Second gear!!!!!!

[GrasB]

Difference is, these cars tend to deal with it better than fake 4x4 that don't actually have AWD drive

I know, my Alfa is one of these sporting AWD cars & I've actually found that until ground clearance becomes a problem it tends to cope better than most working 4x4s. That said they're in no way invincible!

 

[ian789]

My light 1 litre car is doing well in the snow and ice. Gently slip the clutch in first with no revs and away we go.

Only £20 a year tax to top it all off

 

[Night Train]

Front drive Skoda on wide road tyres and no problems getting about.

I think that it would be really difficult to include snow and ice driving in the test without the additional cost and time of a skidpan. It would then need to be included in the training and it will get costly.
I do think it is a good idea though, just don't think it would happen.

I was lucky that I learnt to drive in snow and ice. I then did an off road course too.

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Go girl!

Whaaaat??? Arch is a girl????????






(There are probably some newbies who haven't seen that one before... well, possibly.)

 

[BearPear]

My son is a learner and the other week when the weather was bad his instructor took him to an empty warehouse carpark which was sheet ice. He basically said go for it! He went into a skid and the instructor said to drive the car in a way to get out it. He did it a few times and had a ball! I doubt that many drivers have ever had the opportunity to have a go in a proper skid with an instructor - I was quite jealous!

Having said that, I drive my little 107 quite well in the snow - I am a more confident driver than my husband in bad weather, but that might be because I had a mini when I was 18 and that little beauty went everywhere!

I agree that people shouldn't complain about lack of gritters when all of the roads are blocked with the volume of traffic - how do they expect them to get through?? Pah!

 

[GM]

I doubt that many drivers have ever had the opportunity to have a go in a proper skid with an instructor - I was quite jealous!





When I was having driving lessons in the winter of 1967 my instructor took me around the icy roads of Epping Forest. He said to me 'skid and slide as much as you want, great fun. After getting into a bit trouble he then taught me how to drive properly in icy conditions. The best lesson I've ever had.

 

[asterix]

Do people notice that a majority of the cars that appear on TV news reports upside down on their roofs are 4x4s? Wonder why this is?

Because their idiot drivers think they can't skid. Oh yes they can but with all 4 wheels instead of two and because they are over-confident they are going too fast and really cock things up.

Just got back from Hull where they have some lovely snow all powdery like you get in the mountains.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

It doesn't matter how many wheels are driven if there's no grip. People who don't really know how to drive get overconfident in 4x4s and take risks which put them beyond their abilities as drivers, as Asterix says.

 

[Spinney]

I had some skid pan training years ago as part of an advanced driving course. It's possible for groups to book to do this, so maybe people should give it a go - it's fun! And it means I'm confident I could cope with snowy conditions if I had to. But as I don't have to I'm staying at home.

I did this many years ago. Great fun! Not sure how much it helps with most of the problems you get in snow and ice, though (spinning wheels etc).

The only time I skidded on the road 'for real' (on ice) I was doing about 5 mph and the car just suddenly decided it wanted to point the other way. I have no idea what I did to induce it, but nothing stopped it either. It just gracefully and slowly turned itself round in the road, missing an oncoming landrover by about a foot (he was also going very slowly, so a bit of dented metal would have been the worst outcome).

 

[Rhythm Thief]

I lost the truck on a roundabout last year. I turned the wheel, the tractor unit turned and the trailer went straight on, pushing the back of the tractor unit into a jacknife. I could see there was a clear lane on the roundabout, so once the back wheels of the unit were on the tarmac, I gave it some throttle and it pulled the whole thing straight again. Very satisfying, but also slightly scary.
I did have a lot of fun with the unit later, on a deserted bit of the yard in about six inches of fresh snow, with no trailer ... something with 420 horsepower and no weight over the back wheels is fantastic for doing dougnuts.

 

[Firestorm]

Some tosser in a Range Rover was as filling up a large tub from the grit container opposite my house. 1/2 hour later he was back, he almost emptied the thing ! I Live on a junction at the start of a gradual incline over a railway, cars slipping all over the place. once the snow stopped I went out and put what was left of the grit on the road up the slope, and on the junction sorted, not one stuck car after that and my good deed for the day done.

The traffic spread the grit around and this bit of the road is now clear

 

[scots_lass]

When I was in Canada a few years back, there was a mountie on the TV talking about the road conditions and something he said has always stuck with me . He was talking about various cars off the road and said ' Doesn't matter what you drive, rubber on ice is still rubber on ice!' Too true!

 

[Night Train]

Do people notice that a majority of the cars that appear on TV news reports upside down on their roofs are 4x4s? Wonder why this is?

I think the reason is that the 4x4 hits a slippery patch, black ice, and starts to slide sideways. The driver fails to react in time to steer into the skid and the 4x4 ends up sliding completely sideways. Then the tyres find some clear tarmac and gets a good grip. This sudden grip then flips the 4x4 over sideways onto its roof.

 

[mcshroom]

Also 4x4s have a higher centre of gravity and are more likely to topple over in a crash.

I remember Tiff Needell doing a feature on it on 5th gear once. He was looking at swerving on a motorway and managed to stay upright at 60mph in a saloon (Rover 75 I think) but rolled a Range rover at 40mph doing the same manoeuvre.

 

[Arch]

Some tosser in a Range Rover was as filling up a large tub from the grit container opposite my house. 1/2 hour later he was back, he almost emptied the thing !

I bet he was sticking it down in big lumps too, uselessly. We found at the centre that you can get away with a very light spreading on paths, if you scatter it evenly and finely, and tread it in as you go. If you watch a real expert with plenty of space, they can broadcast the grit really finely, with one sweeping flick of the shovel. But I've seen lots of pavements with big dollops on them, and about 2/3 of it is doing nothing but sit there and stick to people's shoes and hence get spread over every floor they then walk on....