Well my first experience of RWD and snow last night nearly went wrong. Had to do a last minute run to Heathrow to pick the missus up at 1am, after her flights got messed around with. I live on a big hill and a BMW 320d with widish rear tyres in 2" of snow = NO traction whatsoever. I did get up eventually, but there was much slithering and wheelspinning. High gear/low revs didn't work any better than low gear/high revs.
Obviously if I happened to have some big bags of sand or something around, things would have been easier, but at 1am I didn't... Fortunately it was only the local streets round my flat that were snowy. The rest was just wet.
loads of revs, handbrake every corner, pretend your finnish...
lol.
Also don't forget drive up the ar$e of other road users, pick the steepest hills in your area and try and drive up them, use back roads only and emergency stop every time you get to a junction (my experiences of 80% of drivers last night, c0cks!!)
All kidding aside, if you do the exact opposite to all of the above you will be fine. If you drive a manual always pick a lower gear than normal when going down hill and let the engine do the breaking. Remember and tap break pedal lightly to let other road users know you are slowing down. Stick to main roads and hope the local counsels don't run out of salt again this year.
I love to watch low-powered cars with skinny tyres leaving X5s standing. The meek SHALL inheirit the earth
Oh yes inddeedy!
Thin tyres cut through the snow, and front wheel drive gives more grip!
(Rear wheel drive is USELESS in snow if you want to get anywhere.)
I used to have a Fiat Panda, with skinny 135x13 tyres. Best snow car in the world! I remember towing bigger cars out of snowdrifts to bump start them down the road, no problem at all. Awesome car in the snow. 🙂
RWD in snow is great fun, even if it can be difficult to keep enough momentum going due to muppets in front of you.
Contrary to staying in a high gear, use low gears when setting off as they give more sensitivity and you can balance throttle and clutch to get traction to get moving. Using 2nd etc means you need to put more torque/throttle down and that encourages wheel spin.
Getting any where on snow is about momentum, if you come to a hill with muppets crawling up skidding every where, wait way before the bottom until they have gone and then get some speed, and dont slow down!
Of course this also relys on you knowing what to do when the car starts to slide....
Jon try switching off the ESC on the 320d. Doing this is according to the manual is claimed to switch in a form of traction control which may help but in my experience with the car only a little. If there ain't any traction you can't control it.
If you slide,
DONT brake
DONT stamp your foot on the clutch.
DONT touch the clutch!!
DO steer in the direction of the slide, little by little to encourage the car to regain traction forwardsm it doesnt take that much to get it back on straight. Dont over-do turning into a slide, or you'll just end up spinning the other way, which is even more dangerous.
DO ease off the accelerator, but dont come off it completely.
DO keep the engine turning with the accelerator so when/IF grip returns you move do actually go forwards.
REMEMBER your tyres are not good in the snow and ice (unless you have winter tyres) and that it takes very little to slide, eg turning slowly on a reverse camber can start a slide very easily even if you think you are being cautious.
HIGHER gears are better than low gears.
LOW revs are better.
If you cant move off without spinning, use 2nd gear.
LEAVE lots of space between you and other cars, particularly if you suspect someone is being a bit to cavalier in their attitude to the snow and ice.
Its worth having a go at sliding on an empty safe corner or empty car park or something, if you get the chance. Just to see what its like when your car slides, eg once a heavy car starts to slide there may be a point of no return!!! and practice turning gently LITTLE BY LITTLE into the slide to feel the car try to right itself back to a straight drive.
OR DONT DRIVE, get the bus. or build igloos!
nobody like my video clip? It says a lot about attitudes towards road safety - particularly when the smart car has their incident.
Goan, where was that corner?
LOL good vid Goan. The Smart car is definitely the best effort.
Though I do wonder who was filming it and why he didn't think it might be an idea to warn people or something.
Goan, where was that corner?
Comments say "Near Tamworth"
Note how some of them are able to take the corner at higher speeds without screwing it up. Smoooooooooooth.
You see with the Smart car - what did the people coming in the opposite direction do?
Wonder if the person filming chucked a bucket of water down the road for their personal enjoyment.. We have a Smart Car, rear wheel drive, very short wheelbase, absolutely hilarious to drive in the snow, especially carparks!
A video of how not to do it.The person filming that is a fanny, why they didnt warn people or call the police is beyond belief, or perhaps they were the police?
I can see the ice, you can see the ice, some of the drivers can see the ice, so it is there to be seen. Why can those that **** it up see the ice? Is it because they are driving along in a daze? I suspect so.
Most of them appear to be jamming brakes on as they skid too.
Its worth having a go at sliding on an empty safe corner or empty car park or something, if you get the chance.
When we passed our tests, our dad insisted that me and my brothers all went to an empty/icy car park to learn about skidding etc in snow.
