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4WD doesn't mean you're invincible
- Thread starter init6
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I drove my wife to work in Inverurie last night, 14 miles at 23:30 - 5C, an hour and a half after the moderate snow had started. The roads, mostly single carrigeway,apart from a 1 mile stretch of dual carrigeway were completely white with about 2-3 in snow. The streets in village were worse with the underside scraping the snow.
I was really impressed. The only thing that would stop the M3 on decent snow tyres would be the depth of snow. I must admit to being sceptital about how the car would perform and I've kept the drive infront of the Xantia clear just incase I had to revert to her, she will go through anything, especially deep snow or water with the abitity to raise the suspension.
I had to clean the car after I got back, packed snow in the wheel wells, (I wonder how that affects aerodynamics? ) and the rear was completely covered in about 1cm snow.. I mean completely.. You couldnt see any part of the car apart from where the screen heater had been on.. no lights or anything. I'm beginning to wonder if these LED lights are such a good idea? They don't have the heat that the fillament bulbs have.. perhaps we need resistive elements in the light plastic?
9/10 for the M3. The only thing apart from the snow depth that slightly holds her back is the front wheels have to slip in order for the traction control to kick in. You have to steer into the small skid to regain traction in the direction you wanted to go. It would be nice if the fronts were engaged before the slip started in "snow mode" so that the car would be pulled round the corner with no slip rather than slipping and then being pulled round the corner.
I was really impressed. The only thing that would stop the M3 on decent snow tyres would be the depth of snow. I must admit to being sceptital about how the car would perform and I've kept the drive infront of the Xantia clear just incase I had to revert to her, she will go through anything, especially deep snow or water with the abitity to raise the suspension.
I had to clean the car after I got back, packed snow in the wheel wells, (I wonder how that affects aerodynamics? ) and the rear was completely covered in about 1cm snow.. I mean completely.. You couldnt see any part of the car apart from where the screen heater had been on.. no lights or anything. I'm beginning to wonder if these LED lights are such a good idea? They don't have the heat that the fillament bulbs have.. perhaps we need resistive elements in the light plastic?
9/10 for the M3. The only thing apart from the snow depth that slightly holds her back is the front wheels have to slip in order for the traction control to kick in. You have to steer into the small skid to regain traction in the direction you wanted to go. It would be nice if the fronts were engaged before the slip started in "snow mode" so that the car would be pulled round the corner with no slip rather than slipping and then being pulled round the corner.
For ensuring the lights don't ice over when the car is parked, I noticed some entrepreneur had invented a solution for sale on ebay that attach to the lens to prevent frosting
Further digressing, my mum is supposed to be driving from Alford to Inverurie tomorrow for her Covid jab, not sure that's wise given she's on summer tyres.
For ensuring the lights don't ice over when the car is parked, I noticed some entrepreneur had invented a solution for sale on ebay that attach to the lens to prevent frosting
Further digressing, my mum is supposed to be driving from Alford to Inverurie tomorrow for her Covid jab, not sure that's wise given she's on summer tyres.
I wouldn't advise it, not on summer tyres. I had to help someone on our level street this morning. Just no traction.
Let me know if I can help out.
I'm in my second winter with the SR+ on winter tyres. It has been superb ... much better than I had anticipated when I first got the car. Interestingly "slip start" appears to offer no advantage for me ... in fact it's better just relying on a light right foot and sticking with the standard traction control if moving off on a particularly slippery gradient.
Looks like pure ice under a thin layer of snow. Coming home from college years ago, I hit a stretch on an icy country road going down a hill where cars had slid off the road (as I did). Then more came and no one could stop or steer -- they started to bounce off each other and propel stopped ones into others in slow motion. It was like automobile shuffleboard.
I had a similar experience many years ago driving my battered old Mini. It was great in the snow and we were on a straight section of quiet motorway so in my mind it didn't seem unreasonable to be happily doing 60mph (not wise really
!) We then saw a car up the banking at the side of the road ... then another one that was sideways in the middle of the road ... then another crawling at walking pace ... hmm maybe I should slow down .. except I couldn't! It was snow over ice. Whenever I eased off the throttle I could feel the car starting to go offline so had to keep going ... it took about half a mile of oh so gradually taking off speed to regain control at the "safe speed", which on that night was barely 10mph... not 60 ! (I don't think we had even heard of winter tyres in those days ... maybe those big block tread mud/snow tyres but only farmers used them.)Similar threads
