[Thr]

Sorry that this is so long. Jump to bottow if you don't bother reading. And sorry for the crappy pics, just to give you some idea. The other car is our E70 X5M, proper snow mobile also.

I finally got my new Nokian R2 winter tires two days ago. I've had my i8 since 2/15, so I got the chance to drive it in real winter conditions (lots of snow, ice and wet ice) for about 2 months before changing to summer tires. The only option then was to buy Bridgestone Blizzak LM-32 tires (215 front, 245 back, 625 wheels), which I knew were made to central european conditions, not to nordic winter. But I didn't want to put my new baby straight away to garage for 2-3 months. This winter took abnormally long to come to southern Finland, but it's finally here.

Like Pitkis wrote it has been up to -27C conditions, and now lots of snow. I only have cold garage, but I can keep the car plugged at home. Unfortunately I don't have the option to charge at work. So have to drive it in sport mode to charge the battery if I wan't to make sure that I have enough juice to heat the i8 at work before leaving home.

I have had couple of problems with the car during these wintery conditions. When it was -27C the battery and e-drive worked fine (when preheated and also not), but I had two times that the combustion engine wouldn't start. Both times when I cut the power and started again the three sylinder started and after that no worries. Probably because of cold engine and oils. And when extremely cold the car wouldn't recharge the batteries while driving, even when the car was preheated, driving with sport mode, constant speed on the highway, and battery half charged.

And this winter I have had the Blizzaks for about 3 months now. I have 24000 km combined now with the car. The summer tires were so worn out, that I changed to winter tires a little earlier than otherwise needed. Like all of us know the biggest problem with the car is tires, especially fronts, and their lack of grip. This can be noticed for example accelerating from a dry ramp to a highway. There is just too much understeer. And this multiplies with the Blizzaks. And this has caused some scary moments. Last winter two times front end just washed away suddenly while driving just 50 km/h to a slippery corner. Fortunately no-one was coming the other way, because I glided to the other lane and towards the barrier. And fortunately the car found some grip just before the barrier and saved me from accident. Builds trust!

The same has continued while driving with the Blizzaks even when moderately slippery. It's a scary feeling and annoying to drive a car if you can't rely on the tires to keep grip all the time. At every T-junction when accelerating and turning the front first understeers and after that the back end steps out (nice when you wan't it). On highway i8 jigled so that I thought some of the wheels was loose, but wasn't. That's why I wrote that my 997 4S was superior winter mobile. It had Nokian 7 studded tires, 245 and 295 width, and was like a train on rails despite the weather. It never jumped on me during 3 winters. The tires played a major role, but also NA engine. It was so easy to modulate the gas even when icy, and like usually with P-cars you feel everything that the car is doing. With i8 you can't. I have driven couple of 997 turbos, but I never liked them because of the power delivery. Nothing, nothing, and then whoosh. Thats why Kip1 probably had problems with it?

Then, couple of days ago, got the Nokian R2s. 215 front, 245 back, 625 wheels. And WOW! What a transformation. The grip is superior while accelerating, braking and turning. The car feels like it should be. It isn't constantly shufling power front to back, which was also so f* annoying. And now I can floor the pedal and the car just finds grip, no matter if the road is snowy or icy. And understeer is almost gone at junctions.

Don't get me wrong, Blizzaks are excellent if you are living in for example GB or central europe or Malibu, but I would't recommend them to anyone who is really driving in nordic conditions, Canada or northern USA. They worked fine as summer tires, and not worse than the original summer tires, and good when it was just cold (+5 - -10C). Like all of you I need better summer tires when the snow melts, and I probably keep Blizzaks as intermediate tires. R2s are designed to work best when it's minus degrees, and are probably going to be/feel soft when it's plus degrees.

Hopefully this helps someone.

Blizzak = great summer tire and good central european winter tire
Nokian R2 = for nordic winter and f.ex. Canada

[Johan6961]

Thanks for the useful tips!
Anyone knows what the price for the rims for winter tires might be know?
(I guess you still cant use the summer wheels for winter tyres?)

When I checked the price last winter for complete winter wheels from BMW it was out of this world...

[kip1]

Does Pitkis also have 215/245 or 215/215 like I have on the winter tyres?
Only once down a slippery ramp didI have a scary moment so far. The only annoying thing is that when its slippery, the ICE sometimes starts suddenly giving a small push, in situations I wouldnt like it when its very slippery. Nice you are enjoying the new Nokian winter tyres!

[kip1]

Had a loaner 520 xdrive touring with relatively new Nokian R2 and to my surprise they were not good. The back end slid the whole way up the hilly curve I drive home, no problem with i8 Bridgestone or X5 w/Hakka 8 tyres. I was ready to tske the leap to Nokia R2, but now I am not sure anymore. My friend has a Teslabwith R2s and is very happy. Maybe the tourings back end is too light?

[shivaswrath]

Blizzaks are winter tires here in the states, but agree not the best out there, just descent enough to manage a little snow...

[shawnhayes]

Having used the Blizzaks here in Virginia during the recent 12" snowmagedon, the tires did reasonably well until the vehicle was high centered in deep snow.

Otherwise, they did fairly well. Not perfect. I wouldn't want them for full on deep snow all the time, but for November to February usage in Virginia, decent.

Shawn