At least there are a few benefits to winter.......

[TonyD]

Its getting really cold here in MA. Waiting for the snow apocalypse. At least driving the Type R in the cold has some benefits.

I'm on my winter wheels and tires now. Michelin Alpin 4s. I really like these and the ride is so much smoother than the stock wheels. With the stockers if I run over a penny I can tell you what year it is. On the winters minor road cracks just disappear.

The R really enjoys cold air. My STI was like this also. (Cold air is denser which is why we have intercoolers etc) I don't have any dyno runs but my butt dyno tells me the car just feels more eager to run and slightly more powerful.

The sound is intensified. Again, no scientific evidence but the exhaust and intake noise just sounds better. Very minor but I hear a difference. I was on the phone with my friend and he commented on it. He could hear it through the phone.

I also noted on the last 2 tanks that the mileage went up about 1.5 MPG. I daily drive the car every week and keep loose track of it. I normally see ~28/29 on the display which comes out to 27 if you do the actual math. Lately I've been seeing 31 for the same drive.

Time to enjoy it before the snow starts flying!

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[WhatThePuck]

I literally laughed out loud at "...if I run over a penny I can tell you what year it is"

 

[Z06_Pilot]

I literally laughed out loud at "...if I run over a penny I can tell you what year it is"

Indeed...that's worth another +1. Never heard it described any better !

 

[remc86007]

Maybe your summer wasn't as brutal as ours was in Florida, but I wouldn't describe the car as "slightly more powerful" in the cooler weather, I would describe it as very significantly more powerful. The difference between 95 degree ambient and 55 degree ambient feels like more than 100hp different. Granted, I'm running the KTuner Stage 1, so the differences might be exaggerated. In the summer here I saw intake temps ranging from 145F to 170F in the city and 110F to 130F on the highway. The car is just plain slow in those situations. On the other hand, I noticed higher MPG cruising on the highway with higher temperatures. Just this past week I did a long road trip. On the way there it was 40 degrees and I got 28 MPG on the highway and on the way back it was 75 degrees and I got 34 MPG. Even on the same stretch of road, my instant MPG is higher when it is warm out.

 

[MonkeyConQueso]

Cold air = denser air. Denser air = better combustion. Better combustion is part of the air/fuel mixture measurements the ECU is making, since it has more air, it can use more fuel, which results in more responsiveness and power within it's programmed thresholds. If the ECU wasn't there to tune things with changes in temperature and humidity... we'd be having a bad time.

I'm sure there's much better explanations out there, but this is basically the gist of how I understand it.

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