Driving in the snow

[gb155]

Was out yesterday on some pretty hilly roads, kept it to around 20-25mph as the roads were half snow half grit

The amount of driver who were FLYING on the other side of the road was crazy, saw one guy lose it into a tree

 

[MarkF]

I never have a problem with my £750 car. It's luxurious inside, loads of gadgets, meccanoesque to repair and has proved 100% reliable. TBH I only use it when neccesary, which is rare but it's nice to have when it snows.

 

[gavroche]

all rear wheel cars are crap in the snow. 2cv's are great all of the time. Simple but efficient engineering. Not so good in a crash though as then, they just fall apart but to be fair, cars are not made for crashing are they?

 

[RhythMick]

Couldn't agree more Gaz.

Compulsory skidpan tests, withdrawal of license for failures. Discuss.

... every day is a winding road...

 

[RhythMick]

Took my kid to the Alps last year and got chatting to the driver, from Worksop as it turned out. I noticed that over there you rarely see 4WD cars. He said winter tyres on any car were the norm. Never used them myself as the mighty Subaru just takes it all in it's stride.

... every day is a winding road...

 

[PBancroft]

Was out yesterday on some pretty hilly roads, kept it to around 20-25mph as the roads were half snow half grit

The amount of driver who were FLYING on the other side of the road was crazy, saw one guy lose it into a tree

A couple of years ago we were driving home in very icy conditions, and stuck religiously to 20mph or lower. As we approached home a cockwomble behind us really wasn't happy about the slow speeds, and kept flashing his lights at us, revving his engine etc. We turned off the main road, and I saw him flick the middle finger at us, heard him put his hand to his horn before he floored it and...

...did a 270 to end up facing the hedgerow.

 

[2wd]

As we live in the hills of the Pennines my Mrs bought a lovely little Mitsubishi Shogun Pinin as my company Astra gets stuck on the flat!

Its a bit small but can highly reccommend them for the snow

 

[GrasB]

as others have said 2CV. I think it was the narrow tyres and lots of weight over the drive wheels. The Fiat chunckychicken I have now comes a close second.

Light, not much torque & the centre of the engines weight squarely over the drive wheels... this is why I drove circles around all the high powered AWD machinery on todays sprint. The only problem with a 'cento is the stock yaw adjustment leaver setup sucks.

My tip for getting going/up a hill in slippy conditions? Use your brakes (handbrake for RWD, footbrake for FWD). It works as a crude limited slip differential and stops one drive wheel spinning away and losing you all traction.

Also when braking don't dip the clutch. The engine acts as an anti-lock device & allows you to brake much harder without locking the wheels up.

 

[Orange]

Did a 150 mile round trip from Northamptonshire to the West Midlands and back in the snow, this morning. Brilliant, much faster than normal actually because there was so little traffic on the roads.

I did notice on the way back in the estate, how all the idiots who had decided to park on the main road for fear of being stuck in their drives had made it 10X worse. There was a lovely clear, winding, black strip of tarmac down the road - interspersed with piles of snow and slush with high ridges waiting to get frozen tonight. If they's all kept on their drives - and cleared their own drives - the main estate road would have been totally clear as the sun and traffic would have melted it all. As it is, there's just a narrow strip, meandering around parked vehicles that will be trapped in their own frozen slush come the morning. It will be their own fault if someone crashes into them.

 

[2wd]

They're nice pavers - are they real stone?

(Sorry, I'm not detracting from the car, not my kind of thing, but they do look rather nice)

Hi Mort

I'll go and have a look....

let you know in around 4 hours when I get back from the blokes house in Derby where I bought the car from

 

[Red Light]

A couple of years ago we were driving home in very icy conditions, and stuck religiously to 20mph or lower. As we approached home a cockwomble behind us really wasn't happy about the slow speeds, and kept flashing his lights at us, revving his engine etc. We turned off the main road, and I saw him flick the middle finger at us, heard him put his hand to his horn before he floored it and...

...did a 270 to end up facing the hedgerow.

He was obviously a cockwomble but there are also cockwombles who are totally incompetent at driving in those conditions so crawl along at a snails pace when they shouldn't be on the roads at all.

 

[derrick]

Light, not much torque & the centre of the engines weight squarely over the drive wheels... this is why I drove circles around all the high powered AWD machinery on todays sprint. The only problem with a 'cento is the stock yaw adjustment leaver setup sucks.



Also when braking don't dip the clutch. The engine acts as an anti-lock device & allows you to brake much harder without locking the wheels up.

Who dips the clutch when braking,

 

[threebikesmcginty]

It's 4x4 day today, where everyone with a ridiculously oversized 4x4 gets to justify (in their own tiny mind) their vehicle for the next 364 days because of a bit of snow for 1 day.

 

[PBancroft]

He was obviously a cockwomble but there are also cockwombles who are totally incompetent at driving in those conditions so crawl along at a snails pace when they shouldn't be on the roads at all.

There's no way I could prove it to you, but trust me, driving any faster that night down the narrowish, unsalted "country" roads would have been daft. He was probably used to treating them as rat runs where 40 means 50 or 60, and the slow pace was killing him.

A3057 if you know it. No its not as rural as, say, The Struggle, but then people don't tend to drive the struggle unless they commit themselves.

And for what its worth, I've had my cockwomble moments. I remember less than a year after I passed my test being stuck just before the crest of a hill, being unable to progress because of the ice and lack of traction in my D-reg Mini Mayfair. I ended up rolling slowly backwards to get grip before being able to get over, hoping that I wouldn't slide all the way to the bottom.

 

[Arch]

I managed to get to the Tan Hill Inn in the snow in my 2CV when 'more capable' 4 x 4 vehicles failed. I was hoping to get snowed in for a multiple day drink fest but the snowing slowed down and the snowploughs were out in force after we arrived.

Yeah, I've been there in a Citroen, only we were in an H-Van, possibly the only vehicle funnier than a 2CV...