Should it be light or heavy?

Have wide or thin tyres?

Have high or low centre of gravity?

Be diesel or petrol?

Have AWD?

Be big or small?

Auto or manual?

 

THE DRIVER!!!

 

Thinner tyres are better because you want more pressure per square inch, but it will be a combination of things, snow type/depth, ice will need studded tyres so tyre choice, 4wd will be more desirable for the grip but 2wd is still workable, auto has a "snow" mode but I prefer manual.

Tony

 

So do you want a heavy car or a light one then?

Would a light car be more likely to get up a hill, plus also less mass to bring to a halt when braking in a low friction environment?

 

snow tyres

my friends live in val des aire (sp) in france and are ski instructors in the winter

thery have a 2 wheel drive mk3 golf - and its a 6-ish mile hi gradient drive to there resort and theyve never been unable to get to work.

everyone there puts snow tyres on from nov- march.

 

A heavier/bigger car will normally have a better brake setup over a lighter car, example a peugeot 106 v a ford mondeo, the 106 will benefit from having thin tyres, the mondeo from better brakes, but equip both well and they should be similar in stopping/grip etc.
Of course you could just buy a justy and have fun I did that with a garages car when my scoob was getting serviced in sheffield and it was snowing over the snake pass, steering lacks feel on them but good fun, AWD and skinny tyres

Tony

 

thin high profile tyres with studs are best.

my winter tyres are 205/50/16 and are a bit wide tbh. 195s would be best on like 15s, but brakes wont allow those to be run.

light = better too, heavier cars get bogged down in snow and have more inertia when coming into corners etc etc.

still, a scoob is lots of fun on an ice track with studded tyres.

 

my mate once bought 1 of these for his 14yr old daughter to practice off roading in, 150 quid,
its shocking what these little things are capable of and as youve said there so fun IMO

 

I can't believe that big brakes are an advantage in snow/ice.

The adhesion of the tyre will be the limiting factor.

 

Never mind all that lot! What about my car being that low it ploughs the snow as I drive? Hahahaha. Well, a slight exaggeration but you all know what I mean.

 

dunno about france but its law in germany to run snow/winter tyres from nov - march

 

The thing is, in the UK, there are a lot of drivers that think they know it all and drive in ice/snow like they do every day in the summer. European drivers are a different breed and are used to 'proper' snowfall and a Government that realises allowing people to drive around with a minimum 1.6mm tread and summer tyres is a death waiting to happen. They are right to enforce winter tyres in the worse months, we should here. They are right to have a minimum 4mm tread depth, we should here. Some of the muppets here scare the life out of me during snow/ice, thrashing up the hill outside my house thinking 5,000 rpm is actually helping them, with wheels spinning! LOL

 

but it is fun

 

Impreza has plenty of weight over the front drive wheels but not so much over rear so some extra weight in boot ??

 

A few years ago I was stuck in a queue of traffic as the road was covered with compacted snow/ice where it came to a small hill.I sat there for ages but it was amusing as various cars tried their luck,Ford,Mercs,BMW's etc,etc.wheels spinning & sliding back down.

Then along came a car pootling along at about 5 mph along the line of cars and proceeds to go over the hill as if it's an afternoon strol!!!

Bloody Citreon 2CV,made me laugh.

 

There you go


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtacFlDUjRM



i trust you speak rusky

 

during the snow of last year i had a94 plate pug 106 which was really good in th eheavy snow we all had used to grip go round corners etc obviuosly u had to be careful with braking but all in all it was great and saved the scoob being put at risk cant get one this year her in doors has refused says we need the kitchen refurbing instead of an old car for the winter .....lol

 

I WANT

 

They aren't, bigger brakes mean you will be more likely to lock up your wheels during braking thus losing traction and steering.

bit of a non issue with "modern" ABS equipped cars, but personally, I find ABS is utter **** when driving during the winter, and more often than not the ABS fuse is pulled from the fusebox during the winter months.

never mind traction control/stability control, turn it off pronto, its downright dangerous.

 

Incorrect, bigger brakes will also mean bigger calipers, a small car will still have a long stopping distance, as will a big car, both will lock up quickly if your not careful, the car with bigger brakes means that you actually have an advantage, though not much of one, shove some nice winter tyres on and presto

Tony

 

MY CAR !!!!

 

Just don't touch the brakes in the snow. Use your gears as much as possible definatley when going down steep hills. Touch the brakes and you are just a sledge 4wd or not.

 

My choice would be a defender 90 on skinny winter tyres.


although tyres are far more important than the vehicle.

 

one of these haha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTDNLUzjkpg

 

Disagree with you there based on personal experience, the last thing you want to do is lock up your brakes.

Never mind the fact that bigger calipers require wider rims which require wider tires which equal less grip.

If bigger brakes were good on ice, we'd fit them, instead we take off the STi brembos fit teeny tiny brakes that facilitate 15's and run 185/65/15 studs on events.

Oddly enough, so do group n and the old wrc crew too .

But don't take my word for it, I've only got 12 years experience driving on snow and ice.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCZkW...eature=related

 

Totally agree. Driven past many a Range Rover,BMW X5 ect in my Sisters Fiesta 1.2. And last year i had fun passing stranded 4x4 owners in an Auto Mondeo diesel.

 

I'm desperate for a set of snow tyres for my van but everywhere is sold out. All the vehicles I see getting through the snow easy are big 4x4's

 

My Nissan Sunny was absolutely tops in the snow: My gran was stranded at a bus station (they cancelled the buses), scoob was off the road, so I had to take the Nissan. All main roads were gridlocked due to idiots who can't drive, so I took the hilly residential backroads and back lanes, which were mostly clear. Nissan solidered on,
even with its god awful Road Champ tyres, passing lines and lines of stranded cars.


I put it down to being pretty light, even weight distribution, no abs, no pas, no traction/stability control and a proper cable controlled accelerator.

But the main things I think was the torqueless 1.3 engine, close gear ratios, cable operated clutch (easier to feel the bite point for smoother engagment) and skinny tall tyres (155/80/13).

Having said that I've driven BMWs load of times in the snow and what not and never had an issue - pottering past stranded SUVs on occasions.

The exception was a S-tyre jag with Pirelli P-zero tyres (which are hopeless for the Birtish climate, let alone snow), and a dodgy MAF (which affected the throttle sensitivity). But even then with careful application of teh handbrake (to stop the spinnning wheel) I managed to get it moving un-aided.

 

Most people aren't intelligent enough to think of that though