The studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta 4s have made it through three winter seasons of hard driving. They have been the staple tire on my rally car. So, how are they holding up?

For one, the number of studs still left in the tires can be counted on two hands. Well, maybe three. The abuse that the tires have taken in the winter rally season has left most of the studs missing or point less. It has also left the tread depth lower than I would want at the beginning of next season. Even still, they continue to do quite well in the snow.

But how do they do on hard pack and ice. Last weekend, I got a chance to find out. The weather on Saturday was a mix between rain, freezing rain, sleet, and heavy snow. By Sunday morning, it had turned colder, and a snow was covering a layer of crusty snow-ice.

On Sunday morning, I headed out to church a little early with plans to find some empty parking lots. My search was quickly rewarded. The conditions on the parking lots varied. Some lots were a sheet of ice. Other parking lots were covered in hard pack snow.

It was very interesting driving the destudded Hakka-4s on the different lots. (I say destudded as there are less then 1% of the original studs still left.) On the ice, the lack of studs was quite apparent. I surprised myself (and my son) a couple of times by completely looping the car. I've almost never spun a car unless I set out to. On the bare ice, there was just so little traction that I found I couldn't hold a moderate slide without spinning. After one such spin that left the car sliding backwards, I noticed the distinct lack of studs as the only two studs left in contact with the ice left their tell-tale scratches in the ice.

The story was completely different on the hard pack snow. Here, the tread compounding and tread patterns worked surprisingly well. The car maintained a great deal of control. While it did not bite into turns as well as I hoped, power slides were easily controllable and correctable.

- John

It's been a very short fall at Snow Tire FAQ HQ. Just three short weeks ago, temperatures were in the 60s, and the trees still had fall leaves on them. Two days ago, the first accumulating snow fell at STFHQ,and it kept falling to 6 inches in spots. Add to the strange weather, a Girl Scout Cookie Sale, a Cub Scout Popcorn sale, a Scout camp-out, being a leader both for Boy and Girl Scouts, and a root canal, and you can bet that STFHQ has been a busy place.

In the midst of all this, the bi-annual Real World Snow Tire Tests were almost lost, but not quite. After much consideration, I have decided to push forward with doing a 2008 round of Real World Snow Tire Tests. Having made an fair investment into testing equipment this summer, I thought I really should try to put it to work.

I am currently negotiating with three tire manufactures that represent 5+ tire brands. I have already mentioned one, but I will wait a little to say much about the others other then that two of the three are new, and one is a repeat. The big issue that I am running into is that the late start may mean that some snow tires are not available. This has already happened with one manufacturer who is not counted above.

The plan for the 2008 tests is to run the test for 2008 and then into 2009. I am hoping to have tires on cars by January 1, 2008. The cars with dedicated snow tires will run them until around May 15 of 2008. The cars with "all year" tires will run them through the summer. Then, in November of 2008, the tires that were taken off for the sumer will go back on so we can see what they are like for a second season. As I am actively participating in the local SCCA's Winter Rally Challenge Series (and even writing an event this year), there is a good chance that many of the tires will get evaluated under some very severe conditions.

Of course, we will once again do a shoot-out.

Over the summer, I added to the Snow Tire FAQ data collection capabilities by purchasing a G meter. This meter measures lateral and fore/aft acceleration. The data can be downloaded for analysis and display. With this piece of equipment, and some new tests, we hope to give some more numbers behind what the tires are capable of doing.

The other piece of test equipment we experimented with last year is a simple rally odometer made by Small System Specialists. The rally computer allows the measuring of not only distance down to 0.001 miles, but also of 0-30, 0-60, and 1/4 mile times. While this may seem to duplicate the capabilities of the G-meter, the two actually complement each other. The G meter can be thrown off by un-even ground. The rally computer can be thrown off by wheel spin or lock-up.

As with the 2006 Real World Snow Tire Tetss, the results of the tests and tester comments will once be made available as the testers log them. This forum will serve as the repository for those notes.

As more information on the tires that will be tested becomes available, I will be sure to post it.

- John