crester

Winter is coming and I'm looking at winter wheel packages for my TT-RS. For those of you that are driving your TT-RS in winter... are you using (or going to us) 19" or 18" winter tires? 18" winter wheels and tires are cheaper and there's a lot more options for 18" winter TIRES. People will also say the thicker sidewall of an 18" wheel will be better in the snow.

However my car has 20" summers and I think visually going from 20" to 18" will be too much of a visual change for my car. Also, while we do get winter storms, the majority of the time streets are relatively dry. So I would be missing out on the performance of the car if I used 18" during the 85% of days when there is no snow storm.

So what size winter tires are you guys going to use?

ourlee

PKT

For my winter setup I have 19" wheels with 245 wide Michelin pilot sport AS3+. They have 90% of the performance as the stock Pzero tires, wet or dry regardless of temperature. They perform "okay" on ice if you go < 30mph, performs well in snow. If the snow is deep enough to overwhelm the car, all the shops around me will be closed anyway.

With this combo I don't feel a huge loss of character with the car when I am swapping for the cold season.

StraySheep

I suggest go with 19" because of the big brembos up front.

I have ready in another thread that someone went with 18" on TTRS and the gap between the front caliper and inside of wheel barrel is very small that small rocks can get caught in between and cause scratches and scraps.

wv_tts

I went with 17x8 wheels and 245/45R17 WS80s. I love the 20" summer rim look, but I honestly kind of like the black wheel finish, larger side wall, and chunkier tire look too. As such, I don't mind swapping the aesthetic twice a year.

disclaimers - 1) I have a TTS - not sure if the front calipers are the same dimension or larger on the RS, 2) I live in MA and go skiing in VT, NH, and ME frequently, so I was willing to sacrifice dry road performance for snow/ice/pothole performance (hence dropping to 17")

sorry the image is a little over exposed.

PKT

They are larger on the RS. Great for performance, bad for aftermarket wheel choices.