Forest tyres / knobblies, but road legal ones? Update.

This snow scene is starting to tax my Christmas plans.

I used to buy Colway M&S knobblies, but that business folded years ago:



I don't really want winter tyres, I'd go for some proper get out of serious aggro tyres, but the question is what's on the market?

I'm not interested in Michelin's or Pirelli's rallying -keer-ching finest though.

Any recommendations? 14" or 15" would be fine.

 

This may throw up some info for you.

http://www.maxsport-competition-tyres.co.uk/

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/14-MUD-SNOW-W...44904?pt=UK_Cars_Tyres_RL&hash=item3a617de988

Although I think investing in them in the summer would bring the price down considerably.

 

A friend of mine had chunky gravel tyres on his rally car, last winter he had to change them to winter tyres just so he could get the bugger on the trailer.

 

Cheers for the links.

Gravel tyres can be a bit too hard - I think grass tyres are more what I'm after.

Nora was the name / nickname of the one I pictured in post 1. Quite a soft compound with really flexible tread, utterly awesome in the snow. I'd buy those again but a version like that isn't shown.

Just need to figure out which ones are akin to that.

 

That link I posted has them I think. It is a little odd as it shows the Alaska tyre but above those pics are a load of options and pics like RB1 and 3 etc.

 

Chris, What you need for the road are ex grasstrack or autocross rb1's, nora's etc in the right size.
My autocross car (few years ago) would need new fronts every other meeting, when the track was hard.
Half price (or less.. ) is much sweeter.
If (as semi planned) I start ax ing again next year, there should be a steady supply of hour old tyres,
ready for 2011 winter.
About 185/60/14 or 185/65/15
Regards,
Jon

 

Good info Jon

 

I wouldn't bother with forestry m&s tyres - I've got Maxsports on my car at the moment (just done a rally and not swapped the knobblies off it yet) and they were brilliant in the mud, but they're designed for offroad and not snow/ice on tarmac

Get a proper M&S road tyre, I've also got a pair of these that I had on when we had the first drop of snow, while everyone else was digging themselves out, I was driving around quite merrily. If you're on fresh virgin snow then the knobblies help, but otherwise steer clear, I found I have much less traction on compacted snow with the knobblies vs the road tyre


pic of maxsport knobblies - these are RB1 pattern, 165/65/R14

 

Thanks for that. Looking at the design closely, they look like very solid blocks that won't move with the snow.

The Noras had indentations inside the perimeter of each block (see post 1), which must help each block move around far more.

 

Yeah, a mate of mine managed to bag up 6 colway nora's a couple of years ago, and as you say, they've since gone bust. I don't think anyone's making anything like it any more. my knobblies are on super soft compound and it makes no difference, here's the standard tyres, ironically they're M&S tyres, but also the cheapest black and round jobbies I could lay my hands on!

185/60/R14

 

A little bit of an update on the tyre search from the rally end of the spectrum, but it's all wandering back towards the familar winter tyres.

With no sign of any tread patterns which I liked the look of, I got away with out buying them over Xmas, but did a little bit of research recently on location, aswell as at the Autosport Show.

The useful Max Sport tyres are the Alaska ones (Alaska I, II, III & IV).









Interestingly they will take studs...


Good chat with (I think) the boss man, and he mentioned a 'Shore' rating of 60 for rubber hardness is just fine. None of the rest of their range is really that relavent to snow/winter. The Hakka looks like a Colway Nora, but has solid tread blocks - they won't move IMO and the boss man pointed out they're far from ideal for cornering:




Also it seems Colway haven't totally gone - there was this co at Autosport called Markgum Sport:





Gave them a good press, and yep, they're Noras alright. Bit of a search on the net and it's a Polish Co (Max Sport are too) I can't see who deals with them in the UK mind.

 

Funnily enough, I believe compound does matter. Had some Nora whitespots (cossy sizing, massive 205/50/15) on the front of my mk1 for a while. Total tractor handling but worked in very low temps, as they were designed for.....RAC Rally, November.
Just a thought.

 

Just digging through some pictures from the Christmas Stages (I was snapping any tyres I saw).

Here's Mr Bardy on a set of 60 shore Max Sport Alaska Is (3rd o/a finish):

 

Hmmmm, maybe I phrased that wrong - my 40 budget M&S tyres outperformed my super soft compound knobblies on all the ice I encountered.

I swapped tyres and tried on some of my local back roads - knobblies were "ok" in virgin snow, and comparable grip to the M&S tyres, on compacted snow and ice, the knobblies struggled. They performed better as new tyres, but as the blocks lost their edges (believe it or not, those solid blocks are very soft and move easily!) after doing around 100 stage miles in soft mud and a little bit of tarmac (December 2010 - they were brilliant off road and during the rally - the picture I posted was immediately after the event), they had a noticeable drop off in performance from "ok, it's going around the corner" to "oh my god, turn ... Turn... TURN" and then it digs in when it hits the snow on the corner of the verge. In comparison the part worn M&S tyres (around 2000 road miles on them) had slightly less grip in virgin snow, but never enough to hamper progress, and on compacted snow and ice they were vastly superior, braking and turning predictably.

The compound is harder than the knobblie, but it's the small movement of the slits in the blocks as the tyre rotates and touches down on the road that give the traction - same thing for the alaska tyres, which is why they work on polished and icy surfaces.

 

In a nutshell - Knobblies work well offroad - choose compound to suit temps, M&S tyres work better on snow and ice than knobblies, regardless of compound (with the possible exception of virgin snow - a better M&S tyre will probably handle it better than mine did)

I'm keeping a set of M&S tyres for wet weather/everyday driving, some road legal track tyres for track days and all tarmac rallies, and knobblies for offroad events.

 

I used to head out to the countryside in the snow on the Noras, used to have loads of fun with them, which is why I'm keen on them. But it was uncompacted snow generally.

The only problem there is that Noras used to be marked 'M&S' and folks called them Knobblies!

 

I think it's the only way they can get away with E marking them - mark them M&S and the pattern requirements change, they can fit the knobblies into that category and you can use them on the road

 

These are Maxsport RB1s aren't they?




When I autocrossed I used the RB1s to start with as we got a batch cheap. They were ok but I then picked up some Colways that looked a little like this. Not saying they were exactly the same. But very similar tread pattern with fine lines through the blocks allowing movement of tread. They were a different league from the RB1s. This was also proved on several gravel stage rallies too.

 

Ah no, I'm talking mid '90s, before remoulds were even E-marked. They were M&S back then.