[Apial]

Well nearly as good as a 4x4 MINI.

Due to the adverse weather on Saturday night I nearly didn't get home. One of the local hills that is about a 1 in 10 nearly exceeded the MINIs grip on its ice and snow covered surface. Despite trying my best to avoid wheelspin the grip was not enough. With rocking steering wheel and spinning tyres I only just made it to the top.

Sunday morning I fitted a set of Michelin Pilot Alpins in the 195/55 R15 size on a spare set of MINI steels. More snow had fallen overnight, but it made no difference. The new setup flew up the hills with no wheelspin whatsoever.

On level roads covered in the white stuff wheelspin was only possible in 1st and 2nd gear with the pedal to the floor. I could not induce wheelspin in 3rd no matter how hard I tried.

A test of stopping ability 30-0mph gave a remarkable distance of 16 metres. Thats only 2 metres more than the Highway Code braking distance from 30mph! Yes, the ABS did chatter through the brake pedal . The stopping was sufficient to launch my mobile from its resting place on the passenger seat off on to the floor.

Cornering? Well I didn't have the nerve to corner at the insane speeds that these tyres are probably capable of. Just to say they felt stable with slight understeer that could be corrected with the accelerator pedal. They were in a different league to the originals abilities. Any MINI owners with ASC fitted, please let us know how your wheels spin if you fit a set of Alpins.

On the afore mentioned hill several cars had become stuck, including a Xantia and a Clio that struggled to make it 1/2 way. The MINI could do standing starts from 1/2 way up with judicious use of the accelerator and clutch, moving into the next gear up as soon as possible. To get past one car blocking the road I even had to put 2 wheels on the badly cut up verge. On an even steeper 1 in 8 with a hairpin bend, not a wheel slipped out of line.

The tyres achieve this grip by using 1000s of interlocking sipes cut into the tread and by using a soft high-silica compound that remains flexible at low temperatures.

Pleased? I am over the Moon! We country drivers never get to see a gritting lorry. We have to look after ourselves. If you live down remote narrow country lanes with hills aplenty, then these tyres will give you the confidence that normally you would only get if you bought a 4X4. Braking distance in the MINI would be even better.

[jtpryan]

I'm going to need a set of snow tires and wheels for the winter as I have the 17" performance set up now. Anybody have any leads as to a good set of inexpensive steel wheels and tires (good snow's, don't want to scrimp here) that will fit? Can I go with 16" for that time or wheel it screw up the speedo/tach settings? They will probably be on for 3-4 months here in NH.

[MINIAC]

Have you tried clicking above and doing a search for snow tires?

[chigh]

I bought a set of 16" MINI wheels with all season tires through the roadfly classified ads. Unless you are in a lot of deep snow, the Dunlop SP Sport 5000 tires which come on these stock wheels will be fine. (I had several sets on a Passat for six years). The narrower footprint will work better than wider tires in winter.

[jtpryan]

But didn't find any pointers to a good source for wheels. Or, for that matter, whether I can change wheel diameter to save money without screwing anything up.

Thanks for the tip on the Dunlop's. I do live on the top of a 500' driveway with a hard left turn at the bottom and a vertical climb beyond that. So I wanted to get a pretty aggressive, narrow tire. I have the performance tires on now. I tried TireRack, but only came up with alloy packages.

[MINIAC]

Probably a dead end, but have you tried calling your MINI dealer to see if they can order some of the 15" steel wheels fitted on the MINI One?

[PghArch]

I also did a bit of poking around about a month ago when we first placed our order. I seem to vaguelly recall someone mentioning that a snow tire package may be available from MINI? Haven't asked my dealer yet, if I recall it may have been one of the Canadian members who mentioned that.

Checked out tirerack and found some wheels and tires that seemed reasonable. Couldn't seem to get it to register them as a "package" though. Sure would be nice to get them shipped already mounted and balanced... Based on the reviews I'm leaning towards Arctic Alpins for around here. I'll likely end up driving the winter tires on dry pavement about 70% of the time so I don't want anything with too aggressive a tread, but with the Pittsburgh hills I want to avoid getting stranded as well.

[MiniMoke]

I use Tire Rack.

Here is the info for the MINI and S.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/Compar...peed_rating=ZR

[HarryHBMCC]

5.5x15" rims would fit too, on both the Cooper and the S, and can take 175/75R15, 185/65R15 or 195/60R15 tires giving you more (and cheaper) choices.

I'm getting a set of 15" steel wheels (hopefully some steel ONE wheels from the dealer along with a tire package and a mobility kit). If I have to choose the tires myself, I'm unsure of whether I want to go with Q rated 185/65R15 Michelin Arctic Alpins, H rated 195/60R15 Michelin Pilot Alpins, T rated 175/65R15 (or 185/65R15) Vredestein Snowtracs or H rated 185/65R15 Vredestein Wintracs.

Harry

[Apial]

The MINI Handbook says that only 175/65/15 may have snow chains fitted.A 16" tyre size is also mentioned that will take the snow chains also a 175 width.

I assume that the extra width of the snow chains will catch on the body work/suspension or brake lines. Or perhaps it is the larger radius of the other sizes?

Some snow chains have projections of upto 25mm on the inner face caused by connectors on the chain.

