snow on the way

[french dave]

Hi All, As a virgin winter driver how does the tvr s3 handle -if at all in the snow.i drive it every day and cover 400 miles a week.will a bag of sand in the boot and snow chains help?or do i need to find another form of transport through the white stuff?

[Alan Whitaker]

Hi
If going to be as bad as they say, might be worth keeping a pr of these in the boot.




Alan

[Griffinr]

Use mine all year and found it ok in the snow, couple of bags of sand in the boot helps. I found tickover in first very useful when it was bad as you could get out and give it a shove without it running away too fast. If I were doing your sort of miles I'd get some winter tyres, you need good tread as a minimum.
Rob.

[NiceCupOfTea]

I'd be more worries about the chassis in all that salt I think!

I'm always torn between babying the car - keeping under cover, only using on dry days, never leaving in public car parks, no traffic driving, etc. - or just using the damn thing! We all know that these cars run better for being used! No point in having the thing and not using it... Tempted to take it out in the snow just for the man points and photo ops! Have some good pics of my old MX-5 in snow but got it stuck a couple of times... Wouldn't want to risk the S without appropriate tyres...

[AutoAndy]

I am surprised no-one has posted a pic from 2010 Euro trip yet...



..advice: drive very slowly on the snow so you don't drop thousands of feet into the valley below...and definitely keep the roof down!

[glenrobbo]

Andy, I can't see no valley below!
I agree roof down, but also need deerstalker hat, pipe & 'tache as per Joe's
suggestion for GTS regalia on this year's trip.

[Jaye R]

glenrobbo said:

Andy, I can't see no valley below!

The 'valley' is somewhere to the right of the car - some photos of 'the way back down'









Great memories

Cheers
Jaye

[glenrobbo]

Awesome! Bring it on!
I need to get out & practice some more
It'll be snowier tomorrow.

[BountyHunter]

Jaye R said:

The 'valley' is somewhere to the right of the car - some photos of 'the way back down'



Great memories

Cheers
Jaye

that pic is very interesting, and seems to tie in with my own experiences in France and Germany

its obviousy snowed, yet the road is CLEAR
half the problem here in the UK is that we dont cope with the clearing white stuff properly - which means theres simply more of it we have to drive on.


for actual driving on snow these things are amazing.
http://www.autosock.co.uk/
i got stuck last time we had the snow loads of times - including one time at a petrol station forecourt, where almost no one could get nr the pumps, however meantime in drives a fwd audi a3 who goes straight to the pumps, fills up and leaves. his car was fitted (front wheels only) with a pair of those snow socks.
a rwd car would need 2 pairs - as obviously the steered and driven wheels are different

[glenrobbo]

We had a sprinkling of snow last night, mostly displaced by the cold sleet & drizzle all day.
I've just walked home from the pub, and everything has FROZEN SOLID.
Be VERY careful out there in the morning Peeps, it's like a greased ice rink coated in oil with molyslip on top. If that road is untreated & goes downhill, you ain't gonna stop until you reach an uphill bit. And don't for one moment think you'll be able to steer, because the only direction will be decided by contours

Please be extra careful out there, don't want to lose anybody.

PS, If it hadn't been for the beer, I might have fallen.

Edited by glenrobbo on Monday 14th January 22:20

[BountyHunter]

glenrobbo said:

We had a sprinkling of snow last night, mostly displaced by the cold sleet & drizzle all day.
I've just walked home from the pub, and everything has FROZEN SOLID.
Be VERY careful out there in the morning Peeps, it's like a greased ice rink coated in oil with molyslip on top. If that road is untreated & goes downhill, you ain't gonna stop until you reach an uphill bit. And don't for one moment think you'll be able to steer, because the only direction will be decided by contours

Please be extra careful out there, don't want to lose anybody.

PS, If it hadn't been for the beer, I might have fallen.

Edited by glenrobbo on Monday 14th January 22:20

thats good advice m8

ive got idiots on my facebook saying they want snow and if you cant manage to drive ok on it, then you must be a sh*t driver

[glenrobbo]

Snow is ok. Snow is snow. What lurks underneath can be death.
Just be aware.

[unicorn77]

Well, yesterday we had the snow forecast for around 3 p.m. We always have my mother for the weekend and return her home on Monday, staying awhile. But we left early due to the forecast and got a puncture on the A12 about 10 miles from home!! (In our Zafira, so apologies for this not being a TVR story).

No spare wheel, so out come the "instructions" for the get you home kit, plus the various components. After 30 minutes I've got it connected up as I think it should be but nothings happening. By this time it's 2 p.m. and sleeting. Gave up and called the AA who arrived quite reasonably in 30 minutes. He couldn't get it working either (puncture too big, he mused) so recovered us home. By the time he'd got us all hooked up it was heavily snowing and he said that would be his last recovery job for the day as "they don't let us recover in the snow"! So we were lucky in a way.

The next family vehicle I buy will have a spare wheel! How are you supposed to check this kit things work?

To finish on a TVR snow related matter, when I picked mine up new on 7th Feb 91, it started snowing about 10 miles from home and I did have a slight wobble down an "on" slip road (bearing in mind that I had completed only 15 miles in any TVR at that point). But it got into my garage and stayed there as we were snowed in for a week or so. I've subsequently spun it about 4 times, never in the snow, and even the wife has spun it once (she hates driving it and is VERY careful).