So after giving advice on “standard” snow tire sizes, of course I do something different 🤨
Hunted around like mad to find new Continental TS870 snow tires and ended up buying a wheel/tire set from Germany… Arrived barely in time for a ski trip last weekend.
195/55R16 tires on 16x6.5 Autech wheels. Just by of 1” larger than stock, so bought an extra 0.5” of ground clearance which worked great. No TPMS but I’ll work that out later.
Went with ET38 instead of standard ET47.5 and happy I did - instead of the tire centered, the outer tire face is almost exactly aligned with where the OEM wheel face is, so the spokes have more brake clearance to leave space for an upgrade.
Happy to report no rubbing or torque steer issues (on stock height suspension currently) even with the larger tires. (Haven’t tested with chains on yet though). It’s possible a lowered car might have some issues
I did however take the opportunity to replace the rally armor mud flap locknuts with the thinnest stainless ones I could find, then chopped the studs off. Went from exactly 1/4” of tire clearance to nearly 3/8”.
The Super Z6 cable chains claim they work in 6.3mm of clearance, but cutting it that close made me a little queasy, so some piece of mind that I’m less likely to rip the mudflaps off if for some reason I have to put them on to pass a chain restriction checkpoint even with the 3-peak tires.
Car and tires were a champ through wet, slush, light snow and even glare ice. I’m glad I stuck it out and paid through the nose for them. Almost dissapointed there wasn’t more wheel spin 🤣
Missed the chance to take a dirty FiST picture, but snapped a couple before the trip after modifying the locknuts