This being the first “major” snow storm of the season, I figured it was time to go out and take some photos of the new winter setup. I’ve sold the 16″ steelies. I had grown to like the “winter beater” look that they gave to the car, but my plan had always been to use the stock STi wheels for the winter. So this year, I made a trip down to TireRack, and picked up some 215/45R17 General Altimax Arctics, which I had mounted on the STi wheels. Definitely an improvement for the winter!

Yes, I’m going back to the stock tire size. Technically, you want a thinner tire to cut through deeper snow, but by returning to the stock size (which is “only” 10 mm wider than the old setup), I sacrifice a tiny bit of deep snow performance for a bit more grip on dry pavement… and I also improve handling with a slightly stiffer tire. If there is one thing I really do hate about winter tires, it’s the god-awful squishy handling you get. Not that the car handles like it’s on rails now, but at least this is a small step in the right direction. To be honest, there are only a handful of days out of the year where I’m driving through any accumulation of snow – and pretty much all of those are because I went out to have fun in it, not out of necessity.

The other change this year is that I did not swap back to stock suspension for the winter. Yes, I know that’s a “risky” move, but I consider it another experiment. I’m not too concerned from a ride-height perspective because truly deep snow is pretty hard to come by here in Chicago, and any times I do wind up in deep snow, it’s on a day off when I’m out exploring the storm, and not on a tight schedule where getting stuck would be a particularly bad thing to have happen. My only real concern is hitting an ice chunk and damaging the front lip, but I’ll accept that risk. I just didn’t feel like swapping back to stock suspension, and getting an alignment, etc…

As far as the coilovers themselves: First off, I don’t intend on adjusting the ride height of these coilovers; I’m quite happy with where the car sits now… but that shouldn’t theoretically matter, because these coilovers are INOX steel, and are supposedly “winter proof” and won’t corrode to hell. We shall see. My main point of concern are the adjustment knobs for the compression, which are located at the bottoms of the strut towers. I’ve also got protective covers on all four coilovers covering the spring area. Overall I’m curious to see how they hold up. I’ve got a “limited lifetime warranty” on these things so if they do rust to the point of not functioning properly, that should be covered. However, I’ve also heard that KW’s customer service can be less-than-helpful… so who knows how that would work out.

Anyway, that’s that. We had a small snow storm this weekend! That meant a good opportunity to go out and take some pictures in the snow with the new setup!