AS3+ Snow Test
#1
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St. Jude Donor '13
AS3+ Snow Test
Normally, we swap the AS3+ wheels & runflat tires onto the car (2017 Z51 A8) in Fall for cooler temperatures, then stop driving it when the salt hits the roads here in northern Illinois. Leave it in the garage until mid-January, when we make a dash to Arizona for some better weather, then home in April. Both years, we've experienced temperatures from -12'F to +90'F, the tires performed very well but we've not encountered any snow. Until today. We took one of the Toyotas (new Michelin AS but not same model) to church because it was snowing, by the time we got home we and everyone else were sliding around everywhere and some were in the ditch, the plows are probably put away until Fall.
So I decided to "take one for the team" and see how the C7 AS3+ performed in our driveway.
The first 60' of the driveway is flat, then another 100' to the street and increasing slope from 0' to 6' up by the street, which is pretty significant.
The snow is heavy and wet, averaging 3 1/2". Because the driveway was warm yesterday, there has been some slight melting & refreezing on the pavement under the snow.
The tires have about 18k miles of mixed highway and twisty driving; 7/32" tread remaining, that extrapolates to about 48k miles if I run them down to 2/32 (which I wouldn't do on a winter tire). I left the car in Tour instead of Weather, because I wanted to test the tires instead of the nannies. But I was very gentle on the gas.
You can see the tracks from the Toyota in our driveway I but I avoided them and stayed in fresh snow except to cross at a 90' angle.
Results (drum roll....)
I was able to back out of the garage onto the flat area, and accelerate gently with no wheel spin.
Heading up the slope, I got a little wheelspin in the steepest section but made it to the street without drama. Did this test twice.
On the third run, I stopped in the area where the slope is about 5'. When I went to go forward again up the slope, the rear wheels started spinning as soon as I took my foot off the brake, before I could even touch the gas. Tried again, same thing. So I backed down and called it a day.
The first picture below is after a surprise snowstorm in central Illinois on our way to Florida, the C6 had Goodyear AS runflats and we made it out of the unplowed lot, barely.
The second picture is from today's fun, no snow on the C7 because it was in the garage.
Hope this helps someone!
So I decided to "take one for the team" and see how the C7 AS3+ performed in our driveway.
The first 60' of the driveway is flat, then another 100' to the street and increasing slope from 0' to 6' up by the street, which is pretty significant.
The snow is heavy and wet, averaging 3 1/2". Because the driveway was warm yesterday, there has been some slight melting & refreezing on the pavement under the snow.
The tires have about 18k miles of mixed highway and twisty driving; 7/32" tread remaining, that extrapolates to about 48k miles if I run them down to 2/32 (which I wouldn't do on a winter tire). I left the car in Tour instead of Weather, because I wanted to test the tires instead of the nannies. But I was very gentle on the gas.
You can see the tracks from the Toyota in our driveway I but I avoided them and stayed in fresh snow except to cross at a 90' angle.
Results (drum roll....)
I was able to back out of the garage onto the flat area, and accelerate gently with no wheel spin.
Heading up the slope, I got a little wheelspin in the steepest section but made it to the street without drama. Did this test twice.
On the third run, I stopped in the area where the slope is about 5'. When I went to go forward again up the slope, the rear wheels started spinning as soon as I took my foot off the brake, before I could even touch the gas. Tried again, same thing. So I backed down and called it a day.
The first picture below is after a surprise snowstorm in central Illinois on our way to Florida, the C6 had Goodyear AS runflats and we made it out of the unplowed lot, barely.
The second picture is from today's fun, no snow on the C7 because it was in the garage.
Hope this helps someone!
Last edited by Gearhead Jim; 04-14-2019 at 03:26 PM.
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#3
Burning Brakes
Yesterday we said farewell to winter in NJ. The ceremonial snow blower gas burn-off and the switch from AS/3 to PSS...
Glad your test went well, it’s back to the stickies around here. This may be the final go round for my PSS tires. While the rears are new (last June) the fronts are originals from 2016. If I split the mileage down the middle each set has about 18k, and the AS/3’s have at least 18k left.
A transition shot from yesterday...PSS in front, AS3+ in back...
Bye-bye winter...
Glad your test went well, it’s back to the stickies around here. This may be the final go round for my PSS tires. While the rears are new (last June) the fronts are originals from 2016. If I split the mileage down the middle each set has about 18k, and the AS/3’s have at least 18k left.
A transition shot from yesterday...PSS in front, AS3+ in back...
Bye-bye winter...
#4
Race Director
I just sold off my winter wheels and pirelli snow tires last week. I decided to just run michelin as3 plus on my 19/20 z51 rims...
i daily my corvettes and for years i was running high performance tires without snow tires. These AS 3 s are better than what I had before i picked up a set of snow tires..
if it smows really bad ill just head home early...before it gets too deep etc..
i enjoyed your insights.
i daily my corvettes and for years i was running high performance tires without snow tires. These AS 3 s are better than what I had before i picked up a set of snow tires..
if it smows really bad ill just head home early...before it gets too deep etc..
i enjoyed your insights.
#5
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St. Jude Donor '15-'16,'18
Nice review. I agree and run all seasons year round. For the street they perform fine. On the track, not so much.
#6
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Thanks for the review of the A/S tires. I'd say they did pretty well in the snow.
#7
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Don’t some of you folks read the info. He said they stunk getting traction & he never left his long driveway/road, because of that he pulled back in the garage & “called it a day “.
#8
try pirelli winter tires next fall. good for Colorado blizzards. on mountain highways. your mileage may vary on flatlander driveways.
2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray: Driving in a Blizzard
2014 Chevy Corvette Stingray: Driving in a Blizzard
#9
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St. Jude Donor '13
Actually, I said the car was able to accelerate on level ground in 3 1/2” of wet slippery snow. Twice. And once it was moving, it continued up the increasing slope. From experience, I can tell you that on the stock PSS it wouldn’t have gone anywhere at all, we might have had to push it back into the garage by hand.
Even our Toyota on new AS tires was slippin' and slidin' to get up the driveway slope in that snow.
I didn’t take it out into the street because traction was so bad I had worried about getting home at all even in the Toyota, and I try to avoid driving the C7 in salt.
Last edited by Gearhead Jim; 04-15-2019 at 11:54 AM.
#11
Pro
I got caught in a September snow storm on a mountain pass in Utah. The road had an inch or two of snow on it. This was with the PSS tires, at about 90% wear. Weather mode, white knuckles, and very slow speeds (about 30 mph) got me through. The experience of four winters in college near Lake Superior where the winters average 200" of snow driving in old heavy rear wheel drive cars with old tech (early 80's) tires didn't hurt. I had a big line of semi trucks stacked up behind me. I will be upgrading to the A/S 3+ though.