Josh Wardell’s MINI Cooper S

This week I swapped out my summer tires for my new snow tires. Snow is already starting to fall in New England and I will soon be making trips north to go skiing. I barely survived last year’s blizzard conditions driving on the original all-seasons, and I don’t want to experience that again. I look forward to battling the snow this year with the right tires.

My Yokohama AVS-ES100’s served me well for the summer. Several months ago, I bought a slightly used set of MINI R81 7-hole white 15″ rims off of eBay. I then ordered snow tires. I was close to purchasing the Pirelli Winter Carving tires for $300, but instead decided to instead get Nokian Hakkapeliitta 2’s for $400 which are known to be one of the ultimate snow tires.

There is quite a difference going from 16 to 15-inch; road noise is much quieter. However, the big snow treads now make a truck-like sound, that I kind of enjoy. Steering is more spongey, and traction of course is not nearly as good as the W-rated Yokos, but the soft rubber’s traction drops off drastically in low temperatures (as I learned at last week’s autocross) so even without snow it is a good idea to do the switch to winter tires now.

After removing the summer wheels, I cleaned them inside and out, then coated all the rubber with Aerospace 303 for protection. I then placed them in TireTotes for storage in my basement, except for one which will go in my Bag Lady wheel bag as a spare tire for trips.