MountainRoad
Member
With 12-18" of fresh snow in the mountains here in Colorado, I drove my S75D to Eldora on Sunday. This was the first real snow my car has seen as I purchased it in September. Here are my takeaways:
1) the 75D with snow tires (Blizzak 245/45R19) climbs very well in icy/snowy conditions. The Subaru in front of me was having much more difficulty climbing up the mountain, but that could have as much to do with tires as the car;
2) the Model S is still a heavy car, and although ABS worked fine, stopping distance will largely be determined by your tires. Given how effortlessly my 75D accelerated in the conditions, I was a bit surprised by how long it took to stop when I tested the stopping traction on the way down;
3) Although the traction and balance of the car felt as good as any car I've driven in snow, I was still able to get the car to slide a bit during sharp turns on ice. but when I gave it a bit more acceleration during a turn, the car would immediately regain its footing/traction, definitely an endorsement of the traction control system and something I've also experienced with Audi's all wheel drive cars;
4)if I had to do it again, I probably could rationalize the smart air suspension. My 75D has basic coils, and it was pushing/plowing a bit of snow uphill during some of the drive, making the traction that much more impressive and collecting a lot of snow in the mouth of the new front fascia;
5) regen did not affect my traction in ***anecdotal*** testing. although I selected lower regen for most of the drive, I put it back to standard on my way down for a section of the drive where it was safer to do so, but I wasn't able to get regen to induce any loss of traction even on total ice/snowpack. Still I think I will set regen to low in icy conditions.
1) the 75D with snow tires (Blizzak 245/45R19) climbs very well in icy/snowy conditions. The Subaru in front of me was having much more difficulty climbing up the mountain, but that could have as much to do with tires as the car;
2) the Model S is still a heavy car, and although ABS worked fine, stopping distance will largely be determined by your tires. Given how effortlessly my 75D accelerated in the conditions, I was a bit surprised by how long it took to stop when I tested the stopping traction on the way down;
3) Although the traction and balance of the car felt as good as any car I've driven in snow, I was still able to get the car to slide a bit during sharp turns on ice. but when I gave it a bit more acceleration during a turn, the car would immediately regain its footing/traction, definitely an endorsement of the traction control system and something I've also experienced with Audi's all wheel drive cars;
4)if I had to do it again, I probably could rationalize the smart air suspension. My 75D has basic coils, and it was pushing/plowing a bit of snow uphill during some of the drive, making the traction that much more impressive and collecting a lot of snow in the mouth of the new front fascia;
5) regen did not affect my traction in ***anecdotal*** testing. although I selected lower regen for most of the drive, I put it back to standard on my way down for a section of the drive where it was safer to do so, but I wasn't able to get regen to induce any loss of traction even on total ice/snowpack. Still I think I will set regen to low in icy conditions.
