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My Cooper S is pretty much useless on snow. Ironic given the heritage...
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Spent last week driving our Fabia VRS round North Yorks. I agree that it isn't great on snow and ice so Mrs Ratadog is doing the school run in the 4x4 estate. Still reckon that anything marked BMW would be worse from what my friends tell me.
Anj has the most bhp - I have around 300 - but I still have the moat torque going through rear wheels so still the crappest snow car... 😉
C220 cdi amg: just got rid of it - shit in the snow.
I smacked it over a curb last yr just near chicksands (on the way to a weds night ride) and killed two tires and an alloy.
Mate of mine has a chipped 2wheel drive 911. That's a handful in the wet, when it's icy he gets a cab to work, lol.
Even with 4 wheel drive this was interesting to say the least....
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It was running over 650BHP and not even on full boost!
It was too much even for the dry roads in this country....
C220 cdi amg
S****s again
Surf-Mat - Member
Anj has the most bhp - I have around 300 - but I still have the moat torque going through rear wheels so still the crappest snow car...
Sorry mate, but heihei beats you on both power and torque with his/her Alpina B5 Touring.
Used to have a 170bhp passat estate, and in last years snow it was embarrassing! it would sit in gear with the engine running and the
wheels spinning!!! current v50 is much better.
Ho hum - I meant on this thread. He/she hardly ever posts anyway. B5s are beasts though.
I don't go anywhere near my 911 C2S in the snow.
Streetcar ftw
Sorry mate, but heihei beats you on both power and torque with his/her Alpina B5 Touring.
Technically his, but the wife spends more time driving it than I do! Usually sporting bike racks on the roof but when clean, looks like this......
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Very nice! Now firmly the 2nd worst snow car.
^^^^
Stonking car!
Much more subtle than the M5 styling, but just enough that if you know your cars then you would do a double-take.
Maserati 3200GT. RWD, 370bhp, turbo lag, overly-sensitive throttle and "difficult" chassis.
It's stayed on the drive throughout...
Two silver Golfs; one with winter tyres, one without. But which is which (clue the one in the ditch is the without)? 🙂
Wouldn't mind so much if my mate hadn't spent the whole night in the pub banging on about his new tyres the night before. There was no snow at that point so he was getting it fairly tight. Very impressive though, hill starts, full steerage, no fuss. Mine on the other hand...
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Standing about wondering what to do next...
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Wouldn't know how bad my car is in the snow - RWD, fat tyres, auto and loads of torque - meant is stayed on the drive. Our old citroen (skinny tyres, fwd, log wheelbase) was great.
my last car was a Mk5 golf gti with the older style Eagle F1's on the front - It was actually worse in the snow than my current car - BMW 318 tourer ...............and that is saying something !
1959 Morris Minor.
Terrible tyres.
No synchromesh
No seatbelts
Wipers are inefectual to say the least
as are the lights.
Not sure the trafficators can be seen through snow either
Fiat Punto mk2
But then its a piece of shit regardless of the weather
Here is mine just as it started to snow last year
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Hmmm - I'd have thought that wide tyres would be good in the snow.
Anjs - AMG SLK55? Nippy motors. Bit small for MTBs though...!
Currently have a 330d which is not brilliant in the snow as you would expect but being a diesel and with DSC its not as bad as my last car which was an E36 M3 saloon. 320bhp with a limited slip diff meant both wheels span in the snow and it got stuck with a ridiculous small amount of snow.
My wifes BMW 1 utter crap in the snow!
Yes well spotted, no chance of getting an MTB in so thats why I have a boring Civic
Someone was abusing the MX-5. We have an MX-5 Mk2.5 SVT engine, which I drove through the snow in previous winters (OK not quite as impressive as this year). Low grip but great balance and very predictable, not a problem in the snow really, you just had to accept that you would be sliding all the time and it was up to you to decide what direction you were going to slide in.
Someone else was bemoaning a Mini Cooper S, presumably the BMW one. I had the Cooper and that was fine.
My wife's A3 diesel on the other hand is pretty poor.
scousers
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What's that? Looks like a CLS drophead, but they don't make one?
