Snow chains/tyres

[Toots]

I am due to go to the alps soon and was wandering if any one has any infomation on driving in the snow .

Do I need snow chains or snow tyres and how good are the standard tyres

[Alan]

as snow tires with the awd. The awd won't help when the tire compound gets rock hard in cold weather. The standard tires on the RS6 are a soft compound to improve traction - below 0 C they lose their effectiveness, even if there is no snow.

[oregonbob]

NOTHING your car does is done without tires. The most powerful engines, strongest brakes, tightest suspension are all useless without proper tires.

I agree with Alan. At about 40 degrees farenheit, the compound on performance tires rapidly loses elasticity. The sudden loss of elasticity can catch you off guard with unexpected consequences.

I firmly believe in two sets of tires: winter and summer, mainly due to ambient temperatures. If you live where it snows or ices, that's an additional reason for winter tires.

I question - but do NOT know - whether chains will fit on an RS6. But, I'd sure invest in a set of winter tires before risking my $90,000 car on chains.

Bob

[JAXRS6]

I think the owner's manual has info re chains. OK on front but not rear IIRC. (2:30 a.m. here so I'm too lazy to verify, going to bed.)

[taipan]

Hi Toots,

Don't bother with the hassle of snow chains -supposing it's available for the RS6-.

Go straight to a set of winter tires (aka M+S or Mud + Snow tires) such as Michelin Pilot Alpin (just an example) and simply get used to switch from Winter to Summer set and back every April & October for 2hours and 60€ work.

I've done it for 5 years with the Passat 4motion. There's absolute no better way to go through the winter (top speed is still 210km/h) , and you simply can't beat the traction/braking of a winter tire when the road get slippery, not to mention icy or snowy.
I would even argue that a winter tire performs better under heavy rain conditions than an all-year-round tire (say a Pilot Alpin vs a Pilot Sport).

If you drive reasonnably, a winter set will do 20,000km easily and last for 2-3 seasons. My last did 30,000km.

Here's a longer post about winter tires (includes a test of 7 winter tires):
http://www.rs6.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=321&highlight=alpin

To summarize : probably the smartest way to spend 1000€ for performance/safety upgrade on your 90 000€ baby.

Eric

[Kiwi RS6]

Thanks for the info Alan. I've seen EVO mag reports of RS6's losing traction driving down the Alps.

My A6 V8 performs brilliantly on ice, so I couldn't understand why the RS6 didn't. Now I do.

I'm still waiting for my RS6 - 2 - 3 weeks away now

In North Island in NZ, normal temps are 5 - 30 Deg C. However the occasional trip to the ski field means temps down to -10 Deg C may be encountered.

Does anyone know of any high performance tyres that would cover the range of -10 C to 30 Deg C or am I going to need two sets of tyres ?

[Rhaps]

Good tires are the cheapest incurance you can have, so I would recommend you to get some good snowtires. Here in Norway we use studed tires, but I don't know if that's legal in central europe? About the chains, only on the front wheels on quattro.

[Erik]

I just had a trip up to Nordkapp, the end of nothen Europe, and back. Some 4500 km... :eek:
I use 17" Pirelli studded winter tires and they're great.
Studded is perhaps a bit over the top, but so called friction tires will do the job almost as good.

The high performance tires used on modern cars are absolutely dangerous to use when it gets slippery/freezing. It's like an ice-hockey puck, except it's your 85.000 dollar car thats flying around. No kidding, I've tried and survived!

[Rhaps]

Yeah, I agree with you, IMO snow tires are bether than studed on all surfaces, exept those days when you drive wet ice, at those conitions you'd want studed. The best studed tyres are Hakkepalliita 2 (IMO at least), haven't tried the new Hakkepalliita 4, but I guess Nokian make progress, so they are probably even better.

How was your tripp to Nordkapp Eirk? Did you need the studed tires yet? I guess I have to put on the winter tires this week, no more 18" RS4 rims for 6 months :vsad2:

[Erik]

Originally posted by Rhaps
How was your tripp to Nordkapp Eirk? Did you need the studed tires yet? I guess I have to put on the winter tires this week, no more 18" RS4 rims for 6 months :vsad2:

We had a nice time. Almost no traffic, and I mean NO traffic.
I was able to go very fast and still safe. Did 90 km/h in average, not bad for some 45 hours of driving. And Norway, not easy to drive fast there. The biggest danger is wild animals. Almost hit bambi...but the reindeers were usually away from the roads.

There was almost no need for winter tires, but the conditions can change very quick up there. From sunshine into snow storm in a few hours.