Warning - 997 Carrera S winter driving with summer tires
My rear slipped away today three times, I almost hit a tree with my rear. And everything happened at speeds between 40 and 80 kph, no high speed driving. The streets were pretty much dry but still very slippery due to the around zero degrees celsius temperatures. I decided to forget about the summer tires and get winter tires...finally. My dealer had a set in stock and half an hour later, I was driving on winter tires in the same size as my 19'' summer tires.
What a difference, INCREDIBLE. Although the winter tires are new and they aren't "run in" yet (a little bit of rubber has to go to offer perfect traction, this happens usually after the first 200-300 km or slightly more), they provided almost perfect traction for the rest of the evening. Especially side grip has improved substantially, no nervous rear end anymore and brake performance is also substantially better.
If you live in a region with temperatures around zero degrees celsius or lower, do yourself a favour and get winter tires. It makes a difference like day and night, especially on the 997.
I got the ContiWinterContact TS 810 S N0, just for the record. This is a winter tire which has been specifically developped for the 997 and which uses a new technology with different rubber compound mixtures in different parts of the tire contact surface. As I said, I'm very impressed with the difference. The winter tires finally took away the horror of winter driving. I don't know how good 295/30 19'' tires are in deep snow (although I heard that snow performance is impressive for such a wide tire) but on cold and slippery pavement, they definetely rule. Highly recommended!