I have an e60/61 525d touring. Somewhat terrifying in the snow. Nearly slid it into a rangeover turning a corner at 10mph. Any suggestions re: winter tyres?
I know one thing for certain - there doesn't seem to be a recession in the MTB World at the moment.
😯
Well mine goes back in Feb
Looking at the sills on that CLS just make you wince. Nicely crushed by the bricks. Probably some bling wheels now on a C200cdi "AMG" 😀 BTW It's just a vinyl roof - they didn't make a convertible.
I have a BMW 318 touring with 17's and no heater currently, therefore I fail on comfort, reliability, vision and control.
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this is OK when the snow comes, very rarely gets stuck, got stuck on the M6 in july one time though, plenty room in the back for wife and kids and the all important bikes!
106 gti. 1.6 135 bhp go kate (coke can) is fine in the snow if you dont go over 1000 rpm otherwise it wheel spins in 1st 2nd 3rd 4th and 5th and you end up doing 139mph sitting still. power to wait ratio of a straight 6 bmw 325 thats race toned with lsd and tsc. 🙂
I had a Renault 5 GT Turbo which was chipped and had some other mods, group N race clutch, half cage and adjustable suspension. When i was working in Edi I commuted from Fife. Had a few hair raising drives home in it inc. one backwards entry to the Toll booth at the bridge, thank christ the guy on the barrier was quick as i managed to slide through completely unscathed, went back and gave him my 30p then worked out how to get up the 'hill' on the bridge. Got the bus a lot that year.
525d auto tourer. 235 tyres allround.
pretty awful for straight line stability but far worse once you have stopped. Too much torque, an auto box, lots of weight, no LSD and too big to take a good angle at most things.
The missus fiat panda and idea are great though.
Contrary to what others had said, our little MX-5 has been fantastic in the snow. It's a later one with an LSD, so assume this makes a difference. Has loads of traction. Other car (3-series diesel touring, loads of torque, big wheels) is less fantastic!
Another one to say MX5's good in the snow. I had a Mk3 last year with big low profile tyres, was great fun, was getting up hills some people in fwd cars were not, you just had to be prepared to accept that the majority of the time the car would be sliding.
Worst by far that I have driven was my wifes Polo TDI. The ABS was just dangerous, far too sensitive, and you turned the wheel and it just went straight on.
As to the powerful VRs type people saying they are shocking, they might not be as good as a small fwd car, but they certainly wont be as bad as any rwd. Just crap driving technique. Any car can be made to skid its tyres in any gear in snow if you give it too much throttle... Try using less power and fwd will crawl along in 1st gear.
Just for a contrast - I cooked a complete set of tyres on my RS4 on the track last week 🙂 they were well gone anyway and it coincided with a day of serious blatting in the hot blazing sun 🙂 Sorry.
I've never had a bad car in snow. I think its your tyres and smooth driving style that counts more.
I've never had a bad car in snow. I think its your tyres and smooth driving style that counts more.
But for joe public mr average driver (i.e. me) who doesn't really want to spend a £1k on tyres, one of our cars is much better that the other. I'd be fascinated to know if an expert driver would be capable of getting my 3-series up the big hill just outside the village when it's covered in snow.
Why do you need to spend £250 per tyre?
Also, you don't bin the tyres. You keep them for future winters.
Why do you need to spend £250 per tyre?
TBH I was guessing. 255/35 on there at the mo, which are about £250 fitted. If the car was mine, I would actually investigate further, but it's a works car so not mine anyway.
I'd be fascinated to know if an expert driver would be capable of getting my 3-series up the big hill just outside the village when it's covered in snow.
ditto - and I posted the same thing on a thread last week. Through work I have done a lot of 4x4 driving, mainly in the desert, with quite a few training courses over the yrs, therefore I reckon I am at least competent in difficult conditions. I live in a new housing estate with lots of bollards and speed bumps and other slow down measures. I have a 90 degree bend at the bottom of a steep cul de sac that I live half way up and I couldn't get my 3 series up much of last week. Nowt to do with technique at all. Tyres yes, but similarly as it's a company car, winter tyres are not an option.