but I wouldn't have any reason to shop anywhere other than TireTrends.

Regards,
Gordon

 

Sure, you could. Then, you wouldn't have as good performance in summer as with summer tires, and you wouldn't have as good performance in winter as with winter tires. All-seasons are always a compromise, and why compromise on a performance car? Further, in the long run, it's not much more expensive to have a separate set of wheels with winter tires. Read some of the tech articles at www.tirerack.com , they explain why winter tires are necessary for real winter conditions. They also have tested all-seasons vs. winter tires to prove just how mediocre the all-seasons perform in winter. Yes, they're far better than the completely useless summer tires in winter - but still nowhere near the traction and grip (for accelerating, braking, and cornering) of real winter tires.

Regards,
Gordon

 

Was there anyone in particular that you dealt with? It would be easier to deal with that person rather than going through the whole "hmmm, let's see what will fit your car" deal.

 

I agree with you that winter tires will be better than all-season tires in the snow, however, they are not necessarily that good on dry pavement. I'm not sure about you guys in Manchester, NJ, but here in Philly we get maybe 10-15 days with actual snow on the ground, the rest is either dry or slush. That means that your snow tires will wear extremely quickly, be noisier, and will still deliver worse performance than all-seasons on dry pavement. If I lived in Canada, or in the Midwest somewhere, where I could expect snow at least 50% of the winter, I would get dedicated snow tires no question. However, with our moderate snowfalls here in Philly, it's not worth it, IMO, to get snow tires, A/S will do just fine.

-arattle

 

Manchester, NJ (20 min west of exit 88) has about the same weather as you do in Phila. The snow is not so much as a concern to me as freezing rain. We get much more 30 deg + rain days as apposed to snow. Also it takes about 20” of snow to slow down NJ drivers, especially the people in their invincible SUV’s. I also drive about 400 miles a week so having winter tires on from Dec – April makes me feel better.

 

What do you guys consider winter conditions. Here in North Alabama, we get snow maybe once a year and it's usually only a couple of inches. We are much more worried about ice on the roads down here and I don't care what you have, you aren't gonna drive on it. I don't think with that little bit of snow that I need to buy winters do you????

 

As long as you never, ever, not for 10 feet, try to drive in ice or snow conditions (including the lightest dusting of snow), then you don't need winter tires. Also, you need to be very careful when temperatures are below freezing.

Seriously - the summer tires have absolutely zero grip if it's the slightest bit slippery below freezing. There were several posts last winter from people who tried to get home from work after it started snowing, etc., and they couldn't move or got stuck (if they were lucky), or slid and crunched a curb or worse if they were unlucky. If you were away from home and it starts snowing - leave the car where it sits, take a bus, cab, bum a ride, whatever, it will be far cheaper than paying for the repairs after you bend it when you slide off the road!

Regards,
Gordon

 

do 16's fit the 8...??

 

according to the menu, 16" fits

 

I'm just getting some winter tires for my stock wheels. I've lived in the desert for most of my life and know nothing about winter tires. The studs cost $11 more, are the studs put on the tire by the tire company? Can I buy my winter tires and put the studs on later?

Are there any cons that you guys can think of with studs?

 

16" tires?

Only if you have the base auto.

 

That is not exactly true. The 16" wheels will fit the automatic base model version only but not the manual 6 speed version or the automatic sport and touring packages. The RX8's with the manual trannies and the automatic sport and touring packages have larger calipers and rotors that the 16" wheel will not clear. the smallest you can use on the manual and automatic sport and touring models would be 17". we do have snow tire and wheel packages for both models. the price would vary depending on the exact wheel and tire you are looking at.

The wheel and tire packages would start at the following prices and go up in price depending on the products you are interested in. all prices listed are per piece with the exception of the total.

16"steel wheel pkg for automatic base model
4 - 16X6.5 MAZDA STEEL WHEEL --------- 44.00
4 - 225/55R16 DUNLOP GRASPIC DS-2 -- 84.00
4 - MAZDA RX-8 TPMS SENSOR ----------- 109.00
4 - REQUIRED TPMS SLEEVE FOR RX8 ----- 5.00
TOTAL ---------------------------------------- 968.00 plus shipping

16" alloy pkg for automatic base model
4 - 16X7 5-100/114 ET48 ASA JS6 ------ 109.00
4 - 225/55R16 DUNLOP GRASPIC DS-2 ---- 84.00
4 - MAZDA RX-8 TPMS SENSOR ------------- 109.00
4 - REQUIRED TPMS SLEEVE FOR RX8 ----- 5.00
TOTAL -------------------------------------------- 1,228.00 plus shipping

17" alloy pkg for the manual transmission, and the automatic sport and touring package.
215/55R17 DUNLOP GRASPIC DS-2 ------- 95.00
17X7 ASA JS1 ------------------------------- 119.00
MAZDA RX-8 TPMS SENSOR --------------- 109.00
REQUIRED TPMS SLEEVE FOR RX8 ---------- 5.00
Total -----------------------------------------1,312.00 plus shipping

 

Only base Autos have the 16" tires.

The Sport, Touring and GT Autos all have the same brakes/wheels as the manual.



Edit: To remove all doubt,

Sport Package (Self-leveling Xenon headlights; fog lights; Dynamic Stability Control with traction control; limited-slip differential†; 18-inch wheels and tires†; larger front brakes†; sport-tuned suspension† [† - standard on 6-speed])
Touring Package (Sport Package items plus 300-watt Bose® 9-speaker audio system with AUDIO PILOT automatic noise compensation technology; power sliding-glass moonroof; auto-dimming mirror with Homelink® system)
Grand Touring Package (Touring Package items plus Leather-trimmed upholstery**; 8-way power driver's seat; heated front seats with power lumbar support; heated mirrors)

http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/disp...ehicleCode=RX8

 

Price list snipped.....

Thanks for the price list Connor, I was just starting to plan for my winter purchase!