So what difference does a set of cold weather tyres actually make? If you’ve read this month's Fast Fleet report on our Jaguar XFR (evo 141), you’ll know we wanted a set after getting stuck in December’s snow.

Four Pirelli Sotto Zeros (£1294 for the set) were fitted by Tyres Northampton, another XFR was sourced on standard Dunlop SP Sport Maxx summer rubber and Bedford Autodrome was booked – not that it was busy with two inches of snow on the West Circuit.

There were three tests to do - a lap time, a 0-60mph (to measure the differences in accelerative traction) and a 60-0mph braking figure. Sure, it was a lot of fun, but the motive was serious - to find out how much more grip, poise and traction the cold weather tyres offered.

Read our editor Nick Trott's views on the winter tyres here

Conditions were mixed - snow off-line, mostly slush on-line and some of the corners merely wet. It was about 3°C. The standard XFR (plate ending EFC) was hopeless almost everywhere. Skittish and snatchy, it could barely put any power down and slithered to a 2:35 lap.

The Sotto Zeros were a revelation from the get-go. The same width and profile as standard, the difference was noticeable in the pitlane – this time we didn’t join the track sideways. This Jag (plate ending EFF) was far more predictable and manageable through corners, peak speed was 20mph faster, and you could feel the tyres biting through the snow. I was amazed at the liberties you could take – it was hard to believe we were on snow. The result? More than 30sec sliced off the lap time, at 2min04sec.

Would four-wheel drive help? We had an Evo X FQ-330 on summer rubber to hand. It managed a 2m29s, 25sec adrift of the winter-tyred XF. Point proved. To get the standard XFR to perform a 0-60mph time at all, I had to to start on wet tarmac and it still took 15.3sec – the cold weather tyres cut that to 8.9sec.

Braking was where the biggest differences lay. The Sport Maxxes took longer to stop from 60mph than to get there in the first place, covering a huge 782.1ft (238.4m) in 18.5sec. The Sotto Zeros helped the XFR stop in 7.8sec, covering 330.8ft (100.8m) – way under half the time and distance. Next month we’ll reveal what the cold weather tyres feel like in day-to-day driving conditions...

Read our editor Nick Trott's views on the winter tyres here

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