If you expect terrible winters and deep snow, then yeah going down an inch in diameter and in width can help traction.

 

Just press sport+, you will have all the fun you need. Forget about 10 minutes of taking it easy. You have an oil temp gauge for that. I never push my car until the oil temp needle goes over 60c, I would say then you are safe.

 

if you got pccb you are stuck with 20 inch and can't go down in rim size.

Best option is get a jeep for the winter if you can leave your ptt alone for the snowy days. That is a tough thing to do.

 

i thought buying 20 inch rims would be an expensive proposition. Chance you think it would have been cheaper to get rims as opposed to swapping them at the time of change in season? Thanks for your thoughts.

 

We have a SUV, but I use the Ptt in every weather, absolutely no problems with any kind of wether and I have pccb. I have winter tires and the climate here in Finland is very harsh. We have a lot of snow and ice!

 

There is no question that buying dedicated winter rims is the more expensive proposition. Even if you get a relatively inexpensive set of aftermarket rims or a used set off eBay. Swapping tires is more expensive than swapping wheels, but it'll be over a decade before the savings approaches the cost of the rims.

A second set of rims is largely about convenience. At least, that's what it was for me when I bought mine. My experience has been that swapping tires on one set of rims meant either dropping the car off for the day or waiting 3+ hours at the tire shop. I don't know how long it will take them to swap wheels, since I haven't switched back to my summer wheels yet, but I'm assuming that it should be very fast.

 

15min + no rim is purely round, if you swap tires the tire is never on the same spot as before and it might result in vibration, that is hard to control even with balancing.

 

For anyone interested, I attended the Porsche Club local meeting this evening and they suggested I'd be fine riding summers from now (my ptt is actually getting delivered this Monday) until it gets warmer. Cautioned me that my stopping distance would be worse and that I'd need to take it easy on turns and such, but a few joy rides through March at reasonable speeds should be fine till it gets a bit warmer.

That said, I'll probably end up getting some Michelin Pilot AS this coming September/Oct and keeping the same rims. I tend to agree that the money you save on tire swapping by getting a new set of rims would take forever to recoup. I'll prolly just drop the car off on the way to work and pick it up after work or the next morning when the seasons change. Plus this way I get to save a few grand and put it toward fun stuff

 

@Kip is that vibration issue a common thing?

 

On a purely subjective note (no IMHOs needed ) what does the group think about putting chrome rims on the ptt? It's a black on black example. Tacky? Awesome?

I read that chrome rims can be hard to maintain because the smoke from the brakes can be acidic and eat away at the chrome or something like that. Has anyone heard this?

 

the Michelin a/s are awesome. Really quiet. Smart thinking. The new replacement rims of equivalent quality to the 20 inch summer rims become expensive. Cheaper to swap. However I don't know much about balancing like the op suggested. Have to wait and see if there are issues when I put the summer ones back on.

 

A few additional points I considered when facing the same questions:

- even one small snow storm combined w cold temps will be tough to manage on summers. They will turn to stone and have no traction. The cost of even a minor fender bender will far outweigh the cost of winter tires (eg the PDL headlight alone is almost $2k to replace)

- 19" wheels will allow a taller sidewall vs the 20". In addition to superior performance in deeper snow, you get more rim protection and comfort from road imperfections. I live on Chicago's Northshore and the roads here are terrible, with huge potholes, so I considered that a significant benefit.

- it's fairly easy to sell your winter wheel set when you decide to move on from the Panny. You may find that with a bit of effort and good timing, you really don't spend too much more than if you just bought the tires for 20" and swapped them out 2xyr. If you buy now or in a month or two you can probably get a good deal. When you do move on, holding the wheels until early Dec (or the first big snow on the east coast) will help you get a premium.

- I've used the valentine too. I haven't used any others so I can't contrast. I went for the excellent range and sensitivity over the ability to filter false signals. There are others that are better for filtering and still have excellent range. Check out the guys of lidar site for good comparisons.

 

I've driven on summers on snow and ice, and it's not an experience I recommend. Scariest damned thing I've ever done. I could feel that I was constantly on the edge of losing control even when creeping along.

Cold is a problem even without snow, since the tires turn rock-hard. We put off putting winter tires on my wife's Cayman S until January, and turning the wheel when stopped gave this weird crabbing feeling because of the cold. The car was definitely driveable in the cold as long as the streets stayed clear, though you really want to take it a bit easy.

It really depends on whether you think snow could happen between now and spring. I'd assume that Chicago's kind of similar to Boston, and we don't right off the possibility of a storm until at least April.

 

I live in northwest indiana have a 2010 panamera turbo and have used pirelli sottozero with 20 inch wheels since 10/31/14 traction is great I've only had the car since 8/14 and keep a separate set of 20 spyder wheels with michelin ps2 for summer it works well for me especially since I've taken the car to the track 2 times last year and can keep that set separate
My previous csr was rer wheel drive and winter tires made huge difference on them
Beause of that experience I've kept the 2sets separate
Rd

 

Are you getting so many false positives with the valentine that you start to tune it out? Or does looking at the reported band etc. let you actually know which detections are worthy of attention? Thanks!