Snowy/Icy Inclines?

Anonymous · January 28, 2004, 14:13

OK, so my first winter with the '2, and any RWD in fact.
Got to work this morning, major roads fine, lesser roads were fun/scary.
None of this was a problem, but I park in a multi storey car park, the entrance to which is on the 1st floor, so there's a nice short quarter circle 40 degree ramp to get to it, which this morn was covered in ice/snow.
Anyway, upshot is, i got stuck half-way up it, queue building behind me, with no idea how to approach conquering the damn thing, in the end some kind chaps pushed as i accelerated to get past the ice/snow and i was off.

So, any advice from anyone on gears/clutch/accelerator maneouvres would be grand

Bear in mind it's from a "dead-ball" situation, i have no run-up space to use, and it's a tight bend so i cant build up speed beforehand and coast round.

cheers
Steve

safe driving to all

darrenjuggins · January 28, 2004, 14:19

My Advice - Work from Home......

Seriously, managed against all odds to get to work this morning about a 5 mile trip and ccan you beleive I got stuck at work, trying to get out of the entrace! doh!!! the end of the driveway (old manor house, big) hadn't been cleared and I couldn't get a run out without stopping!

Net result, stuck, needed to guys to come and push and then is was a git to get out!!

Therefore my advice is if you can avoid it don't drive the MR2 is snow, unless on a big open airfied for fun!

MR2 + Snow = crunch (eventually!)

Cheers

Mr J

Chris · January 28, 2004, 14:39

I was slipping all over the place walking to the bus stop this morning, so i'm glad i wasn't driving!!!

the main roads were ok but my road had been driven on a lot and packed down into ice! s:? :? s:?

Anonymous · January 28, 2004, 14:49

Stevo

Can't speak for the SMT guys, but I use 2nd gear and slip the clutch. Even then the back-end will "twitch" s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

s:D

s:D s:D

s:D

Chris · January 28, 2004, 14:56

not having driven for months, i can't quite remember, but i'm pretty sure the smt will let you select 2nd gear, but i've never tried driving off in it!

doubtful you'd get anywhere straight though, what with not having a clutch to modulate and a sometimes less than smooth switch like take up of drive... s:roll: :roll: s:roll:

zud · January 28, 2004, 14:59

Not much snow round here, so haven't had to try yet. But i was intending to use 2nd gear in my SMT (you can engage 2nd before pulling away).

markiii · January 28, 2004, 15:03

get decent tyres, the Re040 and stock Yokos have similar patterns, they are crap in the snow.

zud · January 28, 2004, 15:19

Quote from: "markiii"get decent tyres, the Re040 and stock Yokos have similar patterns, they are crap in the snow.

Any idea what I can expect from F1's? I remember the RE040's from last year.... hopeless! (but don't remember needing to pull away in 2nd).

I've tried it without snow, and the SMT pulls away quite smoothly in 2nd.

Peter Laborne · January 28, 2004, 15:27

Quote from: "Stevo"So, any advice from anyone on gears/clutch/accelerator maneouvres would be grand

This is one situation whereby you really need to use the torque of the engine rather than the power.

Use 3rd gear, lightly on the clutch and accelerator, ease it up.

But if if is really slippery and you have more than 1/2 tank of fuel...you are knackered!!!

Tem · January 28, 2004, 15:54

Quote from: "Peter Laborne"This is one situation whereby you really need to use the torque of the engine rather than the power.

Use 3rd gear, lightly on the clutch and accelerator, ease it up.

I prefer 1st gear myself, assuming he really can't get any speed. Using the clutch to avoid spinning the wheels, cause once you do that, you might as well back up (unless you have some speed already).

But the best advice, like Mark said above, is to get some snow tyres for winter, if you have more than a day or two of snow. The stock summer performance tyres just suck on snow...the car itself is superb though s8)

s8)

Anonymous · January 28, 2004, 15:58

okay this morning my close was a nightmare as it has a tight uphill bend .. which the 2 decided to slide around even at 0 mph!!

it is pelting down with snow at the moment so the drive hom in freezing conditions is gonna be no fun at all!! oh well in a few months this will all be a distant memory

markiii · January 28, 2004, 16:00

Quote from: "zud"
Quote from: "markiii"get decent tyres, the Re040 and stock Yokos have similar patterns, they are crap in the snow.

Any idea what I can expect from F1's? I remember the RE040's from last year.... hopeless! (but don't remember needing to pull away in 2nd).

I've tried it without snow, and the SMT pulls away quite smoothly in 2nd.

I always found teh F1s to be fine.

Anonymous · January 28, 2004, 16:35

Quote from: "floater"okay this morning my close was a nightmare as it has a tight uphill bend .. which the 2 decided to slide around even at 0 mph!!

s:shock: :shock: s:shock: Know exactly what you mean.. I was on a small roundabout turning into a supermarket the last time it snowed around here.. and while trying to pull out very gingerly, managed to turn the car 90 degrees on the spot without moving forwards at all!! s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Tim

Anonymous · January 28, 2004, 17:24

I was told by a chap once (honest s:wink: :wink: s:wink: ) that to help stop the wheels spinning and get some more low speed torque/traction, to partially enable the handbrake. Don't know whether this would work as he told me after I spent half an hour getting off some super soggy grass. This was for a FWD though. Dunno if it would work on the '2?

darrenjuggins · January 28, 2004, 18:11

Hi Guys,

After hearing all your reply's I think the sum up is:

A) Drive the wifes normal car (if you have one, wife that is!)
B) Annual Leave - it is Thursday tomorrow
C) Work from home, always a good choice, knight Rider on Bravo!

