New member and winter tyre question

[GregC1]

Hi , at last , after 4 Porsches over the years I’ve just joined the club !
I am the proud owner of a fabulous black 991.2 Targa 4 GTS which I’ve had for all of 10 days and I’m losing a battle to keep the muck off it !
I’ve had winter tyres on BMWs in the past and they have transformed the cars grip and handling in the wet and snow and as I’m going to use the Targa all year round I want to put winter tyres on again .
I can’t find a great deal in the forums unless I’ve not looked very hard , but what have others gone for - tyres over existing wheels or wheel/ tyre combinations as sold from the Dealers?
I was looking at the Pirelli Sotozeros or a new Pzero winter tyre .
thanks in anticipation, Greg

 

[Dylan1]

I’ve always had a separate set of alloys with sottozeros on them
Linda’s touring has had them also as Bmw are terrible in winter otherwise even with x drive
the porsche I’ve had (14 last count) have ne er been as bad as Bmw in winter but def better with wi ter tyres
enjoy

 

[Rubber_Duck]

Hi Greg, I have a 991 4S which I switch over to winter wheels and tyres running winter PZeros. You can drive the car completely normally, with usual caution in snowy/icy conditions, this is is my second winter on them and they have been brilliant.
I bought the set from OPC Teeside who store the unused set in their "Wheel Hotel". Service has been perfect from OPC.

Hope this helps - Philip

 

[pwebb]

If you have room to store a set of wheels, eBay is your friend. Get a set of rims either with winters on already, or put a set on They’ll last for years??

 

[GregC1]

I’ve been told I need to go down to 19” from the 20” tyres so need to have wheels and tyres by the dealer , but Pirelli are ok with putting winter tyres on my existing rims - do you think that’s ok ?

 

[salisbees]

I have a 991.1 and the winter tyres transform the experience through the colder months. Unlike most, I run the car on Michelin’s both summer and winter because I think they are a more versatile tyre. I agree with pweb, if you have the space at home find a set on eBay, mine wheels and tyres were £1200.

 

[Lancerlot]

I was at Solihull Porsche Centre last weekend and it was offering some really competitive rates on new wheels and winter tyre sets for most models.
Regards,

Clive

 

[pwebb]

If your car is under warrant, and as a 991.2 I guess it probably is, then make sure the winter tyres are N rated.

 

[GregC1]

Thanks for all the help , I went to Solihull Porsche and they didn’t have any deals at all unfortunately and I also discovered that as my wheels are GTS with centre lock the wheel and tyre sent will be over £5K ?? .I’m going to get some Pirellis to go on my existing rims , cheap at £1750 at Burton Pirelli Performance Centre!

 

[tscaptain]

Am I right in thinking you're looking at 245/35/20 and 295/30/20 N rated Sottozeros? If so they are around £1100 for the set at Camskill ( and others...)

 

[Rubber_Duck]

Greg, it may depend on the model but I have 20" summer and winter wheels/tyres.

 

[GregC1]

Thats a big difference between my quote and Camskills.I’ve emailed Burton Pirelli to conform exactly what they’ve quoted for in case of any confusion though.
On a different note , after 50 miles on the M42 yesterday my car has gone from concours condition to farmyard condition- what a nightmare this weather is !

 

[mphillips]

Welcome to the club Greg!

It looks like you're about sorted with what to do – I'd add that swapping tyres does start to be a bit of a faff, and it's irksome when they inevitably ding your alloy getting tyres on and off. If you'll store wheels with a garage and have them do the swap anyway, then I guess wheels vs just tyres isn't so big a deal (I store all my own wheels and tyres, and swap trackday tyres on the winter wheels when they come off – the wheel swap I do myself, naturally I don't swap the tyres).

I have been amazed at pricing differences for the exact same tyres. It's a bit of a racket really – dealer sees it's a Porsche, thinks massive markup is acceptable. Blackcircles, Oponeo, and even eBay are all much more reasonable for the exact same (yes, N rated) tyres in my experience. Speaking of eBay, there's a German outfit which seems to shift a lot of Porsche wheel+tyre combos, and even including shipping work out much better than buying local. Worth a peruse just in case you can find a full set for a price that sits better in your mind.

I use my C2S all year round too, and I'm a bit precious about the cleaning regime (search the forum, there's a fab thread about "detailing"). However, I also use it to the full. Here's a particularly filthy winter drive I took it on earlier this year … https://www.porscheclubgb.com/forum/FindPost/1018106

Enjoy the Targa!

 

[GregC1]

Thanks for all the information mphillips , love the photo of your car in the link, mine looks very similar at the moment!
ive also had to buy a smaller golf bag to get my clubs on the back seat ! My wife has a Macan so at least we have something practical as well.

 

[henleymag]

Here's my experience with winter tyres for my 991.2.

I've always used winter tyres on previous cars, and totally sold on the benefits.

I've got 20 inch RS Spyder rims that are fantastic to look at. However I found a really big price difference between the cost of 19" & 20" winter tyres

After reading a whole lot of reviews and watching YouTube tests, I decided to go with Michelin Pilot Alpin 4s. I took a bit of a chance and bought them from https://www.pneus-online.com. Total cost was a whisker under £1,200 delivered, but excluding fitting.

I picked Reading Tyres who offer mobile fitting and this added £85 to the cost. They were OK and did a good job without scuffing any of the alloys.

I am about to put the summer P Zeros onto another set of rims. After spending way to much time on Ebay and online generally, I took another bold move and bought a 'new' set of Mark 4 Turbo alloys from www.teile.com. These came in at c. £3,100 including delivery. I did a bit of Email haggling with Tomas the owner to get the cost down by about £110.

These arrived 3 days later and are almost perfect. They claim to be new, but look to have had tyres fitted, which you can see from dried on tyre fitting lubricant. There is a 20mm scuff on one wheel which is disappointing for a new set of rims. However the cost was about half of the new cost and so all things considered, it was still a good deal.

Porsche offer winter wheel and tyre combinations, but I didn't really like the options available. OPC Reading weren't up for my request for Turbo wheels and winter tyres - their offer is turbos and summer tyres.

I'd be interested in hearing from other owners about owners club discounts offered on winter wheel sets. I was under the impression that 10% was a standard discount offered on all parts. The service reception guys in Reading said that this wasn't the case and discounts are offered on a product by product basis. They said that I wouldn't get 10% on winter wheels and tyres.

A final point to bear in mind when getting new rims is the need to get tyre pressure measurement sensors (TPMS). You can get generic variants for about £70 - £90 each, but I wanted to play it safe and got OEM sensors from the OPC. They cost an eye watering £114 each inc VAT after 10% Porsche Club 10% discount. Not cheap and make a difference to the total budget.

I hope this is helpful.

 

[MikeJenkins]

Hi All,
Just took the plunge and bought winter wheels & tyres (20" for C2S) from Design911 who currently have 15% discount. Still not cheap and came out at approx £4,400; not that different from dealer's online quote but will be delivered to my home. Plan to put them on myself and store summers in my garage.
Worth a look.

 

[GregC1]

Hi again and a very Merry Christmas to all.
Well I took the plunge and went to the Pirelli Performance Centre in Burton on Trent and had the winter tyres fitted . I was really impressed with the service and it’s a real state of the art facility, sure not the cheapest, but hey, we don’t buy Porsches because they’re cheap! You also get a £100 fuel voucher off the price if you buy 4 tyres it that softens tad blow . -£1750 in total. They store the tyres and no charge for swopping back to summers.