I'm debating turning my 996TT into a year round car. Up to now I have only driven it in the summer. But I also have 2 Ferrari's, a Maserati, a Viper, and a Corvette that I only drive in the summer. Living in Indiana its not the snow that's the problem (we don't get a ton of it here in Indianapolis and when we do I have a truck, Escalade, and Jeep that I can drive), it's the salt that they dump all over the roads. After the first snow the roads are white from all the salt. I want to drive one of my fun cars during the winter, but which one? The Ferraris and Maserati are obviously out. The Viper is supercharged with no traction control. So cold pavement and even a little dirt on the road could mean the end of me. So it's down to the Vette (which is twin turbo but actually quite docile) or the 996TT which has AWD but also $20k in mods. I would rather drive the 996TT but I don't want all those aftermarket parts disintegrating in a few years. What do you think? Will my headers, i/c's, turbos, exhaust, etc get trashed or if I ran it through the car wash every week would it be ok?

Colby

 

You'll have to go to Youtube and type in 996tt and snow...or just watch the links after this one:

That said, I still haven't bought snow tires for mine. I have two Jeeps and a V70R Volvo (6sp manual) to play with all winter. My concern is running it through a car wash to get the underside sprayed off. You don't want to put it away for a few weeks with the salt working it's magic on the underside.

 

It all depends how much you want to preserve your 996TT. Once driven in winter/salt weather, the salt will turn into a liquid solution and work it's way into all kinds of tiny nooks and cranies forever. Washing the car will never get it all out, so you will begin a rust process that would otherwise never exist. If you don't intend to keep the car long term, it doesn't really matter. If you plan to keep it long term, I would not do it, but that's just me. Plus the paint damage/sand blast to the front end with sand and salt on the roads is x100 of summer driving.

 

The entire reason I bought my 996TT was to have a year around car. I moved to Iowa from Florida and my Corvette was worthless much of the year.

The key was buying inexpensive wheels with true snow tires on them. I bought the car in December of 2008 and have driven it every month since then. Iowa gets more snow than Indy (I was born and raised in Indy) and there has only been three days where I didn't drive the 996. I would have driven those days if the snow plow had been on time.

Just don't ever drive in over 3 inches of snow. Wait for the plow.

It is unstoppable.

Now we're moving back to Florida and I can clean it up and still drive it every day.

In fact, in about 3 weeks I will have a nice set of Pirelli snow tires on decent wheels to sell for a good price. Let me know if you're interested (and, no, I didn't post to sell the wheels/tires ).

 

HI,I have been driving my car all year around with no problems..I put the best all season tires on...I don't drive it in deep snow... Being able to enjoy them all year around is part of the great things in owning these cars...Also,you have a very impressive bunch of cars...

 

I drive my TT all year around. We only get about a week of snow in Victoria in winter, so I make the most of it to get my snow fix. The car is like a tank in the snow. Hilarious to see the faces of the 4 wheel drive pick-up crowd when you blast it from a stop light in 4 inches of snow! Usually that week is followed by torrential rains that quickly clean off any remaining salt (if any) so I don't worry about the corrosive side effects too much.

 

Initially I didn't want to drive the car in the snow because I hate what the salt does to all the components. But I just found out that I'm going to be missing the entire summer so the only real seat time I'm going to get in this car over the next 15 months is if I get snow tires and take her out during the winter. So I may choose the lesser of two evils and subject her to an upstate NY winter...

 

Been driving mine all winter. It's a blast in the snow with the blizzaks....

 

I drove it for a winter but stopped. Not because the car didn't drive great but because I could use another car in the winter and avoid getting the car beat to crap with the northeast winter weather.

 

Listen to John. The salt is the killer.

 

We have winter 6 months of the year. Its got to be driven!

 

I am not a rich man, this 996 is a life long dream ....... and it sits it's adorable butt in the garage all winter. However when the spring comes i intend to beat the living snot out of it

George

 

Dude if you really have 2 ferrari's an M car and all that other stuff is the cost of some parts on a porsche that big a deal. I have numerous friends that have porsches as winter beaters, is it any different than washing a Toyota matrix weekly.

If you can afford it, drive it like you stole it and not care, they make new cars every day.

 

Putting aside all the additional wear, tear, and corrosion winter driving causes....have you seen how most idiots drive in snow and heavy rain. Not a chance I'm going to get hit by some under insured yahoo. Beside you own all the winter rigs already.

 

I bought my 993 just so I didn't ruin my cab top in the winter. (I hate the hard top on the cab). Admittingly I probably won't take it out in the snow, otherwise I'm lovin it..