New England winter has been very mild and easy so far – it was up above 70 one Saturday a few weeks ago (ice cream!) and the weather people say about 2″ total snow this year compared with 18″ for a typical winter-so-far.
But it did snow, just a little, enough to see what GPMINIs snow tires could do …
Snow tires – GPMINIs snow tires are not the “magic bullet” for winter; I did my normal see-what-the-grip-is-like test which I do when the weather is dodgy, touching the brakes part way down my road … I got loads of ABS and I’m sure I would have slid sideways if I’d braked really hard! Of course I put 17″ runflat snows on, doubtless nowhere near as good as Blizzaks or other aftermarket choices; but for the GP runflats are preferable with the very low lift points.
I also took the opportunity to try some (low speed) spins on an empty parking lot; I locked the steering hard left and drove about 20mph – of course the tires couldn’t grip but it was VERY interesting to feel and see what DSC could do! Every second or so one or both rear brakes were applied (it felt like) and the car was thrown a little sideways at the back, allowing the front end to pull a little into the turn I was asking for.
A great way to find out what and how DSC works – recommended if you can find an empty slippery parking lot!
M&I / GBMINI 
Sounds like that was a load of fun. So does this mean you’ll drive GB in the snow?
I’m driving GBMINI now, because GPMINI is having it’s interior removed (dynamat), but I don’t think GPMINI is any worse on it’s runflat snows, than GBMINI on its aftermarket all-seasons.
I want to see some handbrake-turn videos!