Good morning all,

I purchased a CPO C2S with 3800 miles from a dealer in Iliinois. The car came with Pirellie Sottozero winter tires which looked brand new. I drove the car 6 hours back to Minnesota and other than a little tire noise, the car felt great.

Being as though I will primarily use the car for the good weather, can I leave theses tires on all year round? The thought of being able to go for a drive during the winter is appealing. And the thought of not buying new tires and having to swap them out is also appealing.

The car continue to impress me every time I turn the key!
This forum has been a great resource during the search for my car.
Thanks, Mike

 

You you can safely leave them on. They provide less cornering force than "all season" or "summer performance" tires, and hypothetically with their softer compound may wear slightly faster. But there is nothing "dangerous" about them (apart from potential Internet derision). If you keep them year round, you are giving up some of of the performance that the car offers. If it does not matter to you, you won't notice it. If it does, get a set of summer tires.

 

thanks, i appreciate your response. Im not going to be tracking the car or driving at any extremes.

 

I will have to offer a different opinion. Leaving Pirelli Sottozero winter tires on the car in temps over 40 degrees is like taking a shower with your socks on. You are giving up A LOT of what makes a Porsche a Porsche.

While not dangerous per se, winter tires have compounds maximized for cold weather and will not only be noisier, but they will wear incredibly fast in the summer and have huge amount of squirm. You will be putting on a new set by next winter because of the wear alone if you drive the car 5,000 +/- miles between now and then.

In sizes to fit a C2S, there are no all season performance tires so your best bet is to look on the classified section here on EBay / 6-Speed / Rennlist to find some take off wheels/tires with summer tires on them, and just swap out, stack the set you are not using in the garage.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Genuine-OEM-...2eedb8&vxp=mtr

 

Mike, do yourself a favor and buy a set of summer tires and save the winter tires for the winter. I don't want to reply in a negative or sarcastic way, however you just purchased one of the best cars of all time (lets not debate this, strictly my opinion) and you are going to leave winter tires on for the summer? Bad move!! Don't be a penny wise and a pound foolish. Get the proper tires, press the loud pedal hard and deep :-0 and enjoy!!!

 

OP: Plenty of good, lightly-used OEM wheels on EBay to use as a winter set. (You can look for 19" 997 wheels too. They might require spacers though). I have bought and sold wheels on eBay a couple times for around $1200.

As others have said, you will save money in the long run and save yourself from needing to buy winter tires in a year or two.

 

I have three Porsches all equipped with winter tires as it is the law in Germany from October to Easter. All three (88 911, 08 Cayman, and 14 911) feel noticeably different. The feel is not as precise and the tires tend to stick to the ground more in a negative way where you have to work to return the wheel to straight. Probably explaining it wrong but bottom line is that the performance is noticeably less in and around town and on the Autobahn at speeds up to the winter tire limit of 145 mph. Getting all three swapped to summer tires in early April and looking forward to getting back to the better performance and feel. Having driven summer tires in the snow a few years back, I can attest that the winters are amazing in the ice, snow, low temps. Worth the money to swap them.

 

Thanks for all of your responses, I really appreciate your advice.
I'll order a set of tires from tire rack and move on to enjoying the car.
Regards, Mike

 

I had to chime in. Another benefit of a winter tire set is it gives the car another look with a different wheel design. Whatever you do please don't give up the winter tires and solely go with summer/performance tires! This will relegate your toy to the toy box way to long in Minnesota.





Winter ready.





Summer ready. A different look; even the paint seemed to change color

 

Mike -

All of the advise here is good and sound. You can drive the winters all year if you want, but it makes the most sense to buy a summer set and enjoy the car to the fullest. Winter tires, as good as they are today, just won't let you do that in the summer.

Call me this fall, I'm happy to help. Enjoy your car!

 

Very cool! Gorgeous Porsche, BTW...

 

Tire rack is certainly the way to go. The supplied my summer PSS tires and I couldn't be happier. I look forward to April 1 every year because that's when my winter tires and rims go into storage and i get to drive with real tires. Dealer swaps and stores them for me. Just $100 twice a year and they balance them too

 

I am changing my winter set to my 21" summer set tomorrow morning which is the first day of spring, (on my Macan Turbo). I'd never consider winter tires in the summer or vice versa.

 

-40 or so I run Victor Equipment Zhens 19"
Nokian Winter Tires.
NOT for Summer though!

 

Thanks for all of your advice on the winter tires. I had a set of Michelin Pilot SS put on and what an amazing difference. They are still a little loud, but I'm hoping as they wear in they will get a little quieter.
If anyone is in Minnesota and wants a good deal on slightly used 20" Pirelli Sottozero winter tires; let me know! I'm not going to drive the car in the winter.
Thanks, Mike