Conference terri::cars_uk

    
    Well, the skiing holiday is booked and we're driving! (Got to see
    140mph on the Calibra's clock once. :^)).
    
    My question is, are snow tyres better than chains? Would it be worth 
    buying some steel rims and snow tyres to drive in Germany/Austria or 
    would chains be a better compromise solution? Presumably snow tyres
    don't come in 140 mph rating?
    
    I'm off to Le Mans on Friday, so I'd like to look for chains there if
    they are reasonable thing to have (as this note seems to suggest).
    
    Mark

    I wouldn't bother with trying to get hold of snow tyres - they'll drive
    you mad with the noise they make on the tarmac and the grip will be
    rather "different".
    
    You can hire chains from "the man that can" (probably others too) and
    pick them up/drop them off at the port.  We did this when we went to
    Val Thorens - one of the highest resorts in the Alps in March; we
    didn't even take the chains out of the box.
    
    Rob

    
    Yes, snow tyres are the best - but they are noisier, and do handle
    diffently. Your main consideration is whether they are worth the
    investment - ie how long will you wnat to keep a car that the tyres
    fit, how many trips are you going to do in that time? What will the
    weather here be like next year? :-)   We use our winter tyres here, but
    it's more a case of "we've got them, might as well use them!"
    
    (If you think about buying winter tyres abroad, make sure you get the
    speed rating you want, many of them are only rated to about 70mph)
    
    
    Elaine 

    
    I don't know of any rated about 70 mph. Usual is 160 kph, but nowadays
    you can get 210 kph winter tyres.

My snow tyres aren't noisy - do the rest of you have studded snow tyres - which
aren't allowed on motorways in Switzerland?

Snow tyres work just fine in most situations - they only time you need chains
are when you've got 6"+ of fresh snow which hasn't been removed by the
snow-ploughs yet

    Advice from Finland (land of snow and ice):
    
    If you want silent but very good snow tyres; buy the new
    Good-Years (can't remember the model code; but the newest type). I had
    the with studs under my Vectra - they very much more silent than
    Firestone summer tyres.
    
    But if don't need them permanently, then it's waste of money. Snow
    tyres are very expensive...
    
    If you have good - I mean *GOOD* - summer tyres you can manage it even
    in snow if you drive carefully.
    
    Remember; when driving in winter conditions you must avoid sudden
    movements with steering, gas, brakes etc...
    
    
    - Jyri -

    
    When I lived in Munich before, I bought some 195 tyres for my golf, used
    those in summer and my old summer tyres in winter ( 175's I think )
    with no problems, as long as you drive sensibly. The only time you
    need chains are when its REALLY bad or when your somewhere like Pass Thurn,
    but then thier on and off like the perverbial "young ladies undies" ;-) 
    
    I'd hire chains just in case, but drive carefully and you'd have no
    problems with summer tyres. 
    
    

>>    but then thier on and off like the perverbial "young ladies undies" ;-) 


sidetracking here, but is there a difference in the drag coefficient between
young and older "ladies undies" ?




...Art

    You may have problems with access to certain passes if you don't have
    chains - the police sometimes make a point of stopping every car &
    turning back everyone who doesn't have them (even 4wd's!!).
    
    Fitting & removing the new-style chains is a doddle - so apart from the
    cost there's no reason not to carry them.
    The AA rental service is good & quite cheap,a few years ago I managed
    to break one of their chains & I still got the deposit back....
    
    I use Goodyear M&S Snow tyres in the winter on my Golf GTI,& very good
    they are too... I still HAD to use the chains twice last year,& it was
    a mild winter..
    
    ~Kev~
    

Mark,

 For the odd weeks holiday, don't bother to buy snow tyres. Your car is
 new-ish, and the tryes are new-ish, so you shouldn't have problems getting
 to within a few miles of the ski station.

 Buying chains is probably worth-while, but with the car you have it will
 not be at all easy to fit them. I assume the clearance you have between
 the tyres and the wheel-arches is SMALL. On my BMW it is quite BIG, and 
 the chains I have still like to bite chunks out of the arches !!!

 Also, buying chains in the supermarkets in France at the moment might
 be a problem. Space on the floors is limited, and only things which
 are currently selling are there. And to be honest, not a lot of people
 are thinking that far ahead yet ...

 If you do get some, do a trial fitting BEFORE you need to use them in
 anger. It's amazing just how quickly your hands go numb when you are
 fiddling around in the snow under the car with a load of cold wet metal
 in your hands ...

    Mark
    
    I wouldn't have thought that a 3 series had a lot more clearance
    between wheel and arch, but I'll watch for that.
    
    You're probably right about availability, but I'll have a look anyway.
    Nothing ventured...
    
    I reckon chains alone will be sufficient for 90% of what I might
    encounter. I picked the car up the weekend that we had a lot of snow
    here and it showed no special vices.
    
    I guess if I can't buy chains in France this weekend I'm best to rent from 
    the AA/RAC or buy in Germany/Belgium on the way to Austria. Of course, if
    it's like recent winters, I'll be looking for some slicks! :^)
    
    Mark

Note that the Calibra handbook says that snow chains can't be used on 
the the big tyres fitted to the 16v - probably not enough clearance or
something to do with the ultra-low profile.

If you know otherwise, I'd be interested to hear.

    
    Eeeek!
    
    I hadn't looked at that yet!
    
    What now! Maybe I'll have to buy snow tyres after all?
    
    Mark
    

    Mark,
    
    If you can't buy snow chains, but the next best thing...
    
    
    
    
    	a snow shovel.... just incase ;-)

    
    So buy mine then ...

    A friend of mine with a Fiesta RS turbo is planning on going skiing in
    a few months time. He plans to drive through France. He is concerned
    that some areas have signs that say you must have snow chains fitted.

    The handbook for the RS says that snow chains cannot be fitted to this
    model. ANy reasons why not ? Could it be the low profile tyres.

    Has anyone else got a car with this restrictions.

    Roy

    Just for information :-
    
    The road clearing system in France is _very_ good in winter. It's
    very rare that you will see some people being stopped from proceding
    due to not having snow chains fitted, and that is nearly always going
    high up into the resorts.
    
    If he is just driving through France (as the note implies) then he
    should really have no worries. Unless you're going up into the resorts
    then everything should be ok. Out of interest, what tyres do the RS
    Fiesta's have?           

    The Fiesta RS Turbo has 185x14x50 or is it 185x14x55 ?
    
    Gary.