snow/ice+UHP summer tires=not good:(

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turbocad6

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OK, I know it's pretty stupid to try & drive on snow & ice with ultra high performance summer only tires, but I have done it before & while yes, traction is severely reduced, for the most part the few other times I've done this it hasn't been so horrible really. I've driven on them in extremely cold weather too & while there too traction is down, again it hasn't been so horrible really either. in normal snow I'd say it's not such a hot idea, but it is kinda doable if your careful. I think I didn't realize up until now just how bad it can be though in the right(wrong) conditions...

last night it started to snow... not so heavy, just a lot of powder really, it didn't look so bad & the forecast called for the next day to be up to 45deg so I decided I'll drive my fx home, probably won't be that bad & by midday tomorrow it'll probably all be gone anyway. I stayed at work late & by the time I left a little after midnight it was coming down a bit more & the roads were pretty snowy & it got even colder. at that point I thought about taking my other car home instead, but it was late, I was tired & didn't want to go through all the hassles of switching cars, so I jumped in the fx & headed home.

I knew something was different when 2 blocks from my shop on a downhill I tried to stop for a stop sign & there was just no stopping power at all, the abs was just pulsating like crazy & I slid right completely through the intersection like I wasn't even braking. in my infinite wisdom I decided that this was just because it was a side street & on a downhill, once I get to the main road & then the hwy I'll be fine, so I diverted to the main street & as I thought, it was pretty clear. the ground was wet but the tires were OK on the wet cold ground for the most part, made it to the highway fine, got on & same thing, it was wet, but not much accumulation & traction was more than adequate. all I wanted to do was get home . whenever it snows there are these idiots all over who just go 15mph in the middle lane, & I'm the guy always passing on the left & trying to just move, last night was no different, & everything was fine, made it to the second hwy no problem, but I did notice that on one or 2 of the overpasses the hwy was frozen & I did get a little wiggly, but no problem, I'm half way there, just gotta keep going...

anyway, half way through the second hwy in my route to home it becomes a raised hwy. when the road is raised or like an overpass those are the areas to really freeze first because there not as insulated with endless ground undernieth... bridges & overpasses will always freeze first. anyway, once I hit the raised hwy I knew I was in trouble. even at 40mph giving it a just little gas & the thing just wanted to go sideways. it was really white knuckle for a bit, then, as I'm coming around a turn, all of a sudden there was a lot of traffic... cars were on the side of the road, there were a few accidents & here I am just abs pulsing sideways... it was all I could do to not hit anything & by some miracle I was able to slow down enough since at that point I was going pretty slow to begin with...

now, bumper to bumper traffic. every time I stopped the car just slid a little sideways, every time I tried to move again same thing. there were trucks & cars all over & on the uphills even other cars were getting stuck & sliding & by some miracle I was able to get through all of this, eventually I came to the point where the highway is not raised anymore, but it was still icy by that point. I live a little further north & the snow was coming & coming & I guess it just got pretty bad up where I live, worse than when I started by the shop... I managed to make it all the way to my house, carefully pulled up the slight incline of my driveway keeping a little momentum to get up the driveway. ahh, I made it... put the car in park & I noticed that when I took my foot off he brake the fx started to slide backward down my driveway... it was wild, step on the brakes the fx stopped, put it in park & let go of the brakes & again, sliding backwards... seems that park only engages the rear wheels even on an awd fx, & with just park on the 2 rear wheels all it needed was for one of them to slip & the car just rolled like it was on ice. I managed to do this a couple of times till I get a pretty good footing & finally the fx stayed put. I got out & looked at my tire tracks & sure enough, pure slick shiny ice was the result of the tire compressing the snow...

it was hairy, woulda been a white knuckle event even with all seasons, but now I really have seen first hand the limitations of summer tires:tonguey: there is no wreck at the end of this story, only a little wisdom gained & passed on to my brothers here... in short: do NOT think of trying to drive in icy snowy weather with summer tires... maybe you already know that, I mean I did know that too, but it wasn't until last night that I could see just how really bad it can really be. like I said, I've done it before but never experienced the ice skating I did last night.. just a combo of temperature & conditions that equaled just total skating rink type conditions...

so, after I got the fx planted in my driveway & was home all safe & sound, by this time maybe 1:30 am or so, what do I do? go inside & go to bed? be thankful I made it home safe & sound?, no... all the snow & ice made for a really nice photo opportunity :tonguey: so I went back out & carefully drove a block or 2 to get a few shots... I almost did a drifting video but it was just so icy & the parking lot by my house is so tight that after one attempt & almost wrecking I said screw this, I pushed my luck enough already for one night, so only a few pictures...


