Funny I should find this article at this time... I just put it here in case it interests anyone.
BMW M5 (2012) long-term test review
By the CAR road test team
Long Term Tests
07 February 2012 07:55
Winter tyres on our BMW M5 - 7 February 2012
Watch just about any news update on the travel chaos caused by snow in the UK and the chances are you’ll see a BMW sitting there spinning its rear tyres and slithering across the carriageway. But my M5 long-termer has been fitted with 19-inch Pirelli Sottozerowinter tyres, so I took it out last night and purposely went looking for trouble.
There was still a few inches of snow where I’d parked on a very slight hill, and that’s been enough to completely strand a Jag XF on summer tyres in the past. However, the M5’s rear boots simply dug into the slippery stuff, and out we crunched. From there the roads were pretty clear, so I decided to head off down some country lanes, lanes that were still covered in heavy slush. Combined with heavy fog, this was actually pretty treacherous, and even though I’m familiar with these B-routes, the lack of reference points in the conditions meant the corners and junctions kept taking me by surprise.
I was initially extremely cautious, worrying that I’d understeer into the undergrowth, but every time I turned the wheel, the front tyres bit as if the road was just wet. Traction was assured too, the rear tyres finding purchase despite the slush. Even under heavy acceleration or braking, the rubber still bit into the surface, with an absolute minimum of intervention from the traction control or ABS system.
This was all too easy, so I returned home and headed into a nearby housing estate that was on a hill and hadn’t been touched by an ounce of grit. I drove all the way to the bottom of the hill, and selected reverse. Now, there’s nothing worse than being stuck in reverse in a powerful rear-drive car – in an auto too, with no clutch control – at the bottom of a snowy hill. You can probably guess what happened: I simply reversed out, turned myself around, and drove back up the hill.
I’d previously seen a post on Twitter asking for people with 4x4s to help pull other motorists out of the snow and, to be honest, I felt like going along and lending a hand; surely I had better traction than an SUV on summer tyres.
All of which gives me a dilemma: I have the chance to switch the winter tyres back to summer Michelins later this week. And I’m tempted, because the winters spoil the M5’s normally sharp handling, and because winters won’t help me when everyone else has already blocked the motorway I’m trying to use. But it’s also fair to say that the winters gave me a lot of confidence to go places over the weekend, especially with a young family aboard. What would you do, switch back to summers, or stick with the winters for another month?
By Ben Barry
http://www.carmagazine.co.uk/Drives/Search-Results/Long-term-tests/BMW-M5-2012-long-term-test-review/
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FERRARI RULES!!!