And yet you could afford to buy an S2000? The cost of snow tires should always be worked into the cost of buying an S2000 when the owner had any possibility of driving in such conditions. "Being poor" garners little understanding or sympathy.

As for your advice to others, this has been a clearly stated concept on this forum from the very first winter that the S2000 existed. It is not news to most people.

 

Don't even drive when it's COLD and bare, your tires will NOT stick. Get off the f'in ROAD!

 

Seems to me that you can't afford the S then. If you are going to drive it in the winter, snow tires are a cost of ownership. You will have to buy a second set of tires eventually, why not make that second set snow tires. They are cheaper than most summer performance tires and will last longer.

Besides, that first accident in the snow will cost you more than the snow tires. Especially if someone gets hurt.

Oh, and have you seen what salt will do to aluminum rims?

 

I just can't agree with that. Last year I stopped driving the S daily to save it for autox, but I never liked to leave the car sitting for long. During the winter, I'd drive it once a week or so if the ground was salt and snow free, and it wasn't raining (wanted to keep it clean ). I drove it as low as high single digits! And I drove it hard. Yes, the limits are (significantly) reduced, but if you are aware of that, you drive to the cold weather limits. And by limits I mean stopping as well as just cornering, notice how quickly the ABS kicks in under hard braking in sub 30 degree weather.

Perhaps a better statement would be to understand that a turn (off ramp, twisty road, heck just one street to another) that you took at x mph, may now have to be taken at x-y mph. Or that taking it at x mph will require more 'driving' than in 80 degree weather when the tires did all the work.

At the risk of sounding like a wild child in my early twenties (I'm not, and have years of cold weather driving in Hi-per RWD cars with Max performance tires), cold weather can allow for a lot of fun at more controllable speeds - especially as the limits of performance cars have gotten so high as to be insane to utilize on public streets.

And yeah, that "poor kid" comment left me a little as well.

 

Yeah, IIRC the S02s are only rated to run down to about 45 degrees or so. Colder than that and the tire won't get good traction because of the compound. When they say 'summer only' tire, they don't just mean you can't drive in the snow.

The tires themselves aren't tested nor spec'ed to run during the cold winter months (assuming you live in such a climate).

To the OP - If you can't afford snow tires, maybe you should get rid of the S02s and go with some sortof all-season tire thats at least made to work in the snow and cold. The car won't handle as nicely in the summer, but you'll be able to drive (slowly) in the snow, as opposed to hardly being able to drive at all.

The only reason I haven't bought a set of 16" rims and snow tires is because my S2000 isn't a daily driver and I can afford to only drive it in the winter when its above 45 degrees outside and its dry out.

 

Can someone answer me this though...If I drive under 45 degrees with SO3's, will it damage the tire in anyway?

 

Thank you xviper.

 

At about 0 celcius the tires are useless you have to be VERY carefull. During the winter our average temperature is well below that, maybe -15 average. Going forward and turning slowly is fine, but as you stated, stopping is just horrible.

 

Hmmm Snow. Well imagine this... Last year out of all the days to do this I decided to try and put in lowering springs(Eibach) on my car the same night is was suppose to snow. Well about 4 hours into it and about midnight that night we said hell with this and only finished installing the rear springs. Well long story short we had about and 1.5" of snow and I never felt more scared in my life. Top speed was 15-20mph with the car being so off balance I never felt like I had control. Well that morning I dropped it off somewhere and had the other 2 springs installed. It was a rare occasion of snow. Good thing we don't get much snow down here.

 

Not unless you don't compensate for the pressure drop as a result of temp decrease. As we all know, as ambient temps drop, tire pressures also drop. You need to pump more air in to maintain the proper inflation. Having gotten this concept out of the way, the answer is no. Heat is more likely to wear tires down more and affect the integrity of a tire. Having said that, 45 degrees is nothing for a tire. When you get to below freezing, though, a dedicated summer tire's harder compound may be more prone to cracking when subjected to such cold. More likely is the cold, hot, cold, hot cycling that is more detrimental.