[quoe]rear wheel drive car is very important for these conditions,
Given the stock reply to any motorsport question on this forum is
I'd have though everyone kew that rear wheel drive is useless when theres absolutley no grip or even just in the rain!touing cars
The MG just goes sideways round roundabouts at the meerest hint of rain!
Rear wheel Drive + Snow:
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wow. plenty of driving gods all in one place...
I'd have though everyone kew that rear wheel drive is useless when theres absolutley no grip or even just in the rain!
But when grip goes you still have steering and you can power out of many problems *if you know what you are doing*.
Minis with 10 inch wheels in snow were fantastic. Even better with cheap Colway snow tyres. 2CVs were brilliant too.
I can see the ice, you can see the ice, some of the drivers can see the ice, so it is there to be seen.
Goan, did [i]you[/i] film that clip?
I can see the ice, you can see the ice, some of the drivers can see the ice, so it is there to be seen.
But you don't know if it could be seen from the road in the direction of travel.
When I first passed firstly I was an idiot and secondly I had a cheap car so when it snowed I went to play rallying out on quiet country lanes. These days I live and work on the same stretch of road so I'm out of practice with snow driving, I just walk it 🙂
I loved being asked to give a guy in a RWD flatbed transit a push though, like I'd actually have better grip in the snow in a pair of shoes - he really is a world class genius though!
Driving in the snow though; unless you have to just don't, it's not really you who is the problem usually it's the guy next to you or coming out of the side road at you!
Surly pugsley's for all 🙂
M_F - yes you do because not everyone is screwing it up - the red audi for instance.
Well I survived the Metro Centre, did a 30 min shop presents bought and then watched Avatar.
I then drove home in the snow covered roads with my normal tyres on and no problems what so ever. Did see a Hi-lux do a 4 wheel skid though as the muppet missed the junction he'd been lane hoggy the outside lane for the last 7 miles. I reckon he had spring tyres on.
The smart car going into the ditch. That was nice of the others to not bother stopping to see if they were okay...
4WD is ok in the snow,but so is RWD.
As seen[url=
mcmoonter - Member
Minis with 10 inch wheels in snow were fantastic. Even better with cheap Colway snow tyres. 2CVs were brilliant too.
Until the snow got to a certain depth in the middle & lifted the weight off their 'ickle wheels...
Funnest car I ever had in the snow - 3ltr Capri with 4-5 bags of sand in the boot,heavy at both ends & masses of traction....
1. Buy a rear wheel drive MG
2. Have some fun 😀
last winter, i chickened out of driving to work, i figured i would stand a better chance of making it on my single speed with mud tyres on, and if i DID crash, it wasnt likely to cost any money.rode past lines and lines of traffic, all sliding into each other at low speed with expensive sounding thuds and cracking of glass.
I did the same this morning, even down to the detail of riding a SS, by far the best way of getting around. Came home the ungritted way for extra fun. Roads were fairly quiet too.
With regards to the video, the person filming it should have warned the traffic. If people are driving stupidly and endagering themselves then let them. If they are driving stupidly and endangering those coming the other way they need to be stopped.
They were a) driving stupidly, some people got round the corner OK, so it's not just down to the road and b) endangering others, there was a mini-pile up at the end. If I was the driver of the oncoming car and saw that video I would be &%$*ing furious.
Woman at my work today:
"Oh, it was so scary driving home yesterday, I started sliding and no matter how hard I pushed the brakes, it wouldn't stop sliding". 😯 But, when I told her what she was doing wrong she says "What do you know about driving, you can't drive a car" No, but I can ride a bloody motorbike in worse conditions than we had yesterday...
Goan wrote, "It says a lot about attitudes towards road safety"
Yup, some people will film crsahes instead of preventing them. Puts mere incompetence in the shade, that.
Buy a Land Rover
Buy some snow chains.
Look smug. 😉
[url= http://hauglandmotorsport.home.pl/about_winter_rally_school.html ]John Hauglan Rallying[/url] book a course with these chaps.
Best car I owned for driving in the snow was my 1200 Nova on 135 section tyres, the scariest is a tossup between an 1800 Sierra or a seriously tuned 1700 Chevette 😉
The formula for Goan's video
Type A
* car driving too fast (driver still sleeping, lack of skills, lack of LOOKING, whatever)
* car slides
* car panic brakes
* car slides more
Type B
* car driving a little too fast
* car slides
* driver doesn't jam the brakes on and steers out
Type C
* car driving appropriately for the conditions. No drama.
That seems to be popular music to drive badly to Goan 🙂
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The person filming that is a fanny, why they didnt warn people or call the police is beyond belief, or perhaps they were the police?
+1. If they've got enjoyment from watching people skid out and risk injury to themselves & others, the next thing is they'll be placing metal girders across railway lines.....
