Winter Wheel Review with Pics

[hammbone50]

Well I know this is a little late in the season and really isn?t going to be of much use to anyone right now but I thought I would go ahead post it while it was fresh on my mind. I went with a snow tire setup for my S3 this winter.

Got everything from Tirerack as they have been great in the past. Plus the wheels were on sale and couldn?t find anything cheaper!
Wheels: 18x8 Axis Sport XM matte silver
Tires: 225/40R-18 Michelin X-Ice Xi3 XL

Because I bought snow tires and wheels we really didn?t get any snow at all this year in my area, go figure. However I did have a trip up to Vermont to go skiing for a long week and I am sure glad I had them on there. The first night we were there we got about 3 inches of snow. Then two days later on the day I was leaving to come home it started snowing in the morning. I put in half day of skiing and then decided to hit the road. By the time I got packed up and loaded in the car there was about 4 to 5 inches of snow on the roads. For the first 50 minutes of my drive home in the back country of Vermont I saw NO ONE. Not a single car on the road. I was driving in fresh powder and I have to say the X-Ice did their job. They handled great. My 6 hour trip home turned into a 8 ? trip home and along the way I saw cars in ditches, spun out and just plan stuck. I had no issues at all. There were a few times the front tires pushed just a little but letting off the gas it gripped right back. The car was very well balanced and predictable when I forced it to slide. This is my first set of snow tires on this particular car so I can?t compare them directly 100% but I have had Blizacks on there and feel these performed just slightly better. I couldn?t believe how planted things felt.
One question I keep getting is how is the brake clearance, there is tons, not an issue. Offset is 35.
See pics below.

 

[S3Fan]

Great review. Those Axis wheels sure look good.

 

[hammbone50]

Great review. Those Axis wheels sure look good.

Thanks man! I literally bought the cheapest "nice" wheels I could find. TireRack had them on sale for $105 which was hard to beat considering it was free shipping to the warehouse close to me. I think they really look nice for the money spent and have no regrets. They are better than I expected!

 

[AlltrackMike]

Agreed those are really sexy wheels and you can't beat the price.

 

[SW_S3]

Sparco Pro Corsa

My buddies named the S3 the Snow Rocket:

The car has been unreal in the snow, even with such low clearance. I highly recommend the X-Ice Xi3s, have them on my wife's CR-V for a couple winters. I ordered them from Tire Rack before I even bought the car so they would be ready. One note, CHECK THE PRESSURES as they were way off.

17x7.5 Light Grey Painted Sparco Pro Corsa
225/50R17 Michelin X-Ice Xi3

 

[S3Fan]

Are those the Thule roof racks?

 

[SW_S3]

Are those the Thule roof racks?

Nope, I had a Golf TDI that was part of the buyback for dieselgate and VAG gave me this $500 card good only at VW. My local dealer has VW and Audi and they arranged for me to use the $$ for Audi parts. So I bought the factory Audi roof racks and mounted my Yakima box to it, and up to the snow we went. Also got A3 winter mats (there is no such thing as S3 winter mats, WTF?).

BTW, The racks were VERY noisy and I asked my local rack dealer about a fairing thinking it would help. He pointed out I did not put in the little rubber inserts in the top rails and that was likely a big part of the noise problem and that a fairing would not do much with the box noise. He was right, once the gap was gone on the top the noise was totally reasonable.