Well, a totally predictable series of events.

- Drove to MINIs in the Ozarks (great event) and got caught in snow on the backside of Sandy in Pennsylvania on the way home (luckily didn't accumulate on the road) with the summer tyres on.
- Got home, ordered winter wheels and tyres from Tire Rack in a blind panic
- wheels arrive yesterday
- couldn't get a shop to put them on today, so I left them in the garage and went to work on the summers
- IT SNOWS!!!! Scary drive home from work on the summers ensues...

I went and got self-sufficient with a floor jack from a buddy and put them on tonight. An F1 pit crew changes all four in under 3 seconds. Took me more like 3/4 of an hour...

Look pretty nice on though. I got 17x7.5 Hyper Silver Enkei Performance Ammodo with Blizzak runflats (yes, I know, but in the winter I'm even less willing to get stuck by the side of the road). The wheels are reasonably priced and reasonable weight for the money, and look similar to my usual Challenge spokes, if a little more slender in the spoke.

Pics (gaps look horrid as the car hadn't moved since it was jacked up):








Can't wait to start driving around with the top down in the snow on sunny days!

 

Yah, me too. I did not expect to see the snow today, but glad I put my snow weeks/ tires on over the weekend. It was fun driving home tonight near I95. This is what my Chili looked like I. The garage tonight. Happy motoring

 

I'm so thankful that I managed to find a set of winter wheels and tires last weekend. My boss let me leave work early to work from home to try to keep me out of the weather. Having driven on my summer tires in wintry weather before, I know how frightening it is and I am so glad that I did not repeat that experience. Those winter wheels look awesome, spiney!

 

I'm glad you made it home without incident on the summer rubber...been there...scary as hell. New wheels look great, post some side shots when things settle down a bit. You've got a nice blue snowmobile now to play in the snow


-Steven

 

I really like the look. They seem to have a little more outward offset than the Challenge spokes and fill the arches a bit more. Also, even though they are still run flats the car rides a lot quieter and smoother. The handling's not as good, obviously, but the ride is much better.

Quick phone shot from outside the dealers this morning.

The tyres are awesome, it's almost like having four wheel drive, especially compared to the summer tyres on snow!

 

Thanks for the pic...those look great I wish they came in 18's, a trip to the powder coater for gloss black would be very tempting.


-Steven

 

I love them. Seriously considering getting the summer tyres put on these next year and either selling the Challenge spokes or using them for the winter!

Here's a couple of along-the-side shots to see the better offset:

 

Hey Spiney,
I am going to follow your winter driving critiques very closely ...

 

[QUOTE=spiney;3623756]I love them. Seriously considering getting the summer tyres put on these next year and either selling the Challenge spokes or using them for the winter!

Here's a couple of along-the-side shots to see the better offset:

Spiny looks very nice. Two years ago I put Michelin ICE's on my Challenge wheels, and then bought come Summer wheels and tires. Just one question:

What size tire did you go with? I went up one size myself. Helped eith the speedometer error, plus helped fill up the wheel house a bit.
Car looks great, plus it's nice to see that I'm not only one that drives their Mini through the Winter months.

 

Thanks!

They are 7.5x17 wheels. Winter tyres are 205/45x17.

 

Those Enkei's sure are pretty.

Cheers,

Charlie

 

Wheels look good.

 

Spiney:

Do t you just love those lug BOLT? It took me over one hour to do my change, do you're fast. By the way, I don't think that run last are all that bad an idea for the Winter either. Summer, no way. By the way, I am using my Challenge Wheels for my Winter tires.
Bill

 

Agreed. I have no idea which lunatic decided that lug bolts are a good idea! It is a real pain trying to line the first one up, especially with the aftermarket wheels with the separate centring rings that get displaced if the wheel slips. I got the hang of it after the second one.

For next year I'm going to make a wooden block to fit into the plastic jacking points so my floor jack gets a bit more to get hold of and the jacking points don't collapse. Also, I need to come up with some plastic or non-threaded metal peg to stick into one of the the bolt holes to help me get lined up. If I do both of those I think I'll get the job done in about a half hour!

 

Search eBay for: m14x1.25 lug bolt tool

 

Found one. Basically a long bolt with no head, a short threaded section and a bit of a taper for $10. Screw it in before you put the wheel back, put the wheel on aligning with that, then it will be sticking out so it's easy to remove when you have a couple of other lug bolts in to hold the wheel in place. I might just get one for next time, thanks for the tip!

 

Quick update...

It snowed overnight, and we had a few inches of unplowed stuff on the roads as I went out this morning. Zero problems on the Blizzaks, plenty of grip for accelerating, braking and cornering, appropriate to the conditions of course. If it hadn't been for the idiot in the Jeep (it's always the 4WD people) who was following way too close it would have been a nice drive. The heater and heated rear screen cleared the car out nicely when I got back in after my appointment.

 

So I guess snow tires are a must! Last week the mini sales rep told me that , since the car is front wheel drive , I might not even need snow tires , and he has some customers who don't use snows ...
Is he gone???
I owned two Honda CRXsi ( btw: the roadster reminds me of the CRX... ): without snows= terrifying.... With snows= a tank!

 

You can survive with all seasons. My wife's Clubman has them, and it's OK. My first 2003 S had them, and it was OK. I had real snows on the 2007 S and the Roadster, and they are really good. The side benefit if you can manage to buy and store the second set of wheels and tyres is that you can also go super-aggressive with the summer tyres and have extra fun!

 

Running falken all seasons and had no issues today

 

I think that your salesman has been smoking done weird stuff, as here in Iowa, forget it, you need some very good Winter tires if you want to use your car for basic transportation. All season might work in light winter driving, but if you get anything close to 4" and more, you'll be waiting for a tow truck.

As for the Honda CRV, sorry cant buy that at all.

 

Not a Honda CRV...Honda CRXsi ( pocket rocket)... Honda doesn't make them anymore...
Have any of you roadsters driven the si? The feel is similar to me ...

 

I've driven the SI. You have to get up really high in the rpm range to make any power. Mini S or JCW have the turbo working and bringing on the torque, which the SI doesn't have. The SI isn't a bad car, but it's still Japanese and needs rpm. Mini doesn't.

 

I have some sort of Firestone winter tires on my new-to-me set of rims and tires. They did pretty well today. The traction control kicked on a little bit in the slush but overall they handled the snow well. When it's time to replace these winter tires I'll definitely go with a much nicer and more advanced winter tire but these will do the trick until then. My summer tires are the standard Continental Summer tires that come on the 15" rims (non RF). I don't know that they're necessarily super aggressive but they have excellent grip, when the temperature is above 50, and I haven't hydroplaned once in the 40k miles that I've used them (I'm on my second set). I feel far more confident throwing my MINI into turns at relatively high speeds in my summer tires than I do in my winter tires.

 

OK, I think today I finally found my temperature limits for top-down motoring in regular work clothes (dress pants and shirt). It was a glorious sunny day this morning, and at the end of the driveway the car showed 25 degrees, so on went the hat and gloves and down went the roof. I guess I hadn't waited long enough for the temperature readout to stabilize, because by the time I got to town a mile later it showed 20 degrees. I put up with it for 6 or 7 miles, but when I stopped for gas I declared defeat and put the roof back up.

I think If I'd had jeans on, and a sweatshirt or sweater under my jacket I would have been OK, but thin pants and a cotton shirt plus my jacket weren't enough...