Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Fun in the snow!!

Late last night after coming back from clubbing, we found that it had snowed at least a couple of inches and was still going. My roommate and I decided to take my car out into the nearly-empty campus parking lots and have some fun with it. The SVT performs a bit too well in the snow to have as much fun as we wanted (we were riding in his lighter Jetta for a while as well, though) but it was still great. I quickly found that hitting the brakes never failed to stop the car reasonably quickly (gotta love ABS), so the only way to make the car skid like we wanted was to turn the wheel hard to one side, and sometimes I would engage the e-brake to make the back wheels lock and slide through the snow. I have Blizzaks on the front wheels, which definitely seemed to make a difference. I did not know until now that I could get my car up to nearly 40 mph, turn the wheel all the way to one side, and the car would sustain the g-forces easily while skidding through the snow and kicking it up several feet in the air. There were very few other cars in the parking lot at 2 am - actually, 2 of the lots we were using were completely empty - and no people. One guy who came out to get his Grand Cherokee saw what we were doing and did a couple donuts of his own before leaving the parking lot. I don't think I've ever had so much fun with my car, or in the snow, until now.

Aside from having fun, now I'm much more confident in my ability - and my car's ability - to drive in the snow. Just doing what I did taught me a lot quickly about predicting what was happening next and how to drive to make the car go where you want it to, even if you've hardly any traction. After all, there were light posts and trees planted at intervals in the parking lot that had to be avoided. Getting back to my apartment was no trouble at all, even though I had to go through two rather steep hills on the way. Earlier in the night, we had watched an older, light RWD BMW get stuck spinning tires trying to go up a hill which we later drove up easily. Moral of the story? SVT + good snow tires = fairly good performance in bad weather.

I just took my bro's g35x for a spin..literally

Nothing like a v6 3.8l Mustang with bald tires on Ice...

Drove my mom's Subaru today ... I love AWD. There was maybe one point where I didn't feel in control (although I was driving more cautiously than the others on the road too).

Yeah,doing that kind of stuff is great to hone your skills and make you more confident behind the wheel of your car,because you learn its limits and then you can drive within them on the road.

A couple winters ago,me and some buddies were fooling around in an empty parking lot and a local cop drove by and came in and started yelling at us and I just said to him "it may look like we're being stupid and wreckless,but I've actually learned the limitsof my car in the snow,and I'm learning better car control skills in an enclosed area with no danger to anyone or anyone's property" and the cop was like "you know what...you've got a good point" and let us go.

SNOW IS FUN!


GOTTA LOVE 4x4!



I will try to post winter pics later!

I love driving my Subaru WRX in the snow. Actually, that's a big reason why I bought it. Yes, I know this is a Contour forum - my wife drives a '99 Contour Sport, which I used to drive before the Suby. There's nothing like a 3200 lb, 260 hp (slightly modded), AWD, manual sedan drifting through a turn in 3 inches of Wisconsin powder.