While we tend to wind down from the racing action throughout the colder months, it doesn’t mean that everybody just stops racing at Thanksgiving and we pick it back up full-time around March or so. There are events happening year-round, you just have to know where to look, know what’s going on, and it’s probably a good idea to be ready for whatever weather comes in. Tis’ the season for storms, soggy rainy days and snow, and running slicks or summer tires quits being the mark of the brave and starts being the mark of the dunce. No summer tire is going to grip when it’s 40 degrees out and has been for the last few weeks.
But that doesn’t mean that you can now swap over to your snow tires and expect them to keep up with your summer tires, either. Snow tires have one purpose and one purpose only: to assist you in navigating the snowy, icy situations better than a regular all-season and far better than the track day tires could’ve dreamed of. They are not designed to be stuck onto a high-performance car like a BMW M3 and expected to grip like a cat on carpet. The driver is pushing the BMW hard, and the car seems composed and controllable, but you can tell the difference between an 8/10ths lap and a full-tilt attempt. That would be the one where you can almost feel the driver cringing…
