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Old 12-13-2004, 07:12 PM   #1
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Question Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

In order to help breathe new life into the forum, i figuired I'd add another thread. Share your cool winter driving techniques / stories here.

I'll start with happened to me on the expressway the other morning (6 am, still dark): I was going South on rural US-27 near my house (mid michigan) it was shitty with about 2 inches of really wet slush snow that happened been plowed yet (god bless our road commision) and me along with everyone else was doing about 45 tops. I had been following the tahoe infront of me for about 10 miles without passing. Finally, I decided to overtake and go to pass - cept since the left lane was travelled so much less, the amount of slush in it was huge. I got up next to the tahoe, I was doing about 55, only to get sucked off to the left towards the median. I ended up fishtailing back onto the road, but then was going towards him to fast, so i ended up going back towards the median. I had to decide A) Median B) Tahoe, or C) if i'm lucky keep it in between. so after about 10 seconds of fishtailing i managed to land it in the middle of the lane and pull past him, only to discover there was a semi infront of him whose draft was now brutally throwing around my weight-reductioned-grand am. I didn't want to have another median mis-hap, so I was forced to slow down and pull back in behind the tahoe. A completely useless attempt at passing - all it did was help burn off the calories from my scrambled eggs. Lesson learned: slush sucks.
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Old 12-14-2004, 04:11 PM   #2
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

okay so this is my first year driving a stick in the winter, i still havent perfected the stop and going into first i give it alot of gas not alot around 2 1/2 rpm and iam scared that this winter when it starts to snow that i will do nothing but spin my tires... how can i teach myself not to give it so much gas? you know what i mean? or is that somthing i just have to figure out myself? if you can help or have any advise get back at me. pm me if possible...
thanx britt
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Old 12-14-2004, 06:13 PM   #3
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

Ease up on clutch first until it starts to grab THEN start to add a bit of throttle and progress with it until you've completely engaged the clutch. Don't do it to slow or you'll eventually smoke the clutch, but don't do it to fast or you'll stall. Practice makes perfect, because it's all in the coordination between your left and right feet. If your stopped on a hill, when you are ready to move use your hand brake to keep you from rolling back until you begin to move forward.
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Old 12-15-2004, 09:28 AM   #4
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

Or... get a Subaru! Seriously, though, easing up on the gas is something that's not really all that hard to do, especially in a FWD car like a Civic. Your clutch isn't going to take any damage at all; it's designed for that kind of around-town style driving rather than high performance. Now, if you drove a Corvette or something, I'd say take it a little easier. Your car doesn't have the power to do major damage to the clutch with that kind of driving. My Saturn and my Mustang both lived many miles with their original clutch (Saturn is still going after 110k), and I lived in one of the rainiest cities in the USA, so I was constantly feathering the clutch on starts.
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Old 12-23-2004, 03:48 PM   #5
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

So in college we borrow a guys 1975 Chevy Nova POS to go "pick up a pizza". Snowbanks abound, and we hit a curve behind one of the University buildings that has a layer of ice under 2" of snow. Poof. Front end in the snowbank. So there we are, digging with our hands at midnight to free this beast from the 4' of snow it's buried in. High centered, too. Dang. So dig dig dig. Go to start the car, starter won't engage. So rock paper and scissors to see who crawls under to remove snow from around the starter. I win, ha. So Tom crawls under, cursing all the while to remove the snow. Car starts but wheels spin and can't get it to rock out. So more digging. Hands red and raw, we finally take our shirts off and put them under rear wheels for traction. We escape. Pizza is cold on return. Downplay dirty shirts and shrug while returning keys.
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Old 12-29-2004, 11:57 AM   #6
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

LMAO wow.... you poor poor bastards... lol that must've really sucked

That is why I carry an entrenching tool in my trunk
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Old 12-29-2004, 12:07 PM   #7
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

Yeah - it's fun, NOW. But then it wasn't. Heh.
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Old 01-05-2005, 07:31 PM   #8
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

Well i took my cars out on parking lots and practiced controlling skids in rain sleet snow ice.

