cruzdreamer

You guys....good advice.....the guy at the tire place(NTB) said I should not put the sand bags in the back......since the weight will throw it off and make me slide worse if I ever do. He said there is no need with these tires! I drove on some packed snow roads and I could tell the difference just with that...I would not have gone anywhere with the other tires. It is suppose to snow on thursday so i will update with my new snowshoes!! The guy said he's had a Camaro for 7 years and the tires make a huge difference! I am feeling better about things....oh and safer!!!!

Racer X-8

Yes! Glad you finally got those tires Wendy.

T-REX

This the way OEM tires look in 9 inches of snow.

jimyoung

All I can add is the car is kick *** to drive in the snow with the right tires. Pic is with lots of snow on the streets and -4F

Racer X-8

Hey there Jim! Welcome! What tires & wheels are those? Real nice looking!!! Really!!!

(btw, Nice doggie too.)

jimyoung

racer x-8

The rims in pic are MSR ALLOY 17x7 Tires are 225/50R17

BLIZZAK WS-50. All Blizzak tires have a aggressive

sipe. The car has been run thru all winter weather including a

365 mile trip with temps dropping to -31F. All with clear

windows and plenty of cabin heat with heat set at 2 and 3.

Last night -18 to -21F and very toasty.

cruzdreamer

No sandbags right Jim???

jimyoung

Absolutely no thats no sand bags !!

cruzdreamer

ok cool...I was told not to add any sand bags to the trunk!

flyboyindy

Ok, Im gonna have to chime in, I live in Indianapolis, but had to report to Grand Rapids, Michigan on Monday and it went from a cold rainy day in Indy to A BLIZZARD.... with ice, white out conditions, and more slushy mess than I have seen in years. My Dunlop M3's kept me on the road.... Grand Rapids got 14 inches of snow over the past 2 days and through out it all my RX8 performed better than any front wheel drive car I have ever owned without ANY weight at all. I saw 2 Camaros, and 1 Trans Am in the ditch, along with a Michigan State Trooper Crown Vic.... bet they wish they had 50/50 weight distribution and the RX8 traction control system =) All I can say is that all rear wheel drive cars were not created equally... and spend the damned money on the snow tires guys... they are worth every penny!

flatso

Hey sorry if this has been answered already but I am kinda new here and getting my car tommorrow and its getting cold here in "Joisey". Was wondering if you put on snow tires what happens to the tire air pressure sensor. Never having them before on a car I am not sure how they work so do you need to disconnect something to put the snows on and if you leave off what happens?

LL7

It starts blinking at you after about 5 minutes, unless you spend $100 per wheel to buy new ones. That is the main reason to keep the stock wheels - which I didn't. Someday I will remember the tape to cover the light.

flatso

Just curious why didn't you keep your stock wheels?

LL7

I got 17 inch wheels because the tires were cheaper by almost the cost of the wheels. Coupled with the savings from not mounting and balancing twice a year it was much cheaper this way.

Parallel

I'm glad I spent the extra $400 to put pressure sensors in the new winter wheels. The other day it was about 5 degrees F outside and the pressure light came on. I figured it was just cold and ignored it, but when I got to work I checked with a guage and one of the tires was down to 25 pounds. Even with the Blizzaks on 17 inch wheels I couldn't see it. And knowing me, it would have been a long time before I would have checked the tire pressure with the outside temperature that low!

loco4rx8

Just wanted to report that the car did great in the snow this morning with 18" Dunlop Winter Sport M3's! The 46 mile commute in to work on rural, mostly untreated roads went without one slip, the DSC never engaged as far as I could tell. Had no trouble getting out of my messy, muddy, rutted driveway either. Hey, it's no blizzard out there, but there were accidents and schools are closed, so if I didn't have the winter tires, I'd still be sitting at home. I'm very pleased.

Positron

The DC Metro area got 1 inch of snow this morning and the regional authorities seem to have totally underestimated the situation. There were major problems on the large roads and most of the secondary roads didn't get treated until after 9:00 am or later. But the schools in Arlington, Fairfax, and Montgomery Counties didn't open late.

The good news is that my 8 with Blizzak LM-22s did better than most other vehicles out there with all seasons. Even the SUVs and all wheel drive vehicles were sliding around if they didn't have true snows on. I am very pleased with the tires and the way the car handled. Big grin!

markfw

In Oregon, we just got hit with the worst winter storm in 30 years. Its rare to even snow here. So I didn;t want to spend $2000 on snow tires and wheels, even though I have read this thread. Well, on 3 inches of HARD packed snow, I couldn't go 10 feet on level ground out of my driveway !!!! My 91 Corrolla wagon with 150,000 miles on it and Toyo Spectrum tires would go anywhere ! Tires must make a big difference. I just hope I didn;t ruin anything getting back into the driveway burning up the snow. It wouldn't move with the traction control on, just spun slowly. With it off, it just burned its way thru the snow (I only had 10 feet to go, but a very hard 10 feet.)

gingersrus

Glad I read this thread - I have to go to Nashville in a couple of weeks. Never even occured to this Florida boy that my RX8 would have to have different tires. Guess I will be closely watching the weather report and leaving it at home if it looks threatening any kind of major storm. And I am soooo looking forward to driving my new RX8 on that trip!

New Yorker

I get the impression a few of you think of winter tires as just a nice little upgrade, comparable in significance to, say, chipping a car for a little more power, or getting bigger wheels in summer for a performance edge. If this is your mindset, forget it! Winter tires utterly transform RWD cars like the RX8, Miata, and 3-series. In terms of starting, turning, and stopping on snow and ice, switching from summer performance tires to winter tires is like selling your RX8 and getting a FWD or AWD vehicle (with all-season tires or summer tires).

flatso

Are you trying to say it's worth it to get the tires 337NY?:D

I am going to wait until next winter by then some better deals should come out and more experiences from the group on the best combo will be offered. Thank god I still have my old tree beater 1990 Maxima.

canzoomer

I you put on decent winter tires it is almost as much fun to drive an RX-8 as on clean dry pavement.

Great if you wanted to learn about drifting, just turn off the DSC and play!

LoveToZoom

Hey Gord,

Just curious as to how much your tires cost and where you got them. Is there any issue with having the tires mounted by a "non-Mazda" dealer because of the pressure monitoring system.

Thanks

LoveToZoom

Hey Gord,

Just curious as to how much your tires cost and where you got them. Is there any issue with having the tires mounted by a "non-Mazda" dealer because of the pressure monitoring system.

Thanks

canzoomer

Go look in the Canada forums,of course!

Under such headings as
"Talon Tire Group Buy"
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=11413

or:
"Winter Tire Group buy"
https://www.rx8club.com/canada-forum-35/winter-tire-group-buy-8888/

"Winter Wheels"
https://www.rx8club.com/showthread.p...threadid=17920