MrBear
New member
After 2 seasons on the set of Dunlop SP Winter Sports 3Ds I had to replace them. For the last two summers I have been running Nitto NT05s and have been quite happy with the tire and its performance, so I opted to give Nitto a shot on the their winter tires. I purchased there SN2 winter tire in 225/45/17. The tread is deep and the sipes aplenty. The tire has a main center rib for some added stability, but it does still like to wander on roads that are grooved. I've had them on now for 2 weeks and my initial review is that you are going to see a noticeable reduction in dry and wet traction. Doing some spirited driving gives you the impression of driving on Jell-o, steering response is slow and comes with a bit of delay, to an unaccustomed driver this could be an unnerving experience. Impressions in the wet is that you can easily overcome the adhesion limits of the tire, for someone who may be inexperienced in car control this may pose a bit of an issue. As far as hydroplaning is concerned the tire stays firmly planted there. I got the opportunity to run them in about a 3" mix of snow and ice last weekend that resulted in over 400 crashes around the Twin Cities area. The tires definitely shined in these conditions, grip was high enough to allow for good modulation of the brakes before tripping the ABS and the throttle could be applied quite aggressively before the tires gave into spinning. The tires instilled confidence in cornering through the snow and also very controllable for sliding the occasional corner at speed.
In direct comparison to the Dunlops the Nittos give up a lot of dry performance that the SP Winters had better maintained. I feel the Nittos perform slightly better in the snow then the SP Winters did and this is likely due to their more traditional non-directional tread pattern. I'll update more as the tire wears, because my experience with winter tires has been the first half of the tread compound is phenomenal in the snow and the second half leaves much to be desired. That was my experience on the Dunlops and there was a significant difference between the first part and second part of the compound. The SP Winters became very similar to an all-season tire in their second half and had very diminished traction levels in the snow. I was hoping to get a hold of the Nitto SN1s for a more direct comparison, but quantity of the tire was low around the country and I'd have had to wait for several weeks to get a complete set.
Hopefully this is useful for anyone looking at winter tires.
In direct comparison to the Dunlops the Nittos give up a lot of dry performance that the SP Winters had better maintained. I feel the Nittos perform slightly better in the snow then the SP Winters did and this is likely due to their more traditional non-directional tread pattern. I'll update more as the tire wears, because my experience with winter tires has been the first half of the tread compound is phenomenal in the snow and the second half leaves much to be desired. That was my experience on the Dunlops and there was a significant difference between the first part and second part of the compound. The SP Winters became very similar to an all-season tire in their second half and had very diminished traction levels in the snow. I was hoping to get a hold of the Nitto SN1s for a more direct comparison, but quantity of the tire was low around the country and I'd have had to wait for several weeks to get a complete set.
Hopefully this is useful for anyone looking at winter tires.
