Snow - Why cant people drive?

[s_zigmond]

Not very common, but really not needed either. Think they are getting slightly more common now adays. I think the problem is that people just panic to much, and drive far to fast with the revs too high.

winter tyres do also outperform pure summer tyres at temperatures below plus 10°C in terms of roadholding and breaking performance - so it dont need to have snow on the streets to use them

While i do agree with this personally i see it as a waste of money. I only do 6000 miles a year and most of them are to and from Italy so 2 sets of tyres is a bit of overkill. Maybe it would help those that seem to struggle at the slightest look of damp weather

 

[explosif_fan]

This is why I love my 1965 swb landrover. It had 10yrs abuse by the british army, canvas roof, non syncro gearbox but will outperform most things in this weather. it even has a manual option for the wipers if the motor packs up or the blade sticks in snow or frost. The door locks dont freeze because it doesnt have any. The fuel tank cap lock doesnt freeze as fill it through the drivers door under the front seat (strange looks at filling station!)

proper retro!

 

[gibbleking]

worst winter i had was 82 and it hit -30.dad got called out on exercise at 1 in the morning.....gotta love german winters....winds come bouncing all the way thru the hertz mountains and wallop ya right in the mush.rivers would freeze solid and get used as carparks ...try that for cold.we would get 4 ft of snow in as many hours .....miss those days....humpf :roll:

 

[Crayons]

Just wish we'd get a spot of snow down here :cry: Love driving in the snow (it's the chance to get the whole thing powersliding out of the estate at 3mph that has me grinning.

Alas when it does snow the roads just get clogged up with cocks who, as already mentioned above, either drive so slowly they'll physically age before they get to their destination or treat the whole white thing as an opportunity to see how fast their cockmobile will travel in a straight line ('cause they never get round the corners )

Yep – love snow

 

[REKIBorter]

Answer - Wide low profile tyres

BITD most cars had tyres with an average section width of 155mm, these tyres cut through the soft snow to grip the harder compacted snow underneath, everyone got around without too much trouble - think of a modern day rally car with snow tyres on, they are very narrow just for this reason.
These days the average section with of a car tyre is anything between 195mm - 225mm and quite often much wider, these tyres will not cut through the snow but will tend to float on the top and not allow the tyre to grip. Modern driving aids like ABS, ESP, DTSC isolate the driver from any experience of the car losing traction, younger drivers have not had experience of driving cars without such aids & older drivers have been spoilt by them and forgotten what it was like to drive a car without them.

 

[orange71]

I love Saabs (had 4 now), but soon as it gets cold, the locks freeze. So much for a cold weather car :roll:

 

[gibbleking]

me got volvo 2 tonnes of steel tank......

 

[REKIBorter]

me got volvo 2 tonnes of steel tank......

Me got Volvo 2 tonnes of steel tank with big fat wide tyres on and all the drivers aids you can imagine, still crap in the snow. And yes, my first cars were rear wheel drive 948cc engined lightweight things that were brilliant in the snow.

 

[perry]

"rear wheel drive 948cc engined lightweight things that were brilliant in the snow."

mg midget ?

 

[boy"O"boy]

I love Saabs (had 4 now), but soon as it gets cold, the locks freeze. So much for a cold weather car :roll:

Me too ....I'm on my 3rd now. I'm sure my T16S had some strange plastic flaps underneath to deflect snow away from the exhaust?....pain in the arse over speed bumps though. Wish I hadn't given it away now....even if the headlining suddenly flops in on you!

boy"O"boy