Rear wheel drive and snow

RWD cars tend to crab sideways going uphill in the snow. Because you are being pushed, rather than pulled (as in a FWD car) it feels more unsettling as the car is esentially trying to spin round in a circle.

It's fun when you are expecting it but it can get tedious if you are genuinely just trying to make progress.

We've had hardly any (couple of cm) snow here so far, so I took the most precarious route home I could think of to see what effect the temps were having on traction on unsalted roads, took some steep uphill single track lanes that I reckoned would be like a skating rink. I was right, I could have spun in 4th at about 15-20mph if I'd wanted to.

I'm running skinny Golf steels on the back at the moment which are better than the normal Manta wheels but there isn't a massive amount in it, when it snows properly I will have to leave a lot of extra time to get to work :p
 
when i had my old 540i a few years back when it snowed i was trying to get up a hill and an old 1.0 micra overtook me and flew past. He looked so smug, and had prob been waiting for that day since they had owned the car.
 
I'm slightly looking forward to trying out the gti6 in the snow, I imagine it will be a wheel spin fest
The fiesta I had previously turned into a snow eating machine when I gave it new tyres last winter, the 306 has ditchfinders on it though tbh, need to get some new tyres like now
 
Didn't have too many problems last year in my Supra, with relatively wide rear tyres and an LSD - but I did have to get out of a few tight spots in reverse. Sometimes you just can't get the traction. You just have to be careful and controlled :)

Quite fun pootling up my local hill past Freelanders :p

Did get stuck in a car park once, on a big slope - had been a pileup on the downward 'out' exit, so I had to reverse out and then try and go up the hill on sheet ice - never going to work. Got two guys to sit in the boot instead and they guided me around the pileup in reverse and backed up the other side, to freedom :D
 
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emailiscrap said:
That is going to give a greater surface area but not necessarily any more grip.
My 235/70/16's are vastly better than my 255/65/16's in snow despite having less rubber in contact with the snow.
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thats the key its not the snow that you want to be in contact with its the road UNDER the snow and the best way to do that is to dig through it not sit on top hence smaller tyres and maybe deeper tread will help

ps 4wd ftmfw ;)



 
As I posted in the other thread, no problems in the S2000 with good tyres and common sense :) Driven it in much worse snow than we have at the moment!
 
First time I had to go up a hill in my car in the snow this year, I went up the whole hill sideways

Had to pull out onto it from a junction, then it just went up the whole thing sideways at about 2-3mph

A whole queue of traffic behind me and it was very embarrassing
 
Housey said:
MX-5 is ACE. I spent 18 days in a single skid, it was ace.


Some of this might have been made up, it was 19 days.
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Hah :D

Touch wood the MX5 has been ok so far in the snow, albeit only a cm or two. Once I leave my street (up a hill) the roads are clear. Got a bit cheeky in works car park and had it sideways.
 
Conundrum for tomorrow morning.
Brush and scrape the auto S90, or take the warm and garaged manual Z3?

FWIW, this will be my first attempt at snow with RWD, but I actually need to get to work. Yay.
 
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godinman said:
I haven't been out yet in the e30, I guess it'll be useless as it has no LSD. Wouldn't rwd be better on hills, as the weight would be transferred to the back wheels? Or is that a physics fail?
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e30 is the worst car i have driven in the snow, with an lsd you seem to just go round in a circle, i have managed to push her to get going then jump in an set off where she would not set off!

had a mercedes w123 300td that was pretty good in the snow! only rwd car that i have driven that is! must be the soft high profile skinny tyres make a differance.
 
Yes, I drive to work in my S :D (It's NO fun) Adverse camber = sliding down the road sideways. Needed a big run up for a slight incline with stupid camber, had to try straddle the "hump" in the middle of the road and just flew towards the top asap in a 'straight drift'. Guy at the top of the hill stopped and waited for me to slide on past :D

snowww.jpg
 
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Had to give up this morning, couldn't even get up the first few foot of the road (incline). I guess I could have put on the chains, but why bother when I have another (FWD) car that just sailed up.
 
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