Pilot Sport A/S - unscientific research!

[nene]

Hi Team,

So today the weather decided to snow, as it is normal and customary during our New England Winter season.
I don't believe much of the white stuff will be left on the ground this afternoon, as it turns into rain and an unseasonably  balmy 40 degrees Fahrenheit!

Needless to say, I've had my Pilot Sport A/S (235/40/18ZR) installed for about 2 weeks, and approximately 400 covered miles.  Most of it has been either dry pavement or the occasional rain.  I was hoping to catch some snow covered pavement prior to my Winter Driving School session at the tail end of February, to give the tires some preliminary testing.

Well the day has arrived!

Parking lot here in at my company in Burlington seems to be covered in about 1/2 inch worth of the white glaze.  Got to go out there while it's empty, see if donuts can be made.
***Mental Note: got to go to Dunkin Donuts after this write up!

Tests to be concluded: (1)full on brake from 15-20MPH straight ahead, (2)tight turn at 15-20MPH, (3)full on brake from 15-20MPH while attempting to turn, (4)accelerate fast while straight.

The car performed surprisingly well on all above mentioned tests.  <br>On tests 1 & 4, car seemed to get a good grip, and either brake or accelerate without much issue while maintaining proper form and direction.  No loss of control, or much skidding was felt.
On test 2, car seemed to come loose a bit on all  4 wheels, but not by much initially.  Car gained control and direction continuously, while keeping heart rate of driver at normal!  Once car gained control, about 1-2 seconds, it was in full control after that.  Quattro appears to work as advertised.
On test 3, car did originally skid a bit when brake was fully applied on untouched snow, while no loss of control was felt, and car was easily maneuverable while brake was still on.  ABS and Quattro at work as advertised.

Keep in mind that I have a 2000 S4, which lacks ESP.  Not sure, but I think that helps the whole control system further.

Test conclusion:  tires seem a whole lot better then simple high-performance tires used for dry/wet pavement.  For snow coverage up to 1", it seems that tires perform just as well as a Winter tire setup.

This is Nelson, reporting from Burlington, MA, for BostonAudi.com General Performance forum!

[mike@bostonaudi]

Glad to hear you like your tires. I know something as well about empty company parking lots. The only question is, did you have the balls to do it 8 stories up? Yeah, I thought not!

[nene]

Well...

If you count from Sea Level, I'm sure that it is higher then 8 stories!
I'm glad you were brave enough to do it.  I wasn't looking so much for their performance in high altitude, but it's a thought!

[kirath]

Even better with ESP..  I was going donuts once with ESP off then turned it on and I could not get the car to go..  Awesome.

But I got Artic alpines on my car, it can't be stopped, I am so happy when I hear its gonna be snowing on my way home to or from work!

[nene]

UPDATE 1:  captain's log 01182002; while navigating through the Van de Graaff constellation, we noticed an icy patch of asteroids in the radar, and decided to check it out!
So, while driving to work early this morning, an icy patch that extended all lanes and was about 20 feet long was noticed.
I could not let this challenge go unanswered.  So I decided to maintain speed, a calm 20MPH, and then 3 feet into the patch, while making a 15-20 degree turn, I decided to apply brakes fully!  Car maintained course without any major skidding.  I was impressed.
I easily managed to maintain direction of the curve as if I had not applied the brakes fully, while coming to a complete stop soon thereafter.

[nene]

UPDATE 2:  captain's log 02072002;
There hasn't been much snow out here lately, but certainly lots of cold weather, dry pavement and the occasional rain.
I've had the tires for over 1 month, with lots of highway and city driving.  One thing I've noticed is that even though the tires are 235 instead of 225, they don't look necessarily wider as a tire.  Of course the difference is not that large, but the  tire's extremeties expose a nice curvature that gives the impression that the rubber meeting the pavement is about the same.  I received my 5th tire for the full size spare yesterday, and the tire seems wider when not attached to the wheel.
Overall impressions are wonderful.  I love this tire.  Certainly just slightly louder then my stock Potenza's but not by much.  To tell you the truth, I can't quite confirm that, because the roads I drive on now are different from past roads.  My work has moved since then.
Funny thing is that the noise level changes from road pavement to road pavement.  Only noticeable on highway driving mostly, but not annoying like the Winter tires (Pilot Alpin)!