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I love flash pictures with snow falling :winky:

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& oh yeah, before guys start telling me how stupid I was for even attempting to drive home in those conditions, I'll be the first to admit that I was extremely stupid, & lazy... it woulda taken me like 15 minutes to switch to my other car that has a nice set of all season tires.... live & learn I guess...
 
Nice pics John (really like the untouched powder shot) and glad to hear the story didn't finish with your ride wrapped around a tree or some else's bumper.

Hey- You do know if you go drifting without JB he's going to be pissed......
 
psss, he's always drifting without me! :tonguey:

somehow I think me & jb together might be a little dangerous, but we've been talking about it for a while, just getting the timing right that were together at the same times under the right conditions I guess, someday... I'm sure we can get some kind of FX ballet together...
 
Wow lucky. Sounds like you need some blocks.
One time in my teg, I slid into an embankment after skiing all day in a blzzard. Slowly with no damage thankfully. The tires just wouldnt heat up enough for any grip. My brother had the door open ready to jump out. Zero stopping power. & she was ussually pretty good in the snow. I have to go find those pics from that day. I remember having some somewhere. Old Dodge vans & bugs were zipping past me on the mountain. we were going like 5 mph down the road the entire way. Scary
 
turbocad6 said:
psss, he's always drifting without me! :tonguey:

somehow I think me & jb together might be a little dangerous, but we've been talking about it for a while, just getting the timing right that were together at the same times under the right conditions I guess, someday... I'm sure we can get some kind of FX ballet together...
Click to expand...

haha I'm not going to tell you drive 50 min to me just to drift...unless you find a sick spot near you that we can hit up. And with all honesty, it's pretty "safe" to drift two cars at once, and I've done it a bunch of times.... if you look at the last drifting video I posted, In the middle I am drifting simultaneously with the G....I've done it enough to be able to control every movement lol....But I'm also not on summer-only tires:wink:


i was honestly afraid this was a "FX slid in ice and crashed" thread:tdown:
 
yeah man, but after a while I'm going to want to co ordinate & choreograph it a little more too, like you & me head straight for each other at a good speed, but then you turn one way & I turn the other, then we both punch it & kick up rooster tails while heading to wards each other after spinning back wards, then we miss each other by like a foot, fx's traveling back wards but wheels spinning forward in slow motion..., come together then drift apart spinning in opposite directions, ken block style, that kind of stuff... what fun is it if were opposite each other the whole time :tonguey: ha ha,we'd need a camera man too... :cool:
 
turbocad6 said:
yeah man, but after a while I'm going to want to co ordinate & choreograph it a little more too, like you & me head straight for each other at a good speed, but then you turn one way & I turn the other, then we both punch it & kick up rooster tails while heading to wards each other after spinning back wards, then we miss each other by like a foot, fx's traveling back wards but wheels spinning forward in slow motion..., come together then drift apart spinning in opposite directions, ken block style, that kind of stuff... what fun is it if were opposite each other the whole time :tonguey: ha ha,we'd need a camera man too... :cool:
Click to expand...

we could do something like that: only problem is that if you wanted to get ridiculously close like that we would have to chill in that lot for hours to know exactly how that particular ice/snow is handling-wise with coordination to the FX. because even if you think you know exactly how to handle it on the ice, something could still go wrong, and nothing is perfect each and every time...

but hells yeah a video like that would be sickkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk we would deff do the first part so problem, but the second part may be an issue....:tonguey:

we just need some snow, then freezing weather to freeze it in a sheet, then we're all set...that's how it was here last year and how it is in all my older drifting videos...that's the perfect condition...a big sheet of ice....:tup:

i could get my photographer (I guess I can call him "my photographer" now?) to come take photos but im not sure about video
 
john, glad to hear you and your fx are both safe! Like what jbaker said, was afraid to open this thread and see the beastly fx bumped up :(
 
they still have a set of kdw's on them :frown: I never got winter tires because I didn't think i'd still be driving the fx into the winter this year... she shoulda been in pieces by now... I'm still driving it, but next time it snows I think i'm going to just drive my other car :smile:
 
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