willskiGT
Senior Member
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2019
- Threads
- 6
- Messages
- 314
- Reaction score
- 190
- Location
- Atlanta
- Vehicle(s)
- 2019 Civic Type R #26262
Based on manufacturer feedback (Michelin, Continental), summer tires can suffer damage only if used at 20F and below. So technically, it is safe for the tire to use them in those temps.Now I'm not going to go around telling you what to do with your car, but please don't tell people it is anything approaching safe to drive on summer rubber in 20 degrees. 20 degrees is when you start having to worry about keeping summer compound warm for storage, to say nothing of using it. Driving on summer compound at 20F is sort of like driving on winter compound at 80F. It doesn't make any sense and is EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
Additionally, if you are not driving on a snowy/icy road, summer tires (even at low temps) still perform quite well in low temps - actually better than winter tires in a lot of cases. In the video below, the ambient temp is 24F and the summer tires greatly outperform winter tires (on an S2000).
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