Winter MINI drivin!

[arabinow]

Well folks it is snowing like a banshee out here in TORONTO.

I have not put winter tires on my mini so I thought I would take it out for a few minutes and see how it faired.

Here are the results. PLease note I am driving on 16" 5 spoke Dunlop sport 3000 dsst tires.


Slushy salted road.. tires performed amazingly well wiht car.. the asc light comes on once in a while to keep wheels from spiinning and you can here the abs (its very noisey) but a very confident ride! braking was excellent.

SNow covered parking lot.. forget it .. got kinda stuck had to turn asc off to spin my way 360 to get back out.

bottom line

Its ok if you can wait till roads are fairly clear.. if you are stuck driving in bad winter conditions get winter tires.

Adam

[HarryHBMCC]

My Dunlop WinterSports are excellent here in Guelph, the ASC+T works great when I push the snows past their limit, and the heated seats, wiper nozzles and mirrors are also wonderful for thawing out car and body parts. It is a very good winter car IMO.

Harry

[paulmon]

Quote:

Originally posted by HarryIndiBlue
My Dunlop WinterSports are excellent here in Guelph, the ASC+T works great when I push the snows past their limit, and the heated seats, wiper nozzles and mirrors are also wonderful for thawing out car and body parts. It is a very good winter car IMO.

Harry

As I mention to you in a PM Harry, the DSC is fantastic. The only problem with the MINI as a winter car is clearance. It's quite low and could easily get itself "beached."

One ***** of the snow are those damn salt trucks. I had to pass two on my way from Ajax to Mississauga last night. My MCS got absolutely pelted with salt stones. No chips, at least that I can find, but the sound of "ting, ting, ting" X 100 made me cringe.

Paul

[arabinow]

Paul Mon you got witner tires on your S?

or you running the pirelli all season 17"?

Adam

[tip]

I traded mY Ford Explorer in for my mini. I was quite surprised at how the mini performed in the snow today. I like how the asc+t kicked in when the wheel started to spin. This is the first car I have had with heated seats, I will never buy another car unless they are apart of the package.

Charles

[paulmon]

Quote:

Originally posted by arabinow
Paul Mon you got witner tires on your S?

or you running the pirelli all season 17"?

Adam

I've got 15" Yokohama AVS Winters on Enkei wheels.

Why does everyone think the Pirelli are all season? I believe tire rack used to list them as all season but now lists them as "Ultra High Performance Tires." Anyone know what Pirelli considers them? I specified performance summers when I ordered the sport package. I wish I had gotten the Dunlop SP Sport 9000s. Perhaps if Pirelli considers these tires All-Season then I have a way to force MINI to give me the Dunlops. I was under the impression that the GoodYear are all season the Pirelli and Dunlop are Summer tires.

Paul

[tip]

Can you get run-flat winter tires. The tires on the car now are the eagle nct are these all season or summer tires?

Charles.

[paulmon]

Quote:

Originally posted by tip
Can you get run-flat winter tires. The tires on the car now are the eagle nct are these all season or summer tires?

Charles.

Those are all season I believe. Yes, you can get Winter Run Flats. Only Dunlop makes them, 16" Dunlop M3s, $200cdn each.

Paul

[HarryHBMCC]

The Goodyear Eagle NCT 5s are NOT all-season, they are performance summer only, though I'd argue the same of the Dunlop 5000s and 3000s that also come on Cooper 16" wheels.

The Dunlop SP WinterSport M3 DSSTs that I have ARE runflats. If you haven't noticed, I like them quite a bit.

