Snow Driving

[Angus]

Right the top three loser cars for driving up hills in the snow is.......

BMW - Once you add the enclosed ego - too heavy for the rear wheel drive
Transit - well we all knew white van man couldn't drive didn't we??
Land Rover... Only kidding
Any other rear wheel car to be honest (yes that includes your mx5 dave )

Muchos respect due to the Subaru (think it was forester) - space saver spare on and still no probs (I know it was 4wd but it's still a family car ain't it?)

Digger cleared the road a few times which helped a bit; problem now though is that it'll freeze over night......anybody got any skates?

Worst driver goes to a lass in an alfa (too dark to see if she was fit or not) - I was helping her by pushing the car up the hill and she kept stamping on the brake once she got started. big DOH.

edit: (cos dave told me to) Respect to Dave for knowing when the snow had beaten him - parked up at the bottom of the hill.

[J4MES]

BMW + bigger ego (extra weight) = more grip ...

MX-5 = big problems - no rear-end weight = no grip

[DR]

Fill it up with fuel and you will have weight

[Butuz]

My street's already icing up - just went up the shop to get some beer, pulled out the junction conservativeley, traction control kicks in in 1st, change to second, traction control kicks in, change to 3rd, traction control kicks in all the way to 30!

THats the problem with my whole estate, it was tarmac'd about 10 years ago with proper smooth (expensive!) tarmac, and now after 10 years of wear, it turns into a total ice rink in weather like this.

Gonna be fun trying to get to work tomorrow - if i even manage to make it out of me 30 degree steep drive, and negotiate the icerink, ove stil got the head up and up and up the valleys where the snow and ice will get worse and worse and worse

Heres hoping (along with 75 other staff, and 1000 kids) for the school to close tomorrow

Mohaha

ON topic of snow driving, should be fun. I always used to go out last time it snowed with my mates in our mini's - superb fun, its a pretty quiet estate, and at 5am..... rar colin macrae time (exept we didnt crash, my m8 stacked his KA, my other mate stacked his SAxo, no minis crashed) . But i aint got the mini now , got the boaring focus, with wide slick tyres, front wheel drive, and alot of weight. Gonna be interesting to see how sideways that will go, if i can even get it bloody moving in the first place

Butuz

[EMPI]

[QUOTE=Angus]
Any other rear wheel car to be honest (yes that includes your mx5 dave )
QUOTE]

My car is rear wheel drive and it gets great traction in the snow...mind you the engine is in the back, but it is great fun too.

Check out
http://www.empiserver.dyndns.org/pag...owplow-bug.mov

Proof

Stu

[Shad]

I had great fun on the way home from work earlier, nipping the handbrake on the roundabouts and getting very very sideways

ABS is pretty useless in snow/ice, but the TC came in handy.

[Angus]

[QUOTE=EMPI]

Any other rear wheel car to be honest (yes that includes your mx5 dave )
QUOTE]

My car is rear wheel drive and it gets great traction in the snow...mind you the engine is in the back, but it is great fun too.

Check out
http://www.empiserver.dyndns.org/pag...owplow-bug.mov

Proof

Stu

Don't know what car you've got; but the only rear engined car I saw (might be mid I don't really know the difference) was an old style mr2 - was in great difficulty.

I've now decided I dislike ABS (after going and having a play in an empty car park).

[EMPI]

I'm sure the mr2 is mid engine. Mine is a VW beetle, like the one in my sig

Stu

[TiG]

on a more serious note how many people noticed people revving the rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishE out of their cars to "move" some people don't know the first fkign thing about driving while icy.

I may not be the worlds expert but to see people wondering why they are not going anywhere with their wheels spinning like mad astounds me.

More to come on this tomorrow but considuring i've had to walk best part of 4 miles today in icy conditions to help out get my dad up the hill (or at least help the people in front of my dad who hadn't got a fking clue out of the way)

I'm rather knackered.

I PRAY that it doesn't snow tomorrow...
TiG

[daverobev]

5 1/2 Hours. 21 miles. Nuff said, no?

[Tumble]

best thing to do is use the low down torque.. in fact it's the only thing to do. It's precisely like driving up a slope on gravel, or similar situation where traction is at a premium, and to be moving, you're on the knife edge of it. The trick is not to try and go fast. People try to go as fast as they can up a hill - it may feel like you aint moving, but it'll get there, and even if you're crawling up the hill, you've still got more traction and speed than the guy doing 7k rpm with his tyres smoking. I can get my van up a hill in the ice just as quickly as the Landy, quicker in fact cos I'd use the low ratio box in the Landy... The vehicle will go as fast as it can - you may have to guive it a little throttle to stop it bogging, but too much and the wheels will spin. take your time and chug - going slow is better than not going at all

[5lab]

rwd is the way to go in the snow up a hill, far more traction than fwd - my engines at the front but the gearbox is right over the rear wheels.. rwd is just a hoot full stop when it comes to snow

[Lowe]

I struggle in this weather. Clutch is not very progressive and my accelerator is *very* sensitive. Plus with all the torque I just end up spinning the wheels. Gotta be soooooo gentle with it.

[5lab]

do it in a higher gear then - say 10mph in 4th, and you'll loose most your torque and it'll be easier to do

[Richie]

I'm gonna defend the BMW comment here with an actual example that happened to me in mine.

Right at my house (which is out in the sticks) I have to go up a fairly long and steep hill which, near the top has a 90 degree bend to the left followed by a 90 degree bend to the right and then it goes up and over an old railway bridge. The hill continues all the way thru these bends.

Anyways, I drive a 5 series BMW (newest shape till the brand new one came out). Its not a light car, in fact it weighs around 1750KG due to the engine and extra stuff. Amongst this "stuff" is BMW's excellent Dynamic Stability Control (DSC) system.

DSC is just a fancy traction control. As well as monitoring rear wheel spin and cutting power to stop the rear wheels spinning, it has a yaw sensor and a sensor mounted in the steering wheel which are used together so that when you turn the wheel, the car expects to move in that direction and it uses the yaw sensor to confirm this is happening. It also applies the brakes INDEPENDANTLY of each other to keep you safe... In fact it works so well, Quentin Wilson had to turn it off to get the back end to slide at all...

Right, ok.... Now I explained the theory crap lets get on with the story


I was driving up this hill in the ice/snow with no probs until I got to the first right hand 90 degree bend. I turned the wheel but the car kept going straight on. This lasted for a split second and the next thing I heard was a grumbling type noise from the front right wheel and a slight pulsing in the brake pedal... The same kind of feeling you associate with ABS working but this was different.

What had happened was that I had the wheel turned to the right but the car realised I wasnt turning right as the yaw sensor didnt match. Thru some computer jiggery-pokery and some clever programming of the ECU it was locking and releasing the right hand front brake effectively making me sping around that wheel and making me turn the corner...


First time it happened was a bit but if you let the car do its job and dont try and interfere then you'll be fine.


The BMW DSC system is unbeleviable...



Long story but I hope I got my point across

[5lab]

i can understand that, but it kinda spoils the fun dont it? if you get used to relying on something like that you'll be f*cked if you go on something without...

incidentally, the carpark at work has a down-ramp then a flat bit then a barrier with a card-swipe thing.. unfortunatly it was icy today and 3 cars failed to stop in time for the barrier. oops..