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I've already been down the road you're looking to travel. Let me pass along my experience...
I bought an 01S (my 1st Box) in the summer of 05. The tires were getting thin and there was no way they'd make it through the winter (it was a DD and I had to drive in the snow). The car I traded on the Box was a Toyota MR2 Spyder - basically the same mid-engine layout as the Box. I had successfully traversed the winter snows in MR2 with a set of AS Firestones. Figured I could do the same with the Box and forego the hassle of extra wheels and snows. Did my research on TireRack and chose a set of Kumho's, which I purchased from a local tire dealer. It was horrible, even in as little as an inch of snow and worthless if there was any ice. On bad weather days that winter I bummed rides to work from a pretty young lady with a ForeRunner. The next winter I bought a set of Blizzaks and extra wheels and my Box was found to be a very capable winter vehicle.
This got me thinking. Why did the AS tires work so well on MR2 and were junk on the Box? Different brand? Maybe. But the sizes were substantially different. The tires on MR2 were a 55 series / 15" tire while the Box was 40 / 18". That's strike 1. And as others have said, AS tires are a compromise. They not only have to perform in the winter but also the summer. While it's not legal to drive 150+ mph, a Box is capable of these speeds so the tires must also be able to handle those speeds on a hot summer day. So if you're designing an AS tire for a performance car, are you going to emphasize speed or utility? Can't have both, so they have to build more summer capabilities into the AS performance tires with winter capabilities coming in 2nd place (probably in fear of lawsuits more than anything). That's strike 2. And the summer performance will be less because they had to build some winter capabilites into the tire. May not be a big deal if you don't track your car, which I didn't, but it was amazing how much better the Box rode and performed when I bought a set of summer tires for it. Strike 3. So to summarize, AS tires that are smaller and require less performance will work fine in winter. AS tires for a Box probably won't and you won't get as much enjoyment out of it during the summer either.
Tire technology has probably improved in 5 yrs, but you're going to be spending $600-$1000 for a set of tires, AS or snows. Are you willing to gamble with that much money on the line? Make a wrong choice and you're going to live with it for a long time.
Choose wisely, grasshoppa.
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GPRPCA Chief Driving Instructor
2008 Boxster S Limited Edition #005
2008 Cayman S Sport - Signal Green
1989 928 S4 5 spd - black
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