Paul, I too was worried about the ground clearance but today an accidental foray into a construction zone (closed road) full of mud and snow makes me think we'll be OK. Today was the Santa Claus Parade in Guelph and because of that, many roads were 'closed' for the parade and for street parking. After I walked a fair distance to pick up the MINI to go back and get my wife and son I went right instead of left as it was hard to fight against traffic to get back into downtown so I thought I'd go around. I hit a 'road closed' sign but didn't think anything of it with all the closed roads around for the parade. Well, this one was REALLY closed with deep ruts, huge holes, etc. full of snow and mud; in fact, there was no pavement, just snow and mud. The Dunlops made it through fine and but for a little bit of mud on the black plastic bits on the front of the car and a bit of mud splattered up by the wheels, my car was fine! I didn't hear it hit anything or bottom out once. Was I just lucky? Maybe but I don't think the clearance is quite as low as we think it is -- the thing is the clearance is lowest AROUND the wheels which also tend to have the best clearance. The middle of the car seems to clear just fine.

Harry

[arabinow]

Harry

did you get your winter wheels from your dealer in waterloo? I am going to dog obedience classes just outside of guelph and thought a quick trip to waterloo may not hurt. How much were they??

thanks
Adam

[GordonD]

Quote:

Originally posted by arabinow
Harry

did you get your winter wheels from your dealer in waterloo? I am going to dog obedience classes just outside of guelph and thought a quick trip to waterloo may not hurt. How much were they??

thanks
Adam

If you are looking for tires around Toronto you might try Andrew at Wheel & Tire Zone 1170 Eglinton E in Mississauga. He has a red MCS and I met up with him at a track day at Mosport. Lots of good tire deals and he knows what he is talking about.

for the record i am running Pirelli W210 205/60/15 on alloy wheels and had a good time in the last 24 hours. as noted deep snow can be intersting but turning off the CS until i got moving seemed to work. DCS is kind of weird as it fashes all of the time when i am pulling away in rain or snow but hardly ever shows up once I am moving. Does the s have that much torque?

[arabinow]

its not a matter of torque if the wheels start to slip in any fashion the asc + t or dcs will kick in. If you notice even when you gun the accelerator the cars wheels never spin.

I find it nice.. as it keeps you in control but as I went to a deserted parking lot yesterday to try to practice in the snow I almost got stuck and had to turn the asc off to get out


actually without asc on I was able to spin the car 360 degrees. quite fun.. except I had to watch out for the light post behind me
hehe


Adam

[GordonD]

seems like alot of us went to play yesterday.

One thing that i did notice was the amount of snow that stuck to the front. I came off a side street and when I looked at the car it was completely covered - it is kept in a garage so this was not stuff that fell onto it. This making me wonder how the washers will handle a build up.

To arabinow - I know how the DCS works but it still surprises me how easy it lights up when you are just starting. Other owners have comented the same thing to me - its not a big deal just interesting

[HarryHBMCC]

Quote:

Originally posted by arabinow
Harry

did you get your winter wheels from your dealer in waterloo? I am going to dog obedience classes just outside of guelph and thought a quick trip to waterloo may not hurt. How much were they??

thanks
Adam

My dealer has a 15" package (steel 15"x5.5" wheels from MINI ONE with wheel covers) plus 175/65R15T Continental ContiWinterContract tires for $995, 5-spoke alloys with 195/55R16H Continental ContiWinterContract tires for $1595 or 5-spoke alloys with 195/55R16H Dunlop SP WinterSport M3 DSST (runflats) for $1995. They have some on display in the repair bay if you want to have a quick looksee. Dealer is on King St. pretty much across from the Contestoga Mall.

Harry

[GordonD]

Quote:

Originally posted by obehave
Your 3" is probably more than I'll see all year but I have to ask.

Do any of you have one of the aftermarket skids plates and do you think it helps. Do you think it'll have buildup icing problems?

What do you think the odds are of knocking the lower front grill out? It snaps in pretty lame as it is.

Just curious. I visit my brother in upstate New York and I was wondering how the Mini would do.

Go the skid plate on order - after following the thread on the poer steering cooling fan i figured it would be a good investment.

i don't think it wil build up any snow as it is angled up at the front and fits tight to the underside. As for the grill I guess if you try to bull through a snow bank you might knock it off