Winter Driving Techniques / Stories

[mx6rrr]

Ahh, I drove 3 years in Wisconsin weather with an 86 fiero gt, talk about having fun. Mid engine, rear wheel drive, no power steering...doesnt turn real well and every little patch of ice seemed to make my car spin....This year I drove my MX6 which was nice with front engine/drive, but I never got around to switch from my lo-pros to winter tires....So for me, The e-brake was used more than the peddle....(and it was usually in parking lots woo hoo until the police came....twice....).

[Ridenour]

LoL that sucks. What'd the police do / say?

[TheStang00]

i love driving my mustang in snow... lots of fun, gotta love downshifting to stop you.

[tr0ike]

I was born + raised in Orange/San Diego County, so we barely had rain and certainly never snow.

Had my Golf two years though, and plenty of snow here in Arizona (go figure). It boggles my mind that people can't drive in it .. certainly no one taught me, but the first time on the highway, I had enough sense to slow down, whereas I saw literally 30 trucks/SUVs (mainly) flipped over or in ditches on the side of the road
After I got into town, waiting to turn into Wendys/Exxon (dining hall closed at 6pm Fridays, so lame) ... huge extended cab duramax diesel-type Chevy coming at me tries to turn right into the exxon at full speed / regular braking in 2 inches of snow ... slides right into the planter and blocks the entry instead

Always see people spin out going only 10-30mph here in town during snow too, its not that hard ... idiots!

[TheStang00]

the best strategy for driving in snow... be patient. thats it, thats all it takes. and dont try to run over snow drifts lol.

[vette_7t9]

YES patience is virtue. =D Well.....my story:

I was racing my frends corolla in my escort, and there was a medium left turn. that day roads were covered in snow and ice, so we both slided on it. I wanted to catch up so i gunned it. The rear started sliding out, and i didn't counter steer in time because i thought i was gona understeer into a ditch. So i end up spinning around, and on the opposite lane then ending up in the grass/snow half the cars ass off the road. I see a snow plow coming fast right towards me, so i had to gun the gas and get the hell outa there! Definately scary.

I guess winter driving you just gota take it as it happens. What i mean is don't panic and jerk the wheel when you slide. When my dad drives on the highway/interstate, he starts sliding the car ALL over if noone is beside us.................the tail literally is 45 degrees most of the time.. everyone in the cars flipping out or screaming haha. But he just grins. Definately scary!

[mx6rrr]

Originally Posted by Ridenour

LoL that sucks. What'd the police do / say?

Lol, everytime the police came they didnt really care that we were doing slides...we were trying to drift in a figure 8 around light poles in a parking lot most of the time behind where we worked (no cars ever went through there)...The cops would come up to us with lights on and say that someone called it in and that we had to go somewhere else or stop.

[Ridenour]

sweet. I wish cops were like that around here . Wow, speaking of winter fun in parking lots, I had an awesome experience a few months back. I came to our high school parking lot late at night for an orchestra concert - there were a few cars in one end, and the rest of the parking lot (a good 3 to 5 acres of smooth concrete) were completely open, with a fresh 2 or 3 inches of snow ontop I had some wickedly good fun - and noone had even driven through any of it, so I could see exactly what I had done. It kicked ass.

[regalfriend]

Two lane road. Guy in a Dodge Durango cuts me off, in the snow... I started speeding up to pass him and he kept speeding up to not let me. As we aproached a sharp curve i downshifted and hit brakes...He continued, coasting, through the turn, then hit his brakes halfway through. He fishtailed and wound up in a ditch...I pulled up next to him and asked if he had a cell phone, and he didnt....I told him i would call for help when i got home....When i got home, I got laid, took a dump then called for help....if he didnt cut me off i would have went home, got laid, called for help, then took a dump....

[da_moose]

#1 winter driving technique of mine: REALLY GOOD FINNISH SNOW TIRES.

You must have Hakka's? I agree there is absolutely no substitute for good snow tires. So far (knock on wood) I haven't had any real incidents on snow and I do push pretty hard on the backroads. However I always run on snow tires.

[bmwboy]

well learning how a car behaves on slippery surfaces is important, but still sometimes the car reacts differently than what you'd expect from it... just 2 days ago we had the first minus temperatures over here and I was coming home late... the is a long right turn which is wide and I love to powerslide through the whole turn during the winter ( have done it in my 518, and my 320 in the past) so now I have the 325 which doesn't require much to get sideways... so seing the small icey surface I thought I'd give it the first go for the winter... the problem was that the road wasn't completly covered with ice so there were only spots that are slippery... I tried to ignore this fact and tried my famous powerslide that I have done so many times, the result was very heavy understeer instead, close to hitting the curb atlast it hit a dry spot so I got lucky... afterwards I wondered how this could happen, and the only explanation I have is that when I tried to get the tail out my fron tires were on ice and the rear tires on dry tarmac so they pushed the car forward instead of brraking the rear loose... luckily nothing happened, but mixed surfaces can be very unpredictable even if you know how to control skids... BTW has anyone seen the dvd the drift bible??? I got it 2 years ago... its a nice guide to drifting

[Chiquae07]

i dont have th drift bible...but i can relate to driving in wisconsin. all i do through neighborhoods is really pull the ebrake since in a FF, you get no traction unless you're going 3mph. i end up pulling the ebrake and my neighbors have called the police on me for doing it. its either, hit your car, or pull ebrake and slide around the corner. they hate me for it....i used the brake today since i was lazy and diddnt want to do a Y turn to get into a parkin spot. no cars, go about 10 mph, e brake and wualla! 180 and get the spot. kids @ skoo that saw me thought i was crazy in 1st hr haha.

but there is nothin like going figure 8's in a parking lot, then the cops get called, and they can't eally do anything. if you're not bothering someone, or close to other cars. if they ask all you say is that you want to be ready to control your car when it decides to slip on the road so i dont hit anyone...they usually do say go somewhere else or stop...i never run snow tires, always running my summer "r" rated tires since i dont mind if my car slides a little...

[Chiquae07]

reminds me, i saw a dumb ass in a jeep take a turn that i ususally powerside through @ like 55 and he took it @ 50 with snow....ne ran into a ditch and flipped sideways...dumbass....eitherway i called for help for them since it was like 2 min for my house...

[VincentDurango]

Its an old post but. Lets bring it back to life. I know most of you run 2 wheel drive cars. But Just for your information 4x4 are worse then your cars in corners. 4x4's Only help me get going in low traction areas and deep snow. Other then that, they are not much help. Hell i have fun with it in snow. Up here when we get snow falls that stop the busses from running I get to have the whole road to myself. Picture this, A foot of snow covering the whole road, all fresh and white, And i get to blaze the first path across the whole dam thing. Just to be an ass ill zig zag the 4 lanes. Only problem is by mid morning all main roads are plowed Then its off to side streets and mall lots... wait the mall just upgraded to Hummers to patrol the parking lots. well they are H3s do you think they can catch me.

[Chiquae07]

yes i think they might...and to have a mall have H3s...where do u live?