[lunyx]

You're going to park it outside in the snow? Get a cover. Ground clearance, don't have my tape measure, but I can put my fist under the front just barely and mine is a stock 2014 (hammer fist - thumb up) if that helps. Stock meaning no suspension adjustments at this time. But if you're worried about ride height, why would you put 18" wheels on it when it comes with 19" ?? Dropping it a half inch...

I've lived in Boston, Park City, UT so I know snow, but now i Live in San Diego and I don't even go out in the R8 if it's raining.

Getting 18 inch wheels wouldn't drop it. You'd just get tires with more sidewall to compensate.

Anyway, I believe we have somewhere around 4-4.5 inches of clearance stock. I would definitely not park outside in the snow, though. I'd imagine you wouldn't have much trouble driving around if roads are plowed at all.

 

[lunyx]

I'll leave you with a scenario here to ponder. You're traveling down the highway at 65 or 70mph and need to emergency brake. It's 5F degrees out. You end up rear-ending the car in front of you. Was it due to compromised stopping distance of your summer tires, or was it simply an unavoidable situation even in the best of summer conditions? Your opinion on it probably doesn't matter. Your insurance adjuster comes out to inspect your totaled R8 and notes... ah, you were driving on ultra high performance summer tires in the dead of a Chicago winter. Coverage denied. Why? Well, you were negligent, knowingly operating the vehicle with tires that the manufacturer states are only for summer use. This was a "preventable accident."

If it's dry, the stopping distance is actually better on summer tires than winters, even at low temps. How low the temps can go before that potentially changes? I have no idea. However, looking at some tests that have been done on this:

Do You Need Winter Tires If It Doesn't Snow? - YouTube
The TRUTH About Winter, All Season and Summer Tires ❄ Tested at 0c, 2c, 6c, 10c, 15c - YouTube

I personally still would choose the winters, especially since wet/snow would ruin your day, but the dry performance definitely caught me off guard.

 

[lunyx]

He is in Vermont, streets there during the winter are covered in mixes of salt slush, ice and old snow/crusty snow. I travel there often for snowboarding. Winter tire tread not only helps grip snow and use it against itself for traction, but the tread is specifically designed to help with sliding on ice (which is actually hydroplaning because as pressure is exerted on ice it turns to water and creates a film of water to slide on… also incidentally how Ice skates work)

the test above is flawed in that you are making assumptions that the road condition will be perfect. With my own anecdotal evidence, my PS4S are downright dangerous around freezing temps and have found myself in four wheel drifts during some early cold Novembers before my switch to winters.
Also seen friends wreck their M cars driving on cold roads 10F with with PSS in NJ.

I did mention for dry roads, it's surprisingly better on summers. I don't think the first test is flawed since he is driving on a publicly maintained road. Whether or not that's the same condition as the area you live in is another question. The second video I linked does show wet performance, and it is expectedly worse on summers. On dry, it confirms the test in the first video, which is summers being better.

Again, I would still choose winters over summers in cold temps, not only for the risk of damaging the summers, but also because you can't know for sure what the road conditions will be wherever you're going. However, that said, in dry weather, in a pinch, it doesn't seem that summers are necessarily undriveable or dangerous.

 

[lunyx]

I really hope you don’t drive the same way in 0F on summer tires that you do at 50F. If you want to spew wrong information all day and correlate it to anecdotal experience, I’ll play. I’ve also had 4 500hp cars with pss/ Ps4s and you are flat out wrong to say they have the same dynamics in the cold. They don’t. They let go much quicker and there is less compliance in the sidewall.
Smh. You can ostrich all you want and shove your head in the sand, but it literally does not change physics.
Someone get @scottahlman in here.

Pretty sure he did NOT say that they have the same dynamics in the cold. But if you're just going somewhere and it's dry out, there's no reason why you can't. Obviously, don't drive the same way as you would during proper temps. I only brought this up in the first place because people are saying that braking distance is worse in cold weather and you would be a complete liability with summers on, but that's not always the case. Just drive it like a normal car and you'll be fine, as long as it's dry.