What makes a winter tire a winter tire.

I know they have different tread patterns but what is different about the compounds. Is it a harder or softer compound?

Anyone know any real info about winter tires.

I normally run 245/50/16's on the rear and 225/50/16's on the front of my 85GT 4.9 5spd car.

I installed a set of Firestone Winter Fire 195/70/14's on the car and am amazed at the traction these snow tires have. I know part of it is simply going to a narrower tire that digs into the snow but dang. Even in the areas that the snow is melted off and the roads are just wet, these have better traction in the wet than my normal street tires. What is different about snow tires that make them better poor condition traction tires. The other thing I noticed is that these tires actually squeal when you take off hard even in the wet. My other tires never made any real noticeable noise when you did a burnout. Not that I am trying to kill my snow tires, I just got a little over excited taking off from a few lights and the tires spun.

A link to these tires are here, http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Firestone&tireModel=WinterFire I can't say enough good stuff about them. They have been great on my car in snow, ice, rain and even on the highway at 70mph for short trips.

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85GT 5spd ,93 Eldorado 4.9 Dual O2 Custom Chip, Archie Clutch. Custom Exhaust. MSD Everything 245/50/16's Not Your Average 4.9 Capt Fiero Com --- My Over View Cadero Pics Yellow 88GT 5spd Stock.

Its not the compound as much as its an aggressive, deep tread pattern. While softer tires may grip better, the tread is also easier to distort. Ive seen winter tires in both soft and hard compounds.

The funny part. typical snow tires with the really big lugtype tread pattern stink in winter compared to modern snow tires.

Newer snow tires have a shallow tread pattern with a huge amount of little slits all over the tire. I have had a set now for 2 years on my Aztek (never took em off for summer, they are a great all season tire as well) and when everyone is slipping and sliding all over the roads here on snow and ice I still have excellent traction on my 2WD vehicle. I liked the tires so much I bought them for my Geo as well. They are expensive, I spent about $500 to outfit the larger vehicle with the tires.

http://www.michelinman.com/catalog/winter/15.html

top one on the list is what I have on the Aztek. I have the lattitude Xice on the geo.... cheaper tire but works good as well. These things outperform any traditional snow tire I have ever had and they dont drive you nuts on the highway.

Heres a boat load of links and explanations concerning snow tires , hope it helps some..

i have bridgestone blizzak's 185 75 r 14. this will be the third winter that i have used them. they are fantastic in the snow. the rubber compound is softer as they are not recommended to be run year round because they will wear quickly. the tread blocks also have sipes ( small lines cut in the blocks for better traction on ice) in them. i remember one of the magazines did an article comparing winter tires and regulear radials on an ice rink and were surprised at the difference. i live north of detroit mich. and drive a hundredmiles a day to the gm milford proving grounds and back to streling hts. i can't say enough about the blizzaks.