Good evening, forum.
The wife has bought a new toy, which I picked up yesterday.
2004 330Ci. (This is the convertible that was briefly mentioned in my Alfa thread. I had considered buying this as a daily, but I just could not bear the thought of forcing a beautiful, rust-free car through salt and slush. After I bought the Alfa, the wife innocently asked "why can't we have both?").
Car has Z4 dome bearings which lower the front 1cm, to compensate for the extra weight of the LPG tank in the trunk. This makes it sit level and removes the "permanent uphill". Front camber is set to max (within BMW tolerances). Else, the suspension is stock.
The car is sitting on the prvious owners "winter storage" wheels (we didn't like the "real" wheels, at least not at that price...), which means the tyres are very old Dunlop Wintersport somethings. Despite being old and run-flats, they drive surprisingly ok-ish, but they will have to go.
Which leads us to the question with which to replace these.
The car is NOT intended to be driven in winter conditions. There is, however, a small chance that it might - in case both the Alfa and the Saab NG break down at the same time, something will have to get me to work.
Also, there is a slightly higher chance that we might get caught in a change of weather - in the Alps and in the foothills, spring and autumn weather changes can be quick and violent and you can experience three seasons within half an hour. I'd rather not experience snow on a mountain road while on summer tyres.
A couple of years ago, I was in a similar situation (i.e: the exact same use case) with a 1984 900 sedan, which I had put on Vredestein Quatrac 3. This worked reasonably well. However, the 900 was non-powered by a small n/a engine, most of whose 118hp were lost in the torque converter of it's 3-speed slushbox. Also, being a n/a sedan in basically US-spec, that car lacked stabilizers, had very soft suspension and the steering charateristics of a motor boat (displacement type). It was not sporty at all. The Q3 had a reputation as a more summer-oriented all-season, and while it's grip levels were average at best, they provided nice feedback and were surprisingly responsive to steering input. (I later "finished them off" on my 900 turbo, so I was able to get some experience with these on a slightly sportier setup).
So here I am: still undecided whether I go with summer tyres or again go to all-seasons. The e46 is much more powerful and much more sporty (even though it clearly is NOT a sports car) that that old Saab Sedan. I'd like to have some sort of safety net, some "will get me home though white stuff if absolutely need be", but no real winter capabilites, and I do not want to loose to much grip, responsiveness and feedback on dry and wet roads, either. So if I go the all-season-route this must be one of the more summer-oriented. Also, as this car's top speed is 247km/h, "V" will not suffice, but I'll need W or Y. (We visit orthern Italy frequently, and if you want to drive winter tyres or all-seaons outside of the winter months, Italy requires the tyres to have the same speed rating as summers. The usual speed rating excemption for winter tyres does not apply in summer.) From some quick research, this narrows it down to three models:
a) Michelin Cross Climate 2
b) Dunlop Sport All-Season
c) Vredestein Quatrac Pro
The latter two seem to have asymmetric thread pattern, while the Michelin has the typical "tractor" V-pattern of a winter tyre (minus the sipes). I have heard that the e36 does not like V-patterned summer tyres - is this only hearsay, or does this hold true? And if so, does the Michelin CC still work on the e46?
Does someone have experience with any of these tyres on an e46?
Thanks a lot for your input!
The wife has bought a new toy, which I picked up yesterday.
2004 330Ci. (This is the convertible that was briefly mentioned in my Alfa thread. I had considered buying this as a daily, but I just could not bear the thought of forcing a beautiful, rust-free car through salt and slush. After I bought the Alfa, the wife innocently asked "why can't we have both?").
Car has Z4 dome bearings which lower the front 1cm, to compensate for the extra weight of the LPG tank in the trunk. This makes it sit level and removes the "permanent uphill". Front camber is set to max (within BMW tolerances). Else, the suspension is stock.
The car is sitting on the prvious owners "winter storage" wheels (we didn't like the "real" wheels, at least not at that price...), which means the tyres are very old Dunlop Wintersport somethings. Despite being old and run-flats, they drive surprisingly ok-ish, but they will have to go.
Which leads us to the question with which to replace these.
The car is NOT intended to be driven in winter conditions. There is, however, a small chance that it might - in case both the Alfa and the Saab NG break down at the same time, something will have to get me to work.
Also, there is a slightly higher chance that we might get caught in a change of weather - in the Alps and in the foothills, spring and autumn weather changes can be quick and violent and you can experience three seasons within half an hour. I'd rather not experience snow on a mountain road while on summer tyres.
A couple of years ago, I was in a similar situation (i.e: the exact same use case) with a 1984 900 sedan, which I had put on Vredestein Quatrac 3. This worked reasonably well. However, the 900 was non-powered by a small n/a engine, most of whose 118hp were lost in the torque converter of it's 3-speed slushbox. Also, being a n/a sedan in basically US-spec, that car lacked stabilizers, had very soft suspension and the steering charateristics of a motor boat (displacement type). It was not sporty at all. The Q3 had a reputation as a more summer-oriented all-season, and while it's grip levels were average at best, they provided nice feedback and were surprisingly responsive to steering input. (I later "finished them off" on my 900 turbo, so I was able to get some experience with these on a slightly sportier setup).
So here I am: still undecided whether I go with summer tyres or again go to all-seasons. The e46 is much more powerful and much more sporty (even though it clearly is NOT a sports car) that that old Saab Sedan. I'd like to have some sort of safety net, some "will get me home though white stuff if absolutely need be", but no real winter capabilites, and I do not want to loose to much grip, responsiveness and feedback on dry and wet roads, either. So if I go the all-season-route this must be one of the more summer-oriented. Also, as this car's top speed is 247km/h, "V" will not suffice, but I'll need W or Y. (We visit orthern Italy frequently, and if you want to drive winter tyres or all-seaons outside of the winter months, Italy requires the tyres to have the same speed rating as summers. The usual speed rating excemption for winter tyres does not apply in summer.) From some quick research, this narrows it down to three models:
a) Michelin Cross Climate 2
b) Dunlop Sport All-Season
c) Vredestein Quatrac Pro
The latter two seem to have asymmetric thread pattern, while the Michelin has the typical "tractor" V-pattern of a winter tyre (minus the sipes). I have heard that the e36 does not like V-patterned summer tyres - is this only hearsay, or does this hold true? And if so, does the Michelin CC still work on the e46?
Does someone have experience with any of these tyres on an e46?
Thanks a lot for your input!
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