I have a set of Michelin Pilot Alpins in the 195/55/15 size and am wondering about fitting some chains that never protrude by more than 9mm. As some owners have fitted 215mm wide tyres and they have not reported any problems, it would seem that 195 tyres with 9mm extra width (213mm) should not foul anything. Also the radius of 195/55/15s is 13mm less than 175/65/15s, so an extra 9mm of chain should still not cause a problem.

Theory is fine, but trying it out is better. I have ordered a set of these 9mm chains to try them out. All is not lost if the experiment fails as I have another car that has exactly the same tyre size that definately will take this type of chain.

[Wentworth]

I know that tires have been discussed to death, but I wanted to ask if anyone has any experience/recommendations for winter tires on 15" Mini wheels? The snow will be falling soon, and I want to get something that will help my little Cooper blast through the snow and ice as easily as possible. If you've driven with snows on your Mini, or if you've used Mini sized snow tires on other cars, or if you just want to tell me about any other tire related information that would be fine.
Thanks,
Wentworth

[HarryHBMCC]

I think you can edit the title along with the rest of the post. Anyhow, I couldn't think of anything else that winter tiers could be but tires

I've never used winter tires before, I've always suffered with all-seasons. This year I have to get some and I'm still deciding. My dealer will have official MINI ONE steel wheels in which look like the only wheels one can get for the MINI around here. They'll have Continental ContiWinterContract 175/65R15T tires on them. I haven't heard much about these tires so another option would be to just buy the wheels and then put either Vredestein Snowtrac 175/65R15T tires on them or to upsize to 185/65R15 where you can get all kinds of tires like Blizzaks, Arctic Alpins, Hakka Qs/1s/NRWs, etc. etc. Some are going to 195/60R15 size so they can put some H rated tires on them (Nokian NRWs come T and H rated in 185/65R15). Next, you can also get 195/55R16 winter tires from the dealer, either Continentals or runflat Dunlop SP Wintersport M3s -- or you can get Blizzak WS-50s in that size too.

Too many choices! I want to get the Dunlop DSSTs for looks, handling and because they're runflats but I'm having a hard time convincing myself that they are worth the cost, plus there is a good chance that 4 years of salt will wreck the alloys they come on. There isn't much construction in the winter so I probably don't need runflats -- boy do I need them now, driving through contstruction sites every day pretty much since I got my Cooper... so far, so good. As for handling, once it does snow I'm not so worried about driving like I do now in a highly spirited fashion. And the ONE wheels don't look that bad, not as good as alloys but if I bust an alloy on a curb I'll be ****ed so I think I can get over the looks.

I think I'm getting the 15" wheels with the MINI ONE wheel covers with either the ContiWinterContracts if I just want to get them from the dealer with little hassle, Nokian Hakkas if I want to upsize and want to get my tires and wheels separately or Vredestein Snowtracs if I want the right size but don't want the Contis.

Whew! Am I tire obsessed right now? Yes, I am. Where is the self help group? What night do they meet?

Harry

[Silvercooper]

Hi Harry,

Do you know where I can see a picture of those ONE wheels?

I would like to see how they look like.

Thanks!

[HarryHBMCC]

I asked that earlier and was answered by a few folks. The thread below contains a picture of a MINI ONE with those wheels and the wheel covers and a link to an eBay auction which shows a wheel with no tire or wheel cover. I can't believe that auction ended at 20 UKP for a set of 4 wheels! It is going to cost me $90 CND$ each!

http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthrea...steel+w heels

Harry

[COOPERation]

Here are the steel wheels photochopped onto an MCS...coulda placed them alittle better...coulda, woulda next time...

[COOPERation]

...and btw, they're inexpensive enough, I may go for even more traction...I gotta stop doing this...

[Silvercooper]

Thanks guys for those great pictures!

$90CDN seems expensive for those wheels, I'll check how much my dealer is asking and let you know!

[HarryHBMCC]

It does seem expensive but so far I've had no luck with Canadian Tire or any independent tire shops -- so far none have said they can get wheels for my MINI.

Thats the reason why I'm still waffling on the tire packages. It is $995 for the 15" steel package with Continental T rated tires or $1995 for the 16" 5-star alloy package with Dunlop H rated runflats. $2000 is a lot but getting bigger wheels, alloys vs. steel, H rated runflats vs. 15" T rated deflators, all makes the runflats look like the better deal. Just a lot of money to plunk down on winter wheels...

Harry

[Silvercooper]

Quote:

Originally posted by HarryIndiBlue
Just a lot of money to plunk down on winter wheels...

Harry

Well said Harry!

[HarryHBMCC]

Especially when considering that it is nearly what I got as a trade-in value on my '95 Geo Metro when I bought my MINI!!! I will be buying 4 wheels and tires for the price of a car that ran OK for the most part... Now, admittedly it was partly due to the sometimes scary performance of the Metro in winter which prompted me to buy a new, heavier, more advanced car but it still seems like a strange 'trade'.

As I said, the best I've found on aftermarket wheels is a shop that says he doesn't know but he'll try fitting some if I bring the car in which doesn't inspire great confidence in their ability to get the offset right. I'm sure tire shops know about offsets but in an attempt to make a sale I wonder what he might put on? And he is charging $50 a wheel, not including covers. Canadian Tire is usually cheaper but they 'just said no' when I asked about wheels for my car.

Harry