All these options allow for the Roadster, that unless you have winter tyres on is about as much use as a chocolate fire guard to be left safely parked or on your drive away from other careless drivers.

Snow tyres I think is a little excessive for UK drivers especially for about a week (tops) a year (IMHO).

If it continues and I have to go out I think a bag of kitty litter will be useful as I can seem to carry to people around to push me all the time.

Temp now is -1 and from all the crunching I'm hearing from people coming home I think leaving early this afternoon was just the ticket, I'd hate to crash my car (again!!)

Cheers

Mr J

Tem · January 28, 2004, 22:17

Quote from: "Hanslow"I was told by a chap once (honest s:wink: :wink: s:wink: ) that to help stop the wheels spinning and get some more low speed torque/traction, to partially enable the handbrake. Don't know whether this would work as he told me after I spent half an hour getting off some super soggy grass. This was for a FWD though. Dunno if it would work on the '2?

It's kind of a poor man's LSD. The idea is to stop the other wheel from spinning freely and it helps only on cars without LSD. Doesn't matter if it's FWD/RWD.

Anonymous · January 28, 2004, 23:23

Ahhh that explains it a bit more then. My old crappy astra didn't have LSD. Mind you, the place we did it was at a caravan park and the caravan in front of the card ended up a nice shade of soggy mud by the time we managed to reverse off the grass s:lol: :lol: s:lol:

Anonymous · January 29, 2004, 09:09

cheers chaps!

my '2 was superb this morning throughout my journey to work, as it just sat there like a good car on my driveway as C2C ferried me in, looooovely.

the best advice i think I'll hang onto is don't drive in't snow/ice, I'm liking that alot!

Anonymous · January 29, 2004, 09:31

Okay I am was driving home from work yesterday at 4 when the snow storm started (thats y we were let home arly) and I was driving down this steep road doing 25-30 mph so not a dridiculously low speed. For about 2 miles I had this woman on my tail literally an inch from my rear bumper ... some people snow driving really worries me! I could just imagine her slipping inot me an dmoaning at me for going slow!!! s:twisted: :twisted: s:twisted: s:evil: :evil: s:evil: I was really pissed at her too be honest and was slipping into road rage ... which isnt good in the s now s:x :x s:x

Tem · January 29, 2004, 09:38

Quote from: "floater"I was really pissed at her too be honest and was slipping into road rage

I see there are a**holes in every country. Turn the rear fog lights on, they are a great way to get some distance...

aaronjb · January 29, 2004, 09:46

Quote from: "Stevo"the best advice i think I'll hang onto is don't drive in't snow/ice, I'm liking that alot!

Which is OK if you have any other way of getting to work s;)

s;)

Still, my estate was one big sheet of ice this morning (no gritters on our estate as it's too small), and the main road up to the A4 was only clear through use..

Took it easy, although pulling onto the main road was more of a controlled drift, and the journey to work was fine.. As was the journey home last night when the roads hadn't even been gritted yet..

Must be the whole growing up in the middle of the Yorkshire moors that teaches you how to drive on snow & ice s:D

s:D

Aaron (who'll probably crash and burn on the way home now for saying that!)

Anonymous · January 29, 2004, 12:15

Quote from: "floater"I had this woman on my tail literally an inch from my rear bumper ...

Ditto my journey home last night at 6pm... snow had just stopped and it had started to freeze hard.. I couldn't do more than about 5mph without the back wheels squirming, and she was trying to chivvy me on! I touched my brakes but kept moving, you should have seen the look on her face when she braked hard, slid all over the place and realised just how slippery it actually was!! Needless to say she backed off about then! s8)

s8)

I actually got stuck at a T junction because there was a tennis ball sized lump of snow in the way of a front tyre.. just couldn't move off! Ended up in a controlled 2mph drift for about 10 metres just to get moving.. yikes!

Anyhoo.. my top tip for driving in the snow is to keep the both the windows down a bit.. really helps to let you know when the rear wheels are spinning, as on sheet ice you can usually hear it before you feel it!!

Tim

Anonymous · January 29, 2004, 12:56

Quote from: "darrenjuggins"My Advice - Work from Home......

Therefore my advice is if you can avoid it don't drive the MR2 is snow, unless on a big open airfied for fun!

Good advice.

I worked from home today
And we drove the Focus instead

Slacey · January 29, 2004, 13:17

I must admit, mine hasn't moved at all for a few days, and I've been driving AnnMarie's Yaris instead s:oops: :oops: s:oops:

Anonymous · January 29, 2004, 13:44

Would it be wrong of me at this point to say that I've also got a Ford Ranger 4x4 pick-up, and that I have no trouble getting anywhere, regardless of the weather?

Thought so.

s:wink: :wink: s:wink: s:lol: :lol: s:lol: