A German engineer friend who works at one very familiar German automotive manufacturer once spoke of tires to us in these words. “Summer tires are optimized for summer and shit in the winter. Winter are optimized for winter and shit in the summer. All-season tires are shit in the summer and shit in the winter.”
The conversation came over a beer while he quizzically discussed the American appetite for all-season radials. You see, Americans are all about convenience and, while perhaps not “shit”, all-seasons are honed to be passable year round just in case you don’t feel like swapping a second set on your car every six months. Where many Americans may see them as a convenience, the always-serious-about-driving Germans see it as a weakness. We find car enthusiasts are much like the Germans on this subject and those living in a climate afflicted by winter conditions for part of the year usually buck up for a second set of wheels and install a set of winter tires.
The problem with summer tires and to some degree all-season tires is mainly due to tire compound. As weather drops, tires harden and lose their willingness to grip. Never have we seen this better exemplified than this video produced by Tire Rack.
On location at an ice rink likely near their Indiana headquarters, the Tire Rack team took three of the same spec BMW 3-series equipped with summer tires, all-season tires and winter tires. Each was subjected to stopping, hard acceleration and finally a cone-defined sharp turn that not surprisingly saw a progressive improvement from best (winter tires) to worst (summer tires) where by the latter even had a BMW bouncing off the padded wall of the rink as if hockey checked by physics.
Going into winter, we figured it was time to opt for a wheel and tire change on our TT S line competition 4 Season tester. Though we’ve jumped back and forth between stock summer tires and Michelin Pilot all-seasons, we figured the small and light-bodied TT with big rubber could likely use the benefit of some serious rubber… even if it did have the vaunted quattro system.
If you’re making the investment in a set of winter tires, we’d suggest picking up a second set of wheels as well. Such an investment makes bi-annual tire swaps much easier. They also give any self-respecting car enthusiast a really great excuse to pick up a new set of wheels that give the car a fresh look for the winter months. We’ll admit it, we were guilty of this and some new designs from VMR had us itching to make a change.
Following their modern mesh design that’s been a solid offering from VMR for years is the new V810. This freshened look on the familiar theme also represents one of the first in the California-based firm’s new Flow-Form wheel lineup. Flow-form manufacturing brings forged production into a more affordable spectrum, resulting in lightweight and stronger single piece monoblock construction at a price much lower than traditional forged wheels.
As for diameter, we kept the stock tire size in order to keep things simple. Going larger or wider isn’t usually a smart move for winter setups, so we went with a 19×8.5, which was a half-inch narrower than the stock 19×9 of the TT. And, since we’d experienced some rubbing with the more aggressively offset R8 GT wheels from Audi, we returned closer to the TT’s stock offset, ending up with an ET 45 for just a hint more poke.
The new V810 is most promoted by VMR in a bright hyper silver finish that looks fantastic, but the black-themed S line competition required something a little more sinister. The car came stock from the factory with matte black wheels and so we decided to match this, opting for the powder-coated matte black finish offered by VMR.
As for tires, we stuck with Michelin and the latest Pilot Alpin PA4. At $338 per tire from Tire Rack, the Pilot is not the budget choice. Contrarily, it is one of the best winter tires going and as such rated best in Tire Rack’s own customer rating system at 4.5 stars.
Interestingly, the Pilot Alpin PA4 is also rated as one of Michelin’s GreenX tires – offering low rolling resistance design for efficient running in addition to high winter performance.
One of the biggest advantages of a good winter tire is the compound meant for use in lower temperatures. In the case of the Michelin, this means a silica-based and sunflower oil-enriched Helio Compound+ tread rubber designed to remain flexible when temps drop. Combined with an asymmetric tread design and aggressive siping that wraps around the shoulder of the tread, it is claimed by Michelin to be optimized for acceleration, braking and handling in these conditions.
Timing worked well in order to sample the tire in comparison. We’d swapped our stock summer tires for Michelin Pilot all-seasons just as snow fell for the first time in our Pennsylvania home base. Taking the TT for a spin pre-install of the new winter tires left us feeling fairly capable under acceleration and with easily controllable sliding as we tested handling. Stopping, however, was seriously hampered by slippery conditions and gave the car’s ABS system a workout.
With the Pilot Sport Alpin PA4s installed, the change was considerable and most noticeable. Acceleration and handling were both significantly improved while stopping capability exhibited a night and day difference.
Subsequent winter precipitation has allowed us to sample the car in varying conditions, from pillow soft and silent running on virgin highways or icy surface back roads to pre-plow parking lot hoonage.
On dry highways, these tires are refined and we’re noticing no difference in vibration or road noise unlike other winter tires we’ve run in the past.
As for the wheels, we think they work perfectly with the car. The aggressive motorsport-inspired design suits the TT well, and the matte black finish perfectly accentuates the S line competition package with its black accents.
Worth noting, Audi center caps will not fit these wheels. The VMR caps are plenty handsome and we’ve retained them. However, we did check fitment of the stock units for those looking to go for a more stealth or factory look. A larger cap, presumably like that of a Q7 or an S8, might fit, though we didn’t have either on hand to test fit.
As you may recall, one down side to the R8 GT wheels and their more aggressive offset was that they rubbed under rear suspension compression. Given we went with a less aggressive offset that was still more radical than stock and also a more square shaped tire like the Pilot, we were curious whether we’d experience rubbing. We’ve found it does rub, but only under the most extreme compression. However, this is much, much less apparent than what we experienced with the R8 fitment.
In closing, we highly recommend heeding the advice of our German engineer friend should you live in a winter climate. Having a set of winter tires makes a big difference in handling and safety for what amounts to a relatively affordable investment. And, if you’re serious about driving, being optimized for every season seems the most logical… the most German conclusion. Convenience is great and all, until that hour or more you might have saved swapping tires is instead spent stuck in a ditch in the middle of a snowstorm.
More Information:
VMR Wheels V810
Michelin Pilot Alpin PA4 Tire
Tire Rack
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