great news i got today (not)... apparantly a new scheme has started at my dads work where they recon they need to fit winter tyres on all their company motors. needless to say dads vrs estate is now running some vredestein snowtrac 2's. not exactly the sort of high performance rubber i'd have thought should be fitted to such a car...

opinions on what to expect from these - i recon they'll ruin the handling and should only have been fitted to a 4x4

nobody? to quote from their site:

"For all winter driving conditions.

The Snowtrac 2 is the ultimate all-round winter tyre thanks to the application of Silica Nova 7°C in the tread compound. This gives the tyre excellent winter

properties as well as a perfect grip on wet and slippery road surfaces. A hard 'base' compound is used for the foundation layer, considerably improving handling on dry and wet road surfaces and offering a reduced rolling resistance. The zigzag sipes also play a key role in the way this tyre performs in snowy and icy conditions. Taken as a whole, the Snowtrac 2 effortlessly combines top performance on snow and ice with the capacity to reach speeds of as high as 118 mph (where this is possible and permissible)."

is it allowed for cars to be fitted with rubber that is under their speed rating?

nobody? to quote from their site:

"For all winter driving conditions.

The Snowtrac 2 is the ultimate all-round winter tyre thanks to the application of Silica Nova 7

if the tyre shows the M&S or extreme weather symbols then it is perfically all right to use lower rated tyres.

you should see the tread its near tractor like lol!

I have just fitted the newer and better (and H-rated to 130mph) snowtrac 3 tyres to my Octy 1.9TD. They are very grippy and don't spoil the handling as far as I can tell, though they do make a swishing sound correlated with acceleration / deceleration. I think this is from the little sig-zag slits in the rubber blocks that grip the ice. It is quite likely that these tyres reduce the effective power on the road slightly, especially if under-inflated (and they take a bit more pressure than normal tyres). However, over the next three months, driving around in the Highlands, rest of Scotland and a northern England, I will be much more secure with good stopping distances and road holding. I recommend this course of action to anyone who has to drive in wintery weather and cannot put off a journey easily. I'll update folks after I have more experience with them.

I fitted Vredestein Quatrac 3 tyres a few weeks a go. These are supposed to be a 4 season tyre and from their appearance I think would be more suited to our climate than a full on winter tyre. They also carry the M&S symbol making them legal in countries where winter tyres are compulsory. I've done a couple of thousand miles since purchase and fully reccomend them. Have had them in sub zero temps, snow, ice, gravel and very muddy tracks as well as lengthy A road journeys. Slightly noisier that a summer tyre and maybe a wee bit less mpg but not that noticeable.