Driving the 991 in the snow for the last couple of days. As soon as it started to snow, I jumped in the car. “Honey, I have to go get uh… something...” And then I was gone. The car is great. I had a ball.

Most people have no clue about snow tires. Everywhere I went people were assuming it handled poorly in the snow. “The Porsh (everyone for gets the “e” on the end) must handle crappy in this weather.” They don’t realize that with snow tires it handles better than AWD with all seasons.

Only a couple of non-driving comments.

When the snow was really coming down, I had trouble keeping the windshield defrosted. It got so bad that there was a little water running down the inside of the windshield. You would get back in the car and fire it up. The front would fog over. I would have to sit there and wait for it to clear. Seems that is a non-issue if there is no snow on the windshield.

The front of the car gets incased in ice driving while snowing. I couldn’t get the front trunk open.

Snow builds up in the wheels and causes a vibration. This has been an issue in every car I have driving. Probably from driving it sideways most of the time.

These aren’t complaints just observations.

I have been thinking about a 4CS when my lease is up but I am not sure I really need it. The car is just great. I might throw a ski rack on it and take it up north.

I do love how SM_ALT mentioned the “bad weather” when he was driving the GT3. He needs to come visit ☺

 

Nice,,, I wondered about how our cars would do. What winter tires did you pick and are they mounted on the original rims or 'winter rims'?

 

woohoo sounds great!! Thanks for this, hehe.

About the windshield, did you have the ac on? i know that helps mine in the rain at least, and making sure the ac settings in the graphical car menu system have the automatic whatever selected (sorry forget exactly what that menu thing was). I had fogging a bit in the rain at the beginning of the season and as long as the A/C and that was selected, never had it again. Course that's not snow so anyway, just in case, man wheres the pics of that baby in the snow hahaha

 

Fantastic info...this brings me confidence for the year round driving I'll be doing. Chains?

 

998m ... Would you mind posting a picture of the wheels and tires on your car ... I have been considering getting some winter wheels for my car because the summer tires are terrible in the cold weather.

I do have an AWD car for the snow but I love driving my 991 as much as possible so if there is no snow it is the one I drive !!

 

Comparing my 9912S and 997.1 Targa 4S, I'd say:
1) In dry conditions & summer tires, the 991S feels moderately grippier. (Of course also much more nimble, sharper on turn-in etc.)

2) Rain and summer tires, the T4S felt MUCH grippier. Of course this was most noticeable on a track where you can get on the power much sooner and more aggressively with the 4S. Basically, a 4S with the appropriate tires will torch just about anything 2WD (GT3's, etc) in warm or cold inclement weather.

I haven't put winters on the 9912S because it's a pleasure-only car so I'm using only on +40 degree days, but based on my experience in the rain, as awesome as the 991S is, if you daily drive a 991 in cold and inclement weather, there is still no substitute for having 4WD, no matter what the tires (and that's assuming nobody here is foolish enough to drive their 9912S in sub 40 weather with any kind of rain or snow on the ground).

 

I recently noticed the chains in the Tequipment catalog. I would also be interested in hearing first-hand experience if anyone has tried them. Seems to me the winter tires are probably adequate in 99% of the circumstances, because if you really do need to go to a chains, you're probably going to be sidelined by clearance issues anyway.

 

Post some pics of your car driven in snow!

 

Nice!

 

michelin alpin on factory 20". Keep in mind they are a high performance snow tires.

 

Yup. AC on and bringing in fresh air also helps. It really only occurred when it was snowing hard. I just have not seen it on any of my other cars recently. I think the last time I saw something like this was on a 1980 Honda.

 

Chains are not really needed in my area. If it is snowing that much I will stay at home.

KonaKai, If your 4WD vehicle doesn't have snow tires, the 991 with snows may be as good. This thing is better than my AWD CX-9 with all seasons.

White 991, Next time it snows I will throw the GoPro on. Although I generally do not like documenting my stupidity.

Cheers

M

 

i agree that in real bad snow probably shouldnt be out there with a 991, even with alpins. but where i live and work is pretty hilly and you can go to work with 40degree rainy weather, then end up driving home in a 2 or 3 inches of unplowed snow.

i'm thinking that having that extra security of chains for that one or 2 days a year might make sense. (you can see that i'm really committed to the DD concept of my 991) i tried looking on the thule site (another rennlister recommended thule chains), but it doesn't accept the rear wheel size of 20"-295/30 as an option on their configurator.


btw the tequipment catalog tire chains says in the fine print that they are for 19" wheels only and not compatible with the 5mm spacers. dont have spacers on mine, but hate to have to switch my winter wheels to 19" from the 20" carrera classics in order to use them.

 

I am also committed. I mean, to using it as a DD. I will have to upload the picture I took of the car with $500 worth of groceries in it. Front seat, back seat and trunk filled. Normally I would have taken the bigger car but the nanny got to it first

I would not worry about 2-3 inches. The snow I was running around in was 3-4 with some ice. Going up and down hills and steep driveway. Much more than that and you are going to have a clearance issue before you have a traction issue. Modern day snow tires are amazing. A couple of years ago I drove an S4 Audi with snows through 2.5 feet of snow. The car had issues with all of the intakes filling with snow before it even came close to s=getting stuck.

M

 

haha! love that comment. thanks for that experience, it really makes me happy to know that i don't need my head examined for thinking i can drive a 911 everyday in the pac nw.