Bridgestone Blizzak LM-30

The Bridgestone Blizzard neither gripped as well or lasted as well as my other winter tyres. Particularly lacked grip very badly on wet roads which became greasy after night frost had thawed in the day. I think what happened is it slipped more than my other tyres and because of that it actually became polished when on the front of my front wheel drive vectra estate cdti 150 where it was balanced by a Hankook winter due to the frequent slipping of the Bridgestone. It was so bad that I swapped the Nokians I had on the back. Once I had put the Nokians on the front I had great grip again, it seems that on this car I need really good grippy tyres on the front and the rears are less important, which is not consistent with other advice I have had to put best tyres on the back. That advice would seem sensible for a rear wheel drive car. I think a critical thing is to have balanced tyres on each side to avoid one slipping more and becoming polished at times when the roads are extra greasy and slippery. This Bridgestone also wore a lot more quickly than the others, probably due to the regular spinning due to it not coping compared to the other tyres.

I fitted a pair of LM30 205/55/16 to the front and LM35 225/50/16 to the read of my S2000 since it's regular Potenzas are a distinctly summer tyre. The winter tyres are much softer and blockier than the summer tyre giving a slightly noisier ride, but the low speed feel and steering response is actually improved. Their breakawy in the dry is progressive and occurs at speeds about a third lower than a traditional summer tyre, however, in cold wet conditions they transform the car and enable the S2 outbreak almost anyone. Also, when it drops below freezing, or snows, the car is perfectly drivable and able to pass all of the front and rear wheel drive cars (that are invariably on the wrong tyres). The set I fitted last winter were used from October to March and had plenty of tread left and so have gone back on this winter. I'll change back to summer tyres in a few weeks and from the look of the tread will get at least one more winter out of them. Despite (or perhaps because) they're so soft treaded I tend not to spin them unnecessarily and so am getting plenty of life out of them.

I haven't used any other winter tyres and so can't say how they compare, but I can confirm that they transform the handling in poor conditions (at the expense of more modest limits on warm, dry days) and give me the confidence to dart around in bad weather that would otherwise be missing.