I drove the CRX today in the snow. For those of you who aren’t New Englanders, we’re getting dumped on hardcore this weekend. tonight is the prelude to the “big mother fucking storm” (nor’easter for short). Anyways, It’s my first time driving a FWD car in snow in ages it seems. I’ve been driving nothing but Subarus for I think 3 winters now. Oh my fuck, I am a spoiled little bitch. I still have my generic no-season tires on. Snow tires (Dunlop Graspic DS-1) coming tomorrow from tirerack.com thank the fucking lord. The roads in Boston were warm enough to get snow-on-slush. I had nothing. no control at all. even though the car is lighter than jsut about any other car on the road, if I even thought about touching the brakes all 4 wheels would lock right up. There was one hill where I was in 1st and just barely keeping the brakes applied and not locked… I had no control. if the car had pitched, I would have been entirely unable to recover. I’m so used to just countersteering and mashing the throttle. doesn’t work so well in a FWD car. no ebrake turns for me. at least not till I learn the car better. I’ll be taking it out to my “testing area” tomorrow morning when there’s a few inches on the ground. it’s a big dirt parking lot near a school. no telephone poles or trashcans, and it’s always entirely vacant. I would take the Impreza there to learn how to drive with all 4 wheels spinning, basically preacticing for racing rallycross courses. I want to take the CRX there just to learn how to handle the car in low grip situations. it’s just dirt so I’m not tearing anyone’s property up, and the cops don;t care as long as I do it on weekends when nobody is around. as far as they’re concerned it’s just another person learning his car better. they no I’m not just some punk blowing donuts.
clifnotes: Haven’t driven FWD in years. new to driving stick. got caught in the snow. in boston. safely got home. eagerly awaiting snow tires. learned I am a spoiled AWD bitch.
That’s all I got. Oh, I almost forgot… Courtesy of Kha0s:
“0h n0s!” pics pwnz j00w.
-IggDawg
why tired don’t grap?
Snow! Grrrr, such timing. I just got my car back from the body shop today and now it’s sitting under a foot of snow.
Gonna have some (careful) fun tomorrow with summer tires still on…. we’ll se how it goes. I’ve got a choice of Kuhmo 712’s or Falken Azenis Sports to run in this slop. In other words, bad or worse. wheeeee
Re: why tired don’t grap?
I’d go with the Khumos. at least they have some semblance of tread pattern. on the azenis you might as well be running slicks. I drove through an ice storm in Yokohama AVS Sport tires in the Legacy before I switched up to the M2s. AWD doesn’t matter when you’re running track tires. 20mph all the way home.
-IggDawg
You know what I cant stand is the people in teh two wheel drive SUVs who take my life into their hands by zipping by me on the ice at twice my speed, just to validate their rugged purchase
“It’s an SUV so I’m safe right?”
I had a talk with my friend on the way home from sucking down scorpion bowls in Boston. We were SUV ranting because of all the 2WD SUVs zipping by. they always say “well, I want the safest thing I can get so if I get into a crash my family will be ok…” Well why not get something which has this fancy “vehicly dynamics” stuff that all the car guys rave about. IMAGINE!!!! a vehicle that can actually AVOID accidents. why commit to being in the accident? especially since the SUV probably isn’t the vehicle being hit.. generally it’s the one doing the hitting. so getting a vehicle that can corner worth a crap would be kinda nice for everyone involved. but then it wouldn’t be as comfortable to talk on your cellphone.
Bah. let darwin sort them out.
Back in 1999, when my sister in law nearly died in my arms because of a side impact minivan versus Civic collision, one of the reasons I got a 323i was because it had a steel-reenforced frame, and because the “get out of idiots free” Volvo I wanted was too expensive. I generally resent the fact that I have to either drive a tank of a sedan, or buy some giant lego vehicle just to avoid getting killed on the road these days. The disturbing part is that the vehicular/dick size war increases the dependency on foreign oil, and causes our administrations to have to make more and more brazenly fuel-soaked and shaky foreign policy decisions (like Iraq.)
I know what you mean. especially driving around in the CRX. it doesn’t do much to make me feel safe for sure. Semitruck bumpers are at about eye level with me. I know that A-pillars are the strongest part of the car, but it’s terribly daunting nonetheless. I guess these things do well in crashes… in terms of walking away alive. I can expect to walk away from most collisions, but the car will be ENTIRELY totalled.
Certainly, I would like something with a little more safety. but as you say, you pay a premium for it and I’m not in a position where I can do that.
what’s snow??? Lori is a native Houstonian 😀
haahahhahahahaha! that pic is awesome!!
Why dont FWD rallycar?
Cool pic, haha.
A strong roll cage in a small car would be nice, but then I wouldn’t my head taken out or I’d have to opt for a nice FIA homo’d helmet.
Is there any way to strengthen a car without rollcages? Complete frame fabs?
-paK +1
Speaking of FWD, I actually pushed a FWD car for the first time.
On a Toyota Solara, around 200+ lbs/ft torque to the front wheels. And I gotta say it’s funky. It just spun immediately even with trac control. Even with all the suspension goodies, it’s pretty icky. The best thing for it to do is staay grapded on teh gruond. It was scary the first time, but it mom’s car and understeer I’m not too used to. 🙁
And yes I would like to own at least one RWD car. Just to be familar. Only living off of AWD my entire driving life is somewhat spoiled.
-paK +2