Bridgestone Blizzak Ws80 205/40R17XL Tire 84H

These are phenomenal tires in the snow and ice. I have these on my all-wheel drive matrix and the grip/handling at hwy speed in snow/ice is the best I have ever felt. I drive 70mi round trip each day and these have held up well with very little wear showing, the new nubs lasted for over 1000mi, which is incredible considering the soft compound the tire is constructed of. the handling is a bit vague in dry/warmer weather but these tires are not made for that anyway. They make up for it when the weather results in cold/icy/snow packed roads. I tested the tires in a abandon parking lot (straight line braking, brake-turn, accel-turn, direction change, etc) and I had to be "aggressive" to get the tires to yield their traction to the conditions. un-believable performance in less than ideal conditions.

I used to run Michelin X-Ice2 on my Camry during the winter and had to avoid really bad ice, snow, slush condition. Since getting the Blizzak WS80 on my Outback, I'm longing for a really really challenging situation just to try out the combination. So far, I've just got one 30-cm snow storm, but nothing seemed to be too challenging including up and down steep sharp curves on 6 cm of slush and ice with the car still running like the Camry on dry road. Well, there are still 3 months of harsh winter left, and I hope to get more fun.