Irish 4.2

I've been holding back on providing my experience with the LM-22s due to the general lack of snow in the Chicago area this year, but decided after getting a chance to drive in some snow late Sat. that I better say something now before I start talking about their Summer performance!

The best thing I can say about these tires (which really is a compliment) is that they perform like a 225/55R16 tire vs. my 255/40R17 ContiSports. The dry and wet handling is very good and they perform very similar to the 55 series tires I had on my A4. They are "softer" than the 255/40R17s, as expected, and they do have more sidewall flex when cornering. This nets out to great performance for a snow and ice tire. The LM-22s do have a "grippy" feel to them due to the nice thick and soft tread blocks in the tread design. So, I have a tire that works great for the winter when you do have to back off on the aggressive driving a bit while the roads heave and pothole themselves to death around here which is the whole reason why I went "skinner and taller" to 225/55R16s in the first place. I'm not giving up a whole lot compared to the ContiSports. By the way, they are no louder than the ContiSports, too, from what I can tell.

My brief snow experience the other night was that there was "no snow" on the road. We only got an inch or so, so I wasn't dealing with deep snow, but the tires gripped through to the road quite well. The stopping and cornering grip was great. I ran my Dunlop SP9000s through the winter the last 2 years I had my A4 and they were passable at best only due to having a quattro car. You could go forward just fine, but stopping and corner would get pretty dicey at times. The LM-22s are like moving from ice skates to snow shoes.

One other feature worth mentioning is that the tires have "flange protection" as Dunlop calls it. The tire protrudes out from the wheel rim a bit to protect it. The tire will get scrubbed, not the edge of your nice expensive wheels. Since winter is carwash time, it's nice insurance from the banging of the tire scrubber they use at my favorite carwash. I'm using AT Italia S5 wheels which makes a nice winter setup for my 4.2.

So, my first real experience with snow tires is that you can get a tire that will keep you happy through the winter until it's time for the "beefy rubber" to go back on the car in the Spring.

[Have noticed several Acura TL-S Types in the parking lot using these tires, too.]

Brent 2.7T

I also run the Blizzaks on my 2.7T here in Colorado. Have driven is some pretty good snow storms and I must say I am impressed.

Very nice.

tgcrun

Put a set on my wife's BMW 330ci conv. a few weeks ago. We had 6 inches of snow last weekend and had no trouble getting around. In fact, I had to drive about 10 miles to my son's indoor soccer game before the roads were cleared. Since I hadn't ordered snows for my S6 yet, I left it in the driveway and took the Bimmer (learned the hard way that the S6 won't stop in the snow the week before). Ordered the LM-22s with Italia wheels this week for the S6.

Irish 4.2

If they work that well on a RWD 3-Series, then they should work even better with Quattro power. I assume the S6 came with ContiSports....