UPDATE: read my review on these tires here

I put about 150mi on my new tires earlier this week in the dry and wet to feel them out. In the wet they resist dynamic hydroplaning much better than my summer tires. On dry pavement they work like I would expect any good snow tires to work — poorly. Changing my driving style so as not to destroy them has been difficult, but I’m getting used to it.

Thursday night we finally got some winter weather in the form of a couple inches of snowfall. With barely a break-in and the ice compound not yet emerged, I went to play on backroads for several hours after normal people were soundly asleep (and racked up nearly a hundred miles in the process). Snow traction is very good. They shine at acceleration and braking, but do surprisingly well in cornering. The generous layer of medium-heavy wet snow on wet roads was absolutely no obstacle, and I came to retrace my tracks of hard-pack many times on the better roads. Drifts are predictable and controllable, with relative oodles of traction forgiveness. It took almost peak torque in second to get wheelspin, and they wouldn’t budge in third. On the trip home in freezing slush, traction was less though still confidence-inspiring. It’s just as well that there was no sheeted ice because it would be unfair to judge these before their real magic comes out to play. With any luck there will be ice racing soon to make my review complete.

Technorati : Green Diamond, Icelander, snow tires, tire review