What would you have chosen to drive in the snow?

Way back when we had the original Beast from the East with compacted ice and snow on the roads and six foot snow drifts at the roadside, the only one of my neighbours who could get out of our cul de sac was an air hostess who had a 1.2 Clio with thin cheap God knows what brand tyres. I hope whoever she worked for appreciated her efforts to get to work.
 
I’m really surprised the number of people going for FWD, even though it’s on summer tyres.


Thought I’d have a look into it, and it seems on the flat, FWD vs RWD is negligible:

youtu.be

Audi FWD VS BMW RWD - The Ultimate Test on Snow! ❄️

Is FWD really better than RWD on snow? To find out, I've matched nearly identical power and weight vehicles, and put them on exactly the same size of the Goo...
youtu.be youtu.be

Same tyres/power/gearbox.

On an incline, the BMW seemed best as the weight is transferred to the rear.




Car with summer tyres on the left:

https://youtu.be/2cgtmmtsqFA?si=q3Z0luPb41AX_RfU
 
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I loved driving the GT86 (RWD) on winter tyres in the snow. A little bit of sliding is fine, it's when it suddenly lets go it's an issue. Once you let the wheels spin bit you can feel what's going on and it's easy to control. It's funny seeing people in AWD cars nervously crawling along and you go past in a sports car.

With the Twingo (FWD) I was using some handbrake on tight bends in the snow. Light car, easy to drive in snow. Great fun :D

I've driven the Elise in the snow as well. That's more scary but was fine for short distances. It's much more sensitive to tyre temperature but you can feel when it's going to let go.
 
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I posted in the tyre thread and thought I'd updated this one. I got home okay and the uphill section that had stopped me in the past on summer tyres was a breeze with the all-season tyres.

The tyres are Cross Climate 2s and I'd driven in the snow with before so had some confidence I'd be okay. Still drove like a pensioner in some sections!

It's interesting the split between the two choices. I've got the same decision to make later today but the snow is now thawing and it's rain instead of snow; it'll still be the car with all-seasons.
 
FWD everytime when the front end loses traction its no big deal but if one of rear wheels on RWD loses traction the back end will step out of line sharply and you have to counter steer to correct... not intuitive and takes a bit of practice. Easy to spin out if you're going a bit too fast
 
I am surprised how many have said all season tyres. perhaps RWD cars or all season tyres really have come on that much over the years .

had it of been a proper winter tyre or snow chains I would have expected it but ...... put it this way, in icy conditions my 350z I could barely even move it to get out of the drive to clear it any that is on the mildest of slopes, I could not imagined driving it , and also when we have bad snow almost every abandoned car is RWD (mostly BMW).
 
bigmike20vt said:
I am surprised how many have said all season tyres. perhaps RWD cars or all season tyres really have come on that much over the years .
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As per my earlier, I guess people are assuming we're talking about the type of all seasons that are stamped with the 3PMSF symbol.
 
Kenai said:
As per my earlier, I guess people are assuming we're talking about the type of all seasons that are stamped with the 3PMSF symbol.
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but surely they are not an all season tyre, that would be a winter tyre. they would be terrible in the summer so if you go for those you would have to either swap tyres every 6 months or buy a 2nd set of wheels.
overkill for England imo.

edit actually I googled, maybe I was wrong and they are an all season tyre.
colour me suspicious however, if they are that good in snow surely huge compromises must have been made in other conditions otherwise all tyres should be like that
 
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bigmike20vt said:
edit actually I googled, maybe I was wrong and they are an all season tyre.
colour me suspicious however, if they are that good in snow surely huge compromises must have been made in other conditions otherwise all tyres should be like that
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Well this is why stuff like the Cross Climate 2, Goodyear Vector 4 Seasons, Hankook Kinergy 4S etc. etc. are becoming more and more popular - for your average person, they are actually a viable all year round tyre that has genuine capability in snow and are still perfectly good on a decent summer day too. They'll cope well with pretty much anything the UK is likely to throw at you.

They'll never match up to a performance summer tyre in the summer or a fully fledged winter tyre in the winter but actually, most motorists in the UK probably don't really need those sorts of extremes in performance. I'd say it's becoming a harder choice for someone who would have bought regular 'touring' tyres, like say the Michelin Primacy 4, when the Cross Climate 2 performs so well.

They are certainly a long way ahead of an 'all season' from 10 years ago, which were pretty much just a regular summer touring tyre that was a bit more wet weather focused and were more of a '3 season' tyre in reality.
 
I base my reasoning on my Capri 3000E on 185/70 Avons. I drove it the length of the country to Aberdeen in winter and although it always got me there it was a bit hairy at times. Donuts unintentionally in the middle of Edinburgh and crossing the central reserve on the M90 are two that come to mind.

I am sure that RWD has improved but still.
 
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