I learned how to power around to counteract skids and its saved my ass more times than i can count.
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Old 01-05-2005, 08:58 PM   #9
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

That's the best way to learn, by practicing in a safe and controlled environment.
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Old 01-06-2005, 11:54 AM   #10
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

Amen to that. Buy some old, used tires and go party in a deserted parking lot.
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Old 01-29-2005, 01:17 AM   #11
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

#1 winter driving technique of mine: REALLY GOOD FINNISH SNOW TIRES.
Scary winter scenario. Five lane highway (two lanes either direction, paved turning lane) around a nice, extremely gentle righthand sweeper on a slow downhill.
Lady (meh, mid-50's, rich) pulls out in her minivan to join my direction of traffic. She's doing about 5 mph or so, so I figure she was gonna stop in the median. NOPE. Right in front of me, still doing the 5 mph, with no signs of speeding up.
I stand on the brakes, and go sideways (driver side leading). Countersteering like made, I stand on the gas (front-driver), and jump in the right lane as the assend comes back around.
Then, I just laid on the horn when I passed, and let her know she was number 1.
I was shaking for about an hour.
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Old 02-01-2005, 12:23 PM   #12
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handbrake!

I'm an absolute terror in my '93 Impreza winter beater - the car is FWD, rear tires are treadless, fronts are wearing thin, the car has very little traction but man is it ever predictable in spins. I like can't help flip the handbrake going into turns in my neighbourhood. Tons 'O fun.
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Old 02-01-2005, 04:39 PM   #13
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

Steps for Good traction:
-Rev to 6,000-7,000 (higher if you engine is capeable)
-Place in 1st
-Let Clutch out completely, jerky and fast.
-oops, forgot the parking brake
-Rev to 6,000-7,000
-Drop Clutch agian jerky and fast
-Traction has been obained

lol, no. really i have never and probably never will drive in the snow. Florida . But driving in the sand is the same. Learning the art of feathing the clutch with out burning it is esincial. also, start the vehicle out in 2nd from a stop. dont engine brake, coast around corners, FWD will experence extreme understeer and RWD will xperence extreme over steer.














or just yank the E-brake, Rola'Costa' St!l3!!!!!111!!!One
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Old 02-01-2005, 05:25 PM   #14
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i work at tenaya lodge near yosemite, and in the winter the road up there is a terrible and dangerous thing. well one day last year i was cruisin up there in about 4 inches of fresh powder(and still snowing). well the highway patrols weren't out and the chain requirement signs weren't flipped, even though they usually flip them because we have a lot of retarded tourists from LA and other sunnier parts of Cali who can't drive in the snow...plus this road is like Kart heaven, some flat turns, some banked turns, long straights followed by sharp turns, and other general fun stuff in the summer. well i was following this big AWD truck, and he was kind of cutting a path for me when he started to fishtail around a turn. he eventually lost it not more than 200 feet in front of me. as he was turned sideways in the road, taking up both lanes, i had three options, hit him, hit the side of the mountain, or fly of a fifty foot cliff. my initial reaction was to dive(as fast as possible without spinning myself) into the other lane. well he had locked his brakes so he had no control and was spinning very slowly...and i just inched by in the other lane as he came close enough to a 180 that i could squeeze by unscathed. i didn't stop for that retard...he had a big truck with 4WD and i had my 86 stang with normal all weather tires. i got to work just fine, but that guy freaked me out sooo bad.
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Old 02-22-2005, 02:09 AM   #15
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Re: Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

Quote:
Originally Posted by DVS LT1
handbrake!

...but man is it ever predictable in spins. I like can't help flip the handbrake going into turns in my neighbourhood. Tons 'O fun.
You and me both! '92 Talon, FWD, and I e-brake every turn I can--I love sending that thing sideways

But like someone else said, first snow every winter, go find an empty parking lot and practice. Then when it happens for real, you'll know how to correct for it.
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