winter tyres on mx5

[sawman]

Guys, I already posted in GG but then I remembered this board and thought I may get a more measured response, heres what I said:

Have been thinking about a winter snotter to take the strain off the morgan over winter. So having spent a while looking at worthy but dull hatches, saloons and estates, i keep finding myself in the mazda section of the classifieds.

I have had an mx5 before and once i had replaced the 'stat the heater worked well and I enjoyed using it all through the year, except when it snowed when it had less traction than a slippery thing on a slide. Its all a few years ago now and I cant remember whether the snow came before I had swapped out the japanese ditchfinders that came on the car (it was a eunos import)

Has anyone had better experience of snowy traction issues, or of using winter tyres on one of these???

[sawman]

piefacemate said:

N There's not much weight over the back of an MX5 and they're often slightly overtyred, not a good combination in the slippy stuff.

Yes that was my previous experience, I'm interested to kow if winter tyres would help resolve things, perhaps with a sack of cement in the boot

[sawman]

ironictwist said:

sawman said:

piefacemate said:

N There's not much weight over the back of an MX5 and they're often slightly overtyred, not a good combination in the slippy stuff.

Yes that was my previous experience, I'm interested to kow if winter tyres would help resolve things, perhaps with a sack of cement in the boot

I was planning to do this actually...Shall be buying a set of Nokians for the '5 in the coming fortnight...I used a set on my XJ last year & they made it unstoppable. Despite the '5 being a completely different type of car, I hope it helps it just as much when the conditions really get nasty

Will keep updating

waiting with bated breath.....

theres a nice red mk1 for sale near me, seems reasonable condition for age even has dual 'zorts

[sawman]

ironictwist said:

Munter said:

ironictwist said:

Munter said:

71notout said:

Where are you guys geting your Nokians from?

And are you keeping 195/50/15 or going for slightly slimmer, higher sidewall ratio?

I put the order in with mytyres. I've gone for a 175/65 14 as per the manual recommendation for "snow tyres". Plus there's a lot more choice in that size than in 185/60 14.

The MX5 manual suggests 175/65/14? :O

No really it does!

Here ya go from my MK1 manual.

I had no clue at all! Thanks for that Munter...I'm now pondering as to whether I should go for the recommended size in the manual, or go for the same size tyres that I already have.

Hmmm?! What to do!

as far as i understand, winter tyres tend to worn a little narrower than summer tyres, certainly thats wha the canadians do, heres a link. apparently you can swap a 235 summer tyre for a 195 winter
linky