Since I picked up the Stillen hood used, it was pearl white for a couple days. Def was NOT fly...

I feel like I'm ice skating out there. FWD vs. RWD is less important than the type/size of your tires. 255/30/20 & 285/30/20 ultra high performance summer tires are SCARY!


Yeah. Pics, mod list, etc... on my cardomain

 

its been sitting for a few days now, and up in bellingham, looks like it will be sitting for atleast 3 or 4 more days... I have a company car i can drive and borrowed my parents extra 4 runner for the Mountain today.

SNOW GO AWAY!

(and to think... 3.5 months ago, when i owned my wrx i couldnt wait for this stuff!)

 

I have OEM 18's right now (225F/245R). I looked into All-Season's for my 18's and got quotes up to $300 ea tire (at Coscto). Do you guys know if I can get 17"s with All-Season tires mounted some some cheap rims? I'd figure 17"s are cheaper to get. When March comes around I'll put my oem rims back on. What do u guys think?

 

What about all this Global Warming? :P

Guys we should all have another meet once Spring comes in and the snow/ice is gone. I'll have a car by then too yay.

 

If Discount Tire can't fix you up for snows and your desperate. I'll talk to my local store if you don't find a LOT better sounding price.

 

this might be a cheaper option:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/est/pts/261770872.html

About 1" smaller than the rear 1/2" smaller than the fronts in diameter. generally when getting snow tires you want to go 1 or 2 wheel sizes smaller and a higher profile wall to get more flex. You also want to go a little narrower so you can cut into snow.

Probably a lot of 16" and 17" sets available on Craig's List, this was the first I found. I dunno if the bolt diameter is 114mm, but it looks like it at first glance. Your Z will ride goofy and make a lotta rolling noise, but you'll be able to get around a lot better than w/ the tires you have now.

If you do get snow tires, you're welcomed to borrow one of my jacks and impact wrenches to swap out tires.

When did you get your Z back?

 

If Discount Tire can't fix you up for snows and your desperate. I'll talk to my local store if you don't find a LOT better sounding price. It's close to $1000 for 18" tires mounted, balanced, out the door. $1100-$1200 for 17" aftermarket wheel and tire package. Find a Californian with stocks for cheap and the 17" tires out the door for under $700 you supply the wheels.
Just look it up on line and added local taxes and all that junk, close guess.

 

hmmm interesting. but to go from 18's down to 16's, wouldnt that look a little wierd? i heard those snow tires are famous in europe and work really well, but i'm looking for all-seasons that fit for Seattle's so-called wet weather. i'm thinking of using the all-seasons for regular driving and keep my RE040s to 'burn off' for spring autoX. i heard Kumho Ecsta ASX, AvonTechM550, PS2, S03's and Potenza RE960 PolePos are good. I'm leaning towards the RE960s but not sure if they go with my oem stagger setup.

 

A little weird? Man, it would look down right bizarre! There would be so much extra room under each wheel well, you could put up a vacancy sign up and rent out all 4 units.

Yeah, it's not gonna look pretty, but it will serve the function of getting you around this winter. I wouldn't recommend driving around w/ them the entire winter. Since they come on cheap steelies, I'd say only put them on only when the threat of snow and ice is a possibility. Then take 'em off and put your regular wheels and tires on. Takes 'bout a 1/2 hour (or less, depending on how quick you are) to swap tires on the Z if you have a floor jack and impact wrench. Plus you wouldn't have to worry about the extra cost of getting your good weather tires mounted when the winter is over. But it is a hassle to do it if you don't have a level dry place to swap 'em out or a place to store the extra tires.

 

Driving in the snow was no problem. It was once the snow had gone that I scratched my fender and door on someone's bumper.

Damn.

 

My 18" stock tires are really bad. I couldn't even go down a driveway with an inch of snow. I had to turn off the traction control to burn down to pavement to get back to safety. I bought some 17" '03 stock rims to put snow tires on, but am stuck with the problems of tire size so the VDC doesn't get thrown off(its very valuable in the snow) and so my speedometer will still work about right. I have no hope for the tire pressure reading system. When you take the tire size and speed rating into account, the options seem very limited. Is there anyone out there that has solved these problems?

 

VDC - just make sure the ratio of Front to Rear wheel diameter is the same (or close)

speedometer - keep the same rear wheel diameter and it shouldn't be a problem...you'll need to change the aspect ratio of the tire depending on rim size and tire width.

example how to calculate wheel diameter:
for a 235/50/17 -
1) rim diameter = 17"
2) tire thickness = 235mm*.5 = 117.5mm
3) total diameter = 17" + 117.5mm

if you want to goto an 18" rim, just get a smaller aspect ratio tire.

hope that makes sense.

-Peter

 

from 50 to 45 series

 

Just out of curiousity..... has anyone attempted to put tire chains on their Z?

 

I've been getting around on an 06 F-150... 4x4 pwns this snow/ice! My bro and I were stuck in traffic for 5 hours last week from Kent to Bellevue to Maple Valley to Auburn...it sucked

But on the bright side, we did stop in the Frys parking lot and did donuts in the snow/ice on the F150! That was fun

 

Winter? What winter?

Taken today:

 

I saw a G35c with cable chains in Everett. It looked stock ride height , maybe even stock size 18" tires w/aftermarket wheels.

 

Ackk! WTF?!? This weather is getting pretty tiresome.

 

shouldn't this be under "..winter - round 3"!


my Z has so much dust on it from sit'n in the garage for the last 2 weeks!

 

Ahhh... good point!

Round 3 it is!

https://my350z.com/forum/north-west/243284-the-pacific-northwest-vs-winter-round-3-a.html