Winter sucks, especially if you’re a car enthusiast in the North East. But rather than tuck the nice cars away, I believe in enjoying them year-round. That means ditching the summer rubber and selecting the right winter tires for my G80 M3.
Judging when you need winter tires
With my old M3, I’d had pretty good luck – a few snow storms each season, but for the most part mild.
Not this year.
Today as I write this, the high is 30 degrees. The wind chill makes it feel like it’s 17. Snow and ice are one thing, but at these temperatures, the soft rubber of summer tires becomes brittle and can easily crack. Since I use the car to take my daughter to school each day, as well as attend various shoots, I figured it was time for a winter set up.
Depending upon where you live, you can select all-season tires, and I know some M3 drivers that do. But all-seasons are still a compromise, so I decided to go full winter mode.
Don’t feel as if you need to decide by November. These tires should be readily available and installed in just a few days’ time at any point throughout the year.
Where to get M3 winter tires
To make this work, we need wheels, tires, and a TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring Sensor) for each wheel. I’m not going to be mounting tires on rims every few months, so a full setup that’s easy to swap with my current setup is ideal.
The most obvious choice is TireRack.com. A set of 19-inch OZ Racing Gunmetal rims with Michelin Alpine tires and TPMS sensors, mounted and balanced, runs $3,360 before tax and shipping. They are the only wheel option available on Tire Rack, and uhh….they are ugly. OZ Racing wheels belong on Civics with Spoon engines, not an M3.
But you know who does make nice wheels? BMW.
A visit to their aftermarket site, ShopBMWUSA.com, shows two options:
The 829M offer a matte black finish. I like the square setup – they are a bit cheaper, with a smaller diameter and narrower (better for winter performance). The second option, 826M, are actually a style that comes on the M3 Competition from the factory. They are a gloss black finish, and again a square setup. But I never liked the style, are a huge pain in the ass to clean, and are more expensive.
I’m not a fan of black wheels, but as these will be filthy anyway, I can live with it.
829s it is.
Tire time
BMW offers these with tires, and the 826M offering Michelin Alpines. I’d prefer the Michelins, but Pirelli rubber will be fine for our needs as they are both BMW star-rated. Each option comes with TPMS sensors installed, mounted and balanced.
The cost for this setup from BMW is $3,950, shipped to your local dealer. For the extra few hundred dollars (and a proper fitment with the M Performance Suspension), I go with the BMW option.
Installing M3 winter tires
We head to TySpeed, king of all things BMW performance-related. Tyler is kind enough to let me work with Tim Garb to install the 12mm spacers from the old M3, and the new wheels.
Drive your M3 year-round
You don’t need 503 horsepower in winter, but it sure is fun. Switching to winter tires turns the M3 into an all-weather capable sports sedan, a true daily for the North East.
While you might be tempted to let your car sleep all winter (I was), I love it too much to keep it hidden away for four months out of the year. We can always wash it.
Thanks to everyone at TySpeed for being so accommodating and letting me hog two lifts!
