Never Bothered By Snow....

[crazylex]

Bloody things stuck in the drive !

Look at my avatar - its not steep is it

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

WHAT SNOW?

;-)

[Pip]

The joys of RWD cars. Mine struggles getting up the street unless i reverse up.

[arty-is200sport]

snow button did not help here ,what a wast of two good button's

[crazylex]

WHAT SNOW?

;-)

Only about 3"

[arty-is200sport]

thats 3ft to a is200 :driving:but i did have some good sideways fun once unstuck, drove around for hour's

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

Aaah that...we've not had a good dollop for years!

[Tony-Bones]

Although i sympathise you should try driving down here near London......... we have 3" of salt on the road.

[arty-is200sport]

t'was embaresing peeps telling me i shouldent be out in such a class motor, ps wim ref,your bit on geo i will have to learn more about this,my rear 18s rub now and its not lowerd yet

[Tony-Bones]

t'was embaresing peeps telling me i shouldent be out in such a class motor, ps wim ref,your bit on geo i will have to learn more about this,my rear 18s rub now and its not lowerd yet

You will need to 'tuck' then in mate... way......way 'in'!

[arty-is200sport]

is it posible to get the arch lip rolled a bit without it cracking the paint , its only on the off side that rub's in dip's and undulation's

[Tony-Bones]

is it posible to get the arch lip rolled a bit without it cracking the paint , its only on the off side that rub's in dip's and undulation's

Start another thread mate... we could swap posts forever about this topic but this is not fair to the topic starter here!

[arty-is200sport]

ok sorry

[Tony-Bones]

ok sorry

No need to be sorry!.... your question exceeds the initial thread, it's just polite to move it elsewhere.

[Jocksuper7]

well it took me and my folks 3 hrs to dig out the 3 and a half foot of snow on the drive today, then aftre a hairy 3 mile drive on compacted snow it was a plain sailing 6 hr drive back to base, i did find however,l that turning the traction control off and using a light foot worked better than the snow button. all in all i thought it would be worse than it was in the snow, a little active but only had to dig out once in 389 miles so i am chuffed.

[crazylex]

Although i sympathise you should try driving down here near London......... we have 3" of salt on the road.

Yeah I drove down a "brown" road this am.

(after ending up in the garden last night- almost)

The wife actually thought there was 6" of snow

snow button did not help here ,what a wast of two good button's

An old guy that works with me is from barrow (infact his middle name is Furness ?)

Is it still right that the women out number the men 3 to 1 :D

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

An old guy that works with me is from barrow (infact his middle name is Furness ?)

Is it still right that the women out number the men 3 to 1 :D

So you've got a "Furness in Barrow"...? Anyway, what is the Snow button and what does it do...I did not notice such a thing on the new IS...Does it merely make the traction control work more sensitively on the old IS?

ESP is next to useless on german cars - one Icy morning I couldn't get out of my drive...I had to switch ESP off and "rock" the car with the clutch to get moving - so I know how you feel! Mandy next door had no problem dropping her kids off to school....in her urbanised TD5 Disco!

PS - We had 4 RWD BMW's in the eighties, when BMW made seriously smooth six cyl motors, all were a pain in the snow, wet...drizzle...it was fun once you'd found the limits of the car, but roundabouts were hell when you were in a hurry...you had to almost coast round them!

[crazylex]

An old guy that works with me is from barrow (infact his middle name is Furness ?)

Is it still right that the women out number the men 3 to 1 :D

Anyway, what is the Snow button and what does it do...I did not notice such a thing on the new IS...Does it merely make the traction control work more sensitively on the old IS?

of the car, but roundabouts were hell when you were in a hurry...you had to almost coast round them!

I think all it does is light up the word snow on the dash.

Seriously, I do not know exactly what it does, but it is supposed to reduce the power to the wheels somehow, presumably in an attempt to to stop it spinning. It did not work for me in the drive. But the snow was compacted down as I had just reversed into the drive over it an hour before. So in fairness I doubt many cars would have got out.

An old guy that works with me is from barrow (infact his middle name is Furness ?)

Is it still right that the women out number the men 3 to 1 :D

Anyway, what is the Snow button and what does it do...I did not notice such a thing on the new IS...Does it merely make the traction control work more sensitively on the old IS?

of the car, but roundabouts were hell when you were in a hurry...you had to almost coast round them!

I think all it does is light up the word snow on the dash.

Seriously, I do not know exactly what it does, but it is supposed to reduce the power to the wheels somehow, presumably in an attempt to to stop it spinning. It did not work for me in the drive. But the snow was compacted down as I had just reversed into the drive over it an hour before. So in fairness I doubt many cars would have got out.

My dad had a V6 Capri many years ago, and we lived on a very steep hill in Leeds, it was completely uselless. Incredible in the dry, but a sledge in the snow. I now know how he felt.

[IanB]

Ah the delights of low profile, wide tyres! That's the main culprit, compounded by the light rear end. Winter tyres and concrete blocks in the back do help, also turning off the TRC (sometimes) and gentle use of the throttle (the snow button makes this easier).

I've had some practice up here over the past couple of weeks, and I have to say the above does help, but really I could have done with a Land Rover at times

IanB :D

[crazylex]

Actually we having a debate in the office as to whats best to do/have - not including snow tyres or chains.

I have heard that thin tyres are much better than fat ones in the snow, because they "cut" through the snow easier . Small cars with thin tyres seem to get up hills in the snow better I have noticed over the years.

The old geezer (Furness bloke) recons you should let air out of the tyres, putting more rubber down.

This seems like an old wifes tale (or an old farts in this case) because the wall of the tyre holds it up until the very last few pounds of air so would you not damage the tyres.

So which are better in the snow- fat or thin tyres.

and does letting air out help ?

[alpine]

"So which are better in the snow- fat or thin tyres.

and does letting air out help ?"

Thin, for the reasons noted above. Look at any old rally pictures in the snow ( pre studs, or where they weren't allowed) Everyone always used the narrowest tyres possible.

[The Count]

"So which are better in the snow- fat or thin tyres.

and does letting air out help ?"

Thin, for the reasons noted above. Look at any old rally pictures in the snow ( pre studs, or where they weren't allowed) Everyone always used the narrowest tyres possible.

Thin tyres, with fat tyres the weight of the car is spread much more, so less contact pressure and less grip. A modern rear wheel drive car with a full fuel tank should be getting hear a 50/50 front/rear axle weight disribution anyway, so there is no reason for it to be inherently bad, but relatively wide tyres will make it much worse.

[Scarlet Pimpernell]

Well, the old fart may be right! Did anyone ever watch JC going to Iceland on the Glacier safari?

They let the tyres down to very low PSI to get grip on icy surfaces (increases the footprint), and then used compressed lighter fuel gas to re-explode the tyres to get pressure up again...

Darn dangerous, but great viewing!!

So, then it's thinner tyres with lowered pressures, plus 2 sand bags, shovels, mother-in-law (prefereably alive) and bricks in the boot....

Oh don't forget the matches and the lighter fuel...

[IanB]

My brother once owned a 2CV. He said it was great in snow, with it's skinny, old-fashioned motorbike tyres! Never tried it myself though........

IanB :D

[arty-is200sport]

the man/women ratio is now 5 to 1 ,see if that old furness fart can Id that last pic ,

went for another play in the snow today trying to master the snow button once more, bad move distroyed on of my sexy 18s,the only thing that nasty little button did was cut the power so much it stalled the motor,but still had a fun day with both nasty b!!!!!! buttons in the off positon