Geezer said:
Michelin rally tires are terrible winter tires as are all rally specific tires, the sidewalls are way to stiff to allow traction on snow. Rally cars use special winter tires that are about half as wide as a rally tire with long studs when allowed. In a pinch (here is the US) Blizzaks and Nokians are used at snow rallies as studded tires are not permitted by our rules. Rally tires will not last on pavement as well they'll be bald in 500 miles or less!!!
Building a rally car is not simple (mine took me over two years). A rally car is incredibly stiff. This is done by stripping the interior, seam welding it and the installation of a full roll cage ($1000.00 to $3,000.00 ...sorry cheap bolt in kits not allowed) with anywhere from 8 to 20 or so attachment points. Attaching the cage to the body shell with gussets is what really stiffens the whole package. A rally suspension of decent quality will set you back 2 to 3 K just for the shocks (DMS etc.) All under body brake and fuel lines need to be moved to the interior of the car in new solid metal or stainless steel hose. I could go on and on but it will cost about 7500 K on the cheap side and upwards of 25K to convert a street car to a real rally car. That's does not include any work to the motor or trans. Yes you can build a "look alike wanna be" for a whole lot less but that's what it will always remain.
Ok first off, it doesnt snow that much at all in the Seattle area, and I mainly want the tires for the weekends I go hit some dirt roads and in the winter to save my Euro rims from getting beat to crap by the sand/salt on the roads....
Second, this is my daily driver and is brand-new, so of course I'm not going all out 20k rally car, just some simple stuff to keep the car running good when I hit the trails on the weekend, the rollcage is one of those "just-in-case" items we're putting in to be on the safe side because some of these logging roads have very steep dropoffs on one side of the road, not that I'll be sliding around those ones but you never can tell what might happen. We do drive the roads first to see whats ahead.
Funny side-story, we did a drive-ahead run up a logging trail near the ocean, big road maybe close to 3 lanes wide, was sweet coulda ripped those corners great (ps this was in my 99 cougar) but about 2 miles in, with no warning signs whatsoever, there is a bridge around one of the large corners, nice HALF of a OLDASS WOODEN BRIDGE!!, so glad I wasn't goin but 15mph cause if I had been on it there is no way I could have stopped in time, and it was a nice drop to that very overgrown river hehe, was fun to walk around there though, was erie though as there was only half the bridge there, nothin on the other side of the bank besides the concrete foundation =(
anyway I took too much time writin this...off to mini-golf and Shrek 2 =))
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