Greetings from Steamboat Springs, Colorado! I'm out here courtesy of Bridgestone tires to attend the Bridgestone Winter Driving School. I always thought of myself as a decent snow driver -- I learned to drive in Rochester, New York -- but almost all of the cars I drove had front wheel drive and rather anemic engines, both of which made things a lot easier. For the Bridgestone course, we'll be driving a variety of Toyotas with front, rear, and four-wheel-drive. I'm not sure exactly what to expect, but I'm told it involves a lot of slipping and sliding and a lot of fun. The Winter Driving School offers several classes ranging from basic snow-driving safety to full-on rally-style driving. I'll post a full review of the course next week. Meanwhile, if you'd like to learn more, visit their web site at www.winterdrive.com. -- Aaron Gold
Photo courtesy Bridgestone Winter Driving School
Hey Aaron I bet that was a blast. Did you have a chance to ski (or board)? Steamboat is a cool town. I used to live near ther. Anyway…to my question. What types of tires did they have on these vehicles? Living in the frozen north, I’ve often found that my choice of rubber makes almost as big a difference as what type of vehicle or drive system I’m using. It also makes a huge difference in what winter driving style will work in the conditions in which I often drive. For example I would be more apt to try power-oversteering with snow tires or studded snows than performance tires (but maybe that’s just me).
I’m actually just about to leave my hotel room to head down to the class now. The cars are going to be on snow tires — Bridgestone Blizzaks. No surprise there!
We met the instructors yesterday, and tire choice was one of the issues I discussed with one of the instructors. We talked about people who put snow tires on the drive wheels only. They think they’ll be fine if the car’s a front-driver — but it can be a real problem in turns, because the front grips, the back doesn’t, and the car will try to swap ends. In the past, they’ve set up a car with snow tires on one side and all-seasons on the other, and invited the participants to try braking. We won’t get to try that today, but I imagine the results would be rather spectacular!
I’m a big fan of choosing the right tire for the right job. The PR guy at Tire Rack once equated all-season tires to owning one pair of shoes and using them for walking in the rain, jogging, and ballet dancing. As a Californian, I use performance tires on my car, as I don’t have to worry about snow. If I still lived back East, there’s no question — I’d go for performance tires in the summer and proper snow tires in the winter.
Yeah, Blizzaks would be the natural choice for Bridgestone. I just thought there was a chance that they would try a variety of choices to demonstrate the difference. Good luck!
As it is winter here in lovely (cough-cough) Rochester NY, my 05 Subaru STi is sporting a set of Nokian Hakkapeliitta RSis – they are really fantastic (Nokian probably makes the best snow tires, period) and 300hp + AWD + snow = HUGE amounts of fun!
We also have a set of Dunlops snows on the wife’s Mazda 5, which work far better than the terrible factory-equipped tires, but open-diff FWD is still a long ways from the traction of limited-slip AWD.
What’s the weather like in Rochester today, J Kyle? Here in Brainerd, MN it’s -22 F with a wind (windchill of at least -40). We haven’t gotten many snowfalls this year which isn’t that uncommon. When we look at snow tires, icy-frosty performance is a major consideration especially when temps rise to around 32. How do those Nokians perform on ice? When I lived in the Colorado Rockies, everyone I knew swore by the Vredsteins. Car and Driver likes the Blizzaks. Have you tried any of these? Keep warm.
Hi Mike. We’re getting those 60mph winds and there are some icy roads this morning, which the Nokians handle will little difficulty. I haven’t been able to compare with Blizzaks but the “convention wisdom” that I’ve heard is that the Blizzaks do well on ice but not as good in snow as Nokians (and maybe others) – most folks “in the know” around here swear by Nokians. (Those Fins have to deal with a lot more snow than we do!) I really wish Tire Rack would carry them! That’s the only reason we went with Dunlops for our Mazda.