rcfowner

Who drives their rc in the winter? Who uses winter tires and what kind? What precautions do you take to protect paint, glass, etc.. from hazardous cold and debris? Report in.

(here's mine after washing with chemical guys citrus wash and gloss)

CAHWY128

I drive mine all winter. I live in California so no big deal. It is actually my favorite time to drive because the cool air makes the car feel faster and the back roads around Napa where I drive have way less tourist traffic in winter.

DebianDog

05RollaXRS

We get snow here so it hibernates in the underground garage from December till March. Don't want salt and rock chip cr*p on it. I drive my daily everywhere during those months.

1KwikGT

2UR

05RollaXRS

That is the way to go, if you intend on keeping your RCF for the long term especially in pristine condition. Salts and rock chips are the worst enemies of the exterior condition (if they throw in your area for traction). I have 3M tape on my car, but due the wide track (and spacers on mine), it still kicks up rock chips quite a lot and the paint is quite thin on our RCFs so it can chip rather easily.

I will have to wait patiently till next april/may to put a catback exhaust on my RCF.

2UR

05RollaXRS

No, Ceramic coating will not give the same protection as PPF. It can resist some small rock chips, but for the ultimate protection PPF is the way to go.

Regarding ISF, funny you mentioned since my service advisor at the local Toyota dealership for my daily driver, has a modded 2010 Silver ISF that he drives all the year round. When I was checking it out in the parking lot, the hood was fully of rock chips like my Corolla XRS. That is when it dawned on me that it is not a good idea to drive it in the winter for longevity reasons.

Benoit

There is a problem with my translator here. Everytime I tip "bra" in the translator, he's throwing me some woman underwear. I really doubt this translation is correct. Can you confirm ?

ct6978

The name is based on the older style car bra (see example below) that was named after women's underwear, specifically the top 1/2... A clear bra for a car is simply a thin, slightly more permanent (you can peel off and replace) version using plastic film, same function, different construction. Both types of car bras offer protection to your front end from rock chips, although the clear bras look better and don't flap in the wind.


Old school car bra:



Clear bra (closeup of a partial version that's a bit obvious, done properly they can be essentially invisible as they're stretched into the seams and often cover the entire front end or all of the car)

Rahim523

Damn.... nobody here drives their car in the winter? Lol I live in Chicago with brutal winters and plan on driving it year round. I can barely go a day without being in the driver's seat!! Just need some advice on the best snow tires for our car

05RollaXRS

Well, RCF is not fun to drive in the winter. Even if you have Blizzaks on, you have to be careful with the power. It will get you where you want to go in deep snow, but if you try to accelerate, the tail is going to come out easily. Basically you are driving the car in limp mode whenever it snows. I guess, for me it is quality rather than quantity of driving and that RCF does not make much sense as a point A to B job especially when there is salt and rock chips on the roads.

Benoit

Thank you for the precisions. It's now absolutely clear for me.

I'm actually not possessing a Lexus RCF. Whatever, as I searched good winter tires for my own car, I got into a specialized shop with a good reputation. In short, what the shopkeeper said to me back then, was that every brand, in general, use a specific brand of tires when they are doing their setup in the prototype phase.
I will invent here, but VW for example Continental in the summer and Dunlop in the Winter. Peugeot Michelin in the Winter and maybe in the summer, etc... Lexus is very likely to proceed in the same way. Maybe Lexus could give you some advice directly of what brand of tire they usually use in winter for setuping their cars.

Also, not all brands are performing the same in a specific tire design. So if you put those rubbers on the OEM 19" wheels or if you put them on 17" aftermarket wheels for the winter will make a huge difference.

And, for the last, a personnal advice from me based on my past experience on snow (we have a lot of them too in Switzerland), I always recommend to have a good chunk of tire flange when you put winter tires on. For the RCF, I would not put on a wheel that is larger than 17" for real winter application. Also, bagged cars and lowered cars are a problem on snow, so check the actual performance of your local winter road crews. If they let the snow raise more than what is necessary to clean your front fender, I would have a used Daihatsu Trevis on the side for the worst case scenarios.

05RollaXRS

RCF cannot have any wheel smaller than 19 inch because of the brake/caliper clearance issue. Maybe, some specific 18 wheels with appropriate design can barely clear the brakes, but 17 inch is impossible.