Spike100

There is enough snowfall in Toronto so that you should use the correct winter tires when driving on snow and ice. That means you should not go wider than 225’s on the front since you need to steer in snow some of the time. You also want your driving wheels (your rear wheels in the Z) to dig-down in snow and grab on ice. So again, 225’s (well OK, maybe 235’s) are the widest tire that works well on the rear of a rear wheel drive car. Remember that the wider the tire, the less it adapts to an irregular road surface (which is typical for ice covered roadways).

Considerations:

• If you are going to mount 225’s on the front (and you should), it’s certainly a wise economic-choice to mount the same size tires on the rear. That way you can rotate your tires with seasonal mounting to gain extended use.
• 17” tires cost less than 18” tires, and 17” snow tires work much better in snow and on ice than wider tires on the Z.
• I believe that salt is no longer used on streets in Toronto. Instead the city uses a chemical thawing agent, and sand in key positions (i.e., busy intersections and hills) and very cold weather. Eliminating salt greatly reduces rusting of sheet metal parts on cars, but the chemical replacement is really hard on the finish used by wheel manufacturers. You do not want to run your expensive aftermarket wheels on the streets of Toronto in the winter.

So what should you do? You should purchase a dedicated wheel/tire setup for winter. The best solution is four 17/7.5” wheels on which you mount 225/55-17” snow tires. You can do whatever offset you want, but remember that pushing the tires towards "flush" exposes the side of your car (and its paint) to potential sandblasting.

Here is my wheel/tire setup for winter driving:




Yup… I know “it aint purdy.” But, it isn’t too ugly. Notice the ”white chemical street treatment” all over the car. Mercifully it does not promote rust, but is awful for the finish on wheels. That’s why I went with inexpensive wheels dedicated for winter use. It's stupid to ruin expensive aftermarket wheels by running them during the winter.

--Spike