Trofeo R's on 600LT in winter

[mogg]

So far I've never ventured out in the winter months. Just wondering if anyone has much experience or comments on this, eg on cold and / or cold, wet roads etc - is it a nightmare or is it doable ?

Apologies if this topic's been covered before.

[JayK12]

It's do-able, drive to the conditions. I'm pretty sure the Trofeo R is similar rating to the Cup2 and that is not recommended below 7 degrees. I've ran Cup2 around these temperatures and you cannot use the car much at all apart from going A-B steady. If you want to use it and have fun in, drop some PS4S on for the winter or something of that sort.

[simon_j]

mogg said:

So far I've never ventured out in the winter months. Just wondering if anyone has much experience or comments on this, eg on cold and / or cold, wet roads etc - is it a nightmare or is it doable ?

Apologies if this topic's been covered before.

I’ve used Trofeo R’s on my 600LT all year round without any issues at all. I don’t stop driving in the winter.

[LotusJas]

mogg said:

So far I've never ventured out in the winter months. Just wondering if anyone has much experience or comments on this, eg on cold and / or cold, wet roads etc - is it a nightmare or is it doable ?

I drove through all weather with Trofeos on 765LT. Grip is very dramatically reduced sub 7C, so you need to take it easy.

I've now switched to Corsas. Only because it was difficult most of the year to keep the fronts in the optimal temperature window (35C+) on road. Rears were easy enough, but on road it was difficult to maintain temps as you get slowed in traffic.

My conclusion was Trofeo were awesome on track, and also on road on hot sunny days. But otherwise were worse than Corsas. Corsas optimal temperature window is a much lower 25C+.

In winter though, Corsas will also have v reduced grip.

PZero are better in winter and rain. Or if you can accept the loss of steering feel, MPS4S are even better.

[sardis]

One other route is to get a set of winter tyres. I bought some Sottozeros for several of my previous cars. I found the trade off of complete predictability against the reduced ultimate grip to be worthwhile and encouraged me to go out when perhaps I wouldn’t have done with the car shod with Corsas for example. Assuming reduced mileage during the winter it’s feasible to get 5 years out of set, assuming you don’t sell the car first of course…..
When you do refit your summer tyres the grip is frankly astounding too

[mogg]

That's good information.

Many thanks

[Rocketreid]

Trofeo R’s as already stated are a great warm / dry weather tyre.

They are though frankly dangerous in the cold and wet.

You do need to get at least 35’ into them in order for them to offer any meaningful grip.

This is virtually impossible on UK winter roads.

I tracked my 765LT at Silverstone this year on Trofeos in the dry but not that warm conditions and even with over 40’ they did not feel greatly inspiring to push on.

I fortunately run a second set of wheels with PS4S on and these cope pretty well for winter use as well as summer