atlanta A6

At this point in my winter driving experience I'd like to share my thoughts on winter driving with summer tires

I have not noticed any reduced braking or handling performance in lower temps (+7f through 32f).
In true winter driving conditions which we experienced recently in Atlanta it was an interesting trek across 27 miles of snow and ice covered pavement. As you may know, the south just isn’t ready for this weather and by the lack of snow removal and road treatments my commute took just north of 12 hours at an average speed of 2 MPH.

My observations were that any rear wheel pickup along with a number of sports coupes including Camaro's, Mustangs and G37's were (as expected) completely in danger to themselves and others. They stopped on snow or ice covered roads and quickly slid into others.

What surprised me though was how well planted and safe my A6 felt even with 20" wheels and summer tires. Not once did I lose traction in these conditions although I would never trust this setup in any serious or long lasting snow storm, it felt more secure than ever expected. With the exception of a couple options, tires never do well in ice but the hard packed snow and ice were not a problem. I truly feel this car is extremely well balanced and weighted. Very impressive!

Would I recommend this setup? No way..Is it "ok" in the 1-2 weather conditions we have in the South? In my opinion yes and will replace the summer setup with some quality summer tires when the time comes.

Richard Solomon

With all due respect, had your commute involved speeds of >2mph you would have discovered how dangerous summer tires are in those conditions. While I no longer live in the South, even then I preferred an all-season tire. As you've found, all wheel drive is fantastic even when hobbled by crappy tires, but with the wealth of excellent A/S tires out now, I would really encourage you to explore some other options.

Glad you and the car made it safely through the ordeal! I know firsthand how badly the south shuts down on these rare occasions - fond memories of ice drifting an empty I-10 through Houston decades ago

atlanta A6

Excellent points-towards the end of my commute I did get up to 20 mph and still didnt have any significant issues. However, AS tires (at a minimum) would do much better. The summer tires just are so great in the normal conditions we have here-they seem well planted and great in the rain and dry conditions alike

snagitseven

Richard, I agree completely. Summer tires on ice or snow turn into hockey pucks above a walking speed and quattro gives you four hockey pucks vs. two. (And we all know how easily hockey pucks glide across the ice). Summer tire tread, designed to provide the greatest traction in warmer conditions, gets hard/stiff in colder temps. The resulting lack of flexing prevents the ice, snow and even water from being ejected out of the grooves of the tread which then cause the tire to become essentailly "treadless", much like that smooth hockey puck. As snow, ice or almost freezing water fills the grooves, traction is greatly reduced as they stick to the tread surface. Think of racing slicks; they have no tread and are designed to provide max traction in the warm and dry. Race teams switch to treaded rain tires when the track gets wet and wouldn't even consider racing near freezing temps (unless it's ice racing with specially designed, studded, dedicated racing tires).

gatorguy7

Good to know that the quattro can make the summer tires work at low speeds and if absolutely necessary. Here is one example of why you don't use summer tires in the snow.

TB1000

I too live in Atlanta and have the 20" sport package with Pirellis on my car.

My commute home only took a bit over an hour the other night since I live in Buckhead and my speeds reached over 25mph and had no noticeable problems. Braking wasn't always the best and would get "choppy" (not sure how to describe it but had the same problem on my old A4 with all-season tires) but the handling and everything else was just fine.

Made it up plenty of icy hills with no issues at all and didn't spin out when starting to go from a dead stop.

Now, I will admit that initially I was worried how the Pirellis would hold up and am surprised I didn't have any issues but I chalk up my success to overall superior engineering with the quattro system and awesome driving skills on my end.

One interesting thing I saw this morning was an abandoned red Tesla S on 400 North just before the Abernathy Rd exit on 400. It was the first of many abandoned cars and not sure of the exact reason why it was abandoned but am very curious as to what happened.

RobC

With the 6-12 hour commutes during this storm, he probably ran out of juice :P

dicktahoe

I live in the Snow country--Lake Tahoe. And finally the first snow in the past 5-weeks is now falling. I've swapped out the Pirellis for the New Michelin A/S3 and expect to be very pleased with how they handle the snow. They are excellent in wet or dry pavement going through the hair-pin curves on Mt. Rose Hwy (going to Reno). I'll let you know how they perform in the snow.

Sickler

I'll be able to give my impressions as well. We'll be going up to Mammoth tomorrow morning and I've been itching to see how the AS/3 does in the snow. Slight off topic - But do you experience a lot of tramlining with your tires? It's pretty bad but I don't know if it was exacerbated by the steering update since I did both within a week of each other. Seems like the car fights itself when tramlining.

mirin S6

Are you talking about ABS kicking in?