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When I was a young lad---- That was a long time ago and the only 'snow' tyres I could get for my Mini Clubman Estate (I got through three of those as each one rusted away) were the tyres used in Mini Grasstrack racing - Uniband Rally Remoulds! They were, however, brilliant in snow and after a back-end slide on ice in a Fiesta with Summer tyres a few Winters ago, I'm decided to always use the correct tyres in Winter. My experience of today's Winter tyres is - - Vredestein Snowtrack - Brilliant on snow and ice; Vredestein Quatrac 3 - Very good in snow, good on ice, but not brilliant. Quatracs really are a good choice for all-year-round use but may let you down on an icy hill. My local tyre-fitter is enthusiastic about Kleber Quadraxers, which he says are brilliant in snow.
My Mk6 Fiesta came fitted with 15" wheels and 50-profile tyres, whereas the pre-2006 model was fitted with 14" wheels and 65-profile tyres. A couple of the latest Mk7 Fiesta models are fitted with the 14" wheels so as to use less fuel. Fitting 14" wheels and 175/65 R14 snow tyres gives me a much more comfortable ride, the car 'drives' better with lower fuel consumption and I'm loathe to go back to the harder ride of 195/50 R15 tyres! Finding 14" Fiesta wheels in scrap yards was hard work and I got sold some very rusty wheels, which were then stolen by the metal thieves whilst I was wire-brushing them at the back of the house! But this Winter, I've found a couple of alloy-wheel suppliers who are offering to supply a full set of steel wheels ready fitted with Winter tyres to fit most cars. The wheels are made in Germany by KFZ (there's a YouTube video of the factory) and you get a choice of tyres. Here's two that I've found---
www.wheelbasealloys.com/14_Inch_Steel_Wheels_for_F...5
www.coordsport.com/general-news/winter-steel-wheel...m
Anyway, my Fiesta died before Christmas with a broken crankshaft pulley and the one I ordered off e-Bay has just been delivered and isn't the right one (the picture in the advert was the correct one with 'copyright Bilstein' on it, but the one delivered, besides being the wrong one, had no maker's name and was in an unmarked box) and at 150K miles, will a new pulley resurect the old thing? Looks like I'll miss the snow forecast for next week, anyway!
Happy New Year to all...
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