hell yea we got snow last night and this morning, its frekin awsome, and scarry to. i sliped and slided all over the place, i miss my automatic. i never realised how a manual affect driving in the snow, its ok when i get to about third gear, but first and second are killers, and word of warning, give extra room when going down a bridge, esspesially if you have bald tires, (guilty). i saw some stupid stuff people were doing, people here dont know how to drive. i think i´ll go back out latter, and go to a vacant parking lot and have a little fun. wwwwwaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhoooooooo
SNOW! in N.C, WILMINGTON
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Eek, auto trannies are scarry in icy weather. No gentle engine braking, poor gear holding, uneven torque converter stall... unespected kickdowns, blech.
Just be careful with the gas pedal, both pouring it on and letting it off. Don´t do anything fast with your right foot.
Remember, a spinning wheel has less traction and control than one that´s in sync with the pavement/snow/ice.
Have fun in the parking lot.. handbrakes are fun.
OH, and don´t worry about people not knowing how to drive.. Boone is filled with college kids from Florida in gargantuan SUVs all winter long. Scary shit. It´s the cute little chicks with the cellphones in one ear doing 15 over the posted speed limit up the middle of the road slamming on their brakes whenever they notice it´s starting to slide (which is usually a few days after it actually does in one of those things). Seriously, one of the reasons people think SUVs are cut out for snow and ice is because you´re so isolated from any readable roadfeel that most people don´t know they´re sliding.
Big Myth #1: Trucks/SUVs go better in snow/ice on roads than cars.
Cars with their often softer, better damped, independant suspensions and lower levels of torque are actually better off than large solid axle pickups w/ 4x4 on the windows (considering they both have comparable tires).
Big Myth #2: Heavier vehicles are better in ice and snow.
The heavier a car is, the more friction it has with any given surface on the same tires as a smaller car.. YES. BUT the heavier a car the more force is needed for the same rates of acceleration. Since the amount of force needed and the amount of traction gained are in a linear relationship, weight can be taken out of the equation entirely.. hence vehicle weight doesn´t matter (weight distribution does though)
Big Myth #3: Wide all terrain tires are better than little skinny winter car tires.
Except for running on semi-packed or unpacked snow where large wide tires can actually grab a bite of hard snow, this is false. Skinnier tires are actually better suited to icy conditions because they´ll heat up better, give the water on top the ice (what you actually skid on) a place to go when squashed by the weight of a vehicle, and crush a narrower slice of snow down as they pass resulting in less rolling resistance (more rolling resistance happens to cut into your ability to accelerate).
Next time you watch a rally in the snow, check out the 165 width tires the guys run on, sure they´re studded, but even without the studs they´ll work way better on the slick stuff than the normal 215-225 width tarmac tire.
Just be careful with the gas pedal, both pouring it on and letting it off. Don´t do anything fast with your right foot.
Remember, a spinning wheel has less traction and control than one that´s in sync with the pavement/snow/ice.
Have fun in the parking lot.. handbrakes are fun.
OH, and don´t worry about people not knowing how to drive.. Boone is filled with college kids from Florida in gargantuan SUVs all winter long. Scary shit. It´s the cute little chicks with the cellphones in one ear doing 15 over the posted speed limit up the middle of the road slamming on their brakes whenever they notice it´s starting to slide (which is usually a few days after it actually does in one of those things). Seriously, one of the reasons people think SUVs are cut out for snow and ice is because you´re so isolated from any readable roadfeel that most people don´t know they´re sliding.
Big Myth #1: Trucks/SUVs go better in snow/ice on roads than cars.
Cars with their often softer, better damped, independant suspensions and lower levels of torque are actually better off than large solid axle pickups w/ 4x4 on the windows (considering they both have comparable tires).
Big Myth #2: Heavier vehicles are better in ice and snow.
The heavier a car is, the more friction it has with any given surface on the same tires as a smaller car.. YES. BUT the heavier a car the more force is needed for the same rates of acceleration. Since the amount of force needed and the amount of traction gained are in a linear relationship, weight can be taken out of the equation entirely.. hence vehicle weight doesn´t matter (weight distribution does though)
Big Myth #3: Wide all terrain tires are better than little skinny winter car tires.
Except for running on semi-packed or unpacked snow where large wide tires can actually grab a bite of hard snow, this is false. Skinnier tires are actually better suited to icy conditions because they´ll heat up better, give the water on top the ice (what you actually skid on) a place to go when squashed by the weight of a vehicle, and crush a narrower slice of snow down as they pass resulting in less rolling resistance (more rolling resistance happens to cut into your ability to accelerate).
Next time you watch a rally in the snow, check out the 165 width tires the guys run on, sure they´re studded, but even without the studs they´ll work way better on the slick stuff than the normal 215-225 width tarmac tire.
Every friday after work, I´ll head out to a nice little parking lot I know that always has ice/snow and lots of room and get to know my car. I think it´s excellent experience for learning how to control skids and shouldn´t be looked on as "playing around looking for trouble" but really as learning.
I take friends out on backroads and "yoyo" into some pretty mean fishtails, and because of my practicing driving every friday night in that parking lot, I´m able to predict the skid very well and it freaks the hell out of the passenger because most people see it as losing control of the vehicle. My mom hates it when I do that
and I completely agree... automatics are dangerous in snowy weather... it feels like I´m just a "suggestion" as to what the engine actually does. My mom had to steal my LX wagon to go to massachusettes this morning and I had to take her automatic and I was sliding everywhere.
I take friends out on backroads and "yoyo" into some pretty mean fishtails, and because of my practicing driving every friday night in that parking lot, I´m able to predict the skid very well and it freaks the hell out of the passenger because most people see it as losing control of the vehicle. My mom hates it when I do that
and I completely agree... automatics are dangerous in snowy weather... it feels like I´m just a "suggestion" as to what the engine actually does. My mom had to steal my LX wagon to go to massachusettes this morning and I had to take her automatic and I was sliding everywhere.
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Myth one and two yeah I agree totally with. but Myth three is slightly off. if you´re driving on ice worrying about accelerating, in my opinion, you have your priorities wrong. I tend to want the car to stop quicker and easier, the less resistance you have, the harder it will be to keep the tires from sliding. Smaller tires do heat up quicker, but if you deflate them slightly they heat up yet even faster. this has it´s advantages and disadvantages, more contact patch gives you more friction, making it easier to stop. That along with ABS and a good sense of knowing what the hell you´re doing will help you keep from rearending that gargantuan SUV you´ve suddenly run up on. of course, deflating causes heat which can cause blow outs. But like you said if they´re "winter" car tires, they´re suited to winter driving at the normal PSI.
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