Can you believe, it’s still snowing in Chicago. It’s April already… the Cubs should be playing!
Good thing the MINI is still wearing its winter shoes!
It’s not uncommon for Old Man Winter to dump a lot of snow on us here in Chicago. But with super efficient snow removal and the fact that I’m rarely far from home during the winter months, a set of pure snow tires (Blizzaks for instance) are probably not necessary. So after some focused research I settled on buying a set of Nokian WR in 185/65/15.
While not a real snow tire, the WR provides much better snow performance than regular all season tires. One salesperson person I spoke with said that he’s able to drive through a foot of snow in his WRs with no problem, though probably not in a MINI 
At www.snowtire.info, it’s reported that the WR are “marketed as a high speed snow tire” in Europe.
So after a full winter of running on them I can say without a doubt that these are terrific tires. First off, they handle well on dry, slush and snow covered roads. At highway speeds, they’re extremely stable. Rain performance is good too. They’re also really quiet – so much so that I hear the wonderful exhaust burble all the time now. My MINI is a treat to drive in the summer and with appropriate shoes in the winter the fun continues year round.
I had the chance to stop by the new Motorola Destination Q store on Michigan Avenue last Thursday. The first thing I realized upon reaching Destination Q was that it was being housed inside what used to be the Terra Museum. It felt really wierd walking into the what used to be the Terra. How sad.