The current weather conditions have got me thinking.
My last car was a VW Golf 4motion which, in the snow was a dream.
I could point and squirt the throttle and she's take off. Electronics bounced the power from wheel to wheel obtaining the best traction whilst keeping the car in a straight line.
My question is, do impreza's have such electronics or is it all mechanical
Or do they simply squirm all over the place.........

 

If my MY95 UK Turbo is anything to go by, it squirms all over the place in the snow. I am convinced it is down to the Toyo T1-R's though as the tread just filled with compacted snow making them pretty much slicks on ice....fun though. Got myself some winter tyres en-route to sort out that problem.

 

Purely mechanical. But not as crude as it would appear.

The Golf has front wheel drive until the electronics sense the front wheels losing grip then it starts to lock a centre diff which sends power to the back. As far as I know it doesn't move it from wheel to wheel, just front to back.

The scooby has three mechanical diffs, middle, front and rear. On various models these are limited slip diffs of various kinds. With a mechanical slippy diff the action of losing traction will lock the diff and put more power to the other side of the diff, ie if it's the centre diff puts more power to front or rear, if it's the front or rear diff moves power left to right. So pretty sophisticated even if there's less electronics.

 

Some cars apply the brake to the spinning wheel, a very crude traction contol. Some like the golf R32/4 motion do indeed have an electronic center diff that only locks when you loose front traction.
Never driven one though.
I think the UK sti's from 2005 on have electronics, mine being a UK 03sti is purely mechanical and can be a handfull.

 

I drove the scoob for the first time on snow today and was shocked how bad it was. It squirmed all over the place. Been using the wifes Rav 4 all week and its much easier to get off the mark in. Reckon i could probably lose the scoob no bother .....And its a diesel

 

I always felt the Haldex type 4wd systems were the least useful out there. Youre probably thinking of an 'esp' system which brakes individual wheels if slides etc are detected. Wouldnt have thought this would be better than a good AWD system though. Maybe ive underestimated VW's 4wd.

 

Me thinks you have underestimated it. Having owned both cars, the vw drives much better in the snow. Even the wife thought the impreza was a bitt naff.
Might stick to using her car

 

Subaru is pretty basic:

Plant the throttle and.....

In situations of low grip (i.e snow) One front wheel will almost always lose traction first (standard open front diff), this will cause the centre diff to lockup (viscous coupling) sending power to the rear, where you also have a limited slip diff (again, usually viscous), so both rear wheels will spin - along with the one front wheel....whilst the other front wheel is stationary (or almost).

In snow and ice, when driving too fast... what you get is something that oversteers, sqirms and slides all over the place under any hint of excess power, and understeers everywhere when you don't have enough power applied....i.e: a handful

The trick of using the throttle to turn into junctions take a little practice if you want to keep your wheel rims tidy


I've just been out playing with a BMW's DSC, and found it to be extremly clever at preventing me doing stupid (intentional) manouvers on the empty works car park, putting brakes on front and rear on diagnoally opposed wheels to correct the slides, it works very well indeed.

With it turned off it acts like a "virtual LSD" - braking the spinning wheel, shifting power to the wheel with more grip, but allows full throttle...so I can do better controlled doughnuts.

Hooligan

 

Drove my scooby in the snow for the first time the other day, was rather un-nerving as it was very unpredictable. Would have felt much more comfortable in my works van, although that could be because I don't own the work van. Having said that, I've since put my 16's on with their squidgy tyres and it seems a lot better. 17's, low profile tyres and snow don't mix IMO.

 

My S3 certainly handles better in the snow than my previous Impreza Turbo. I was putting it down to the haldex system, you can really feel it working as opposed to the scoob which just used to just go all over the place when the tyres lost traction

 

Just got back from a run into Mid Wales. A few brown pant moments and yep, it can be managed but be careful even in the dry.

Check this out
http://bbs.scoobynet.co.uk/showthread.php?t=478038

 

It has been a good test in the snow this is the first time for me with my scoob must admit there has been a few brown pants moments. It seems to be down to throttle control soon as you open up a little the back end is out before you can say scooby dooooooooooo