Anecdotes wanted about mishaps when driving in winter!
Discussion
There is this one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAr6cHSNQaQ it carries 2 messages I feel
Firstly trying to push your own car in while it is in gear and running is a REALLY bad idea and secondly There is always some
willing to laugh at your predicament rather than come and out and help you even if they are supposed to be your neighbour.
Firstly trying to push your own car in while it is in gear and running is a REALLY bad idea and secondly There is always some
willing to laugh at your predicament rather than come and out and help you even if they are supposed to be your neighbour.Not especially funny, but I was trying to drive up the fairly steep road to my house when there was snow on it. I was driving a manky old fiesta with really thin tyres, so they gripped quite well in snow. Blocking my way was a new diesel Mondeo which was spinning the wheels merrily. I stopped and got out to talk to the driver, explaining that he needed to give it a little less throttle. I pushed at the back of the car to help, and he continued to floor the accelerator. this went on for a few minutes and it was clear that he had no intention of actually listening to me.
I got fed up by this point, but thanks to the madly spinning front wheels, it was quite easy to push on one side of the back of the car to move him to the side of the road a little. I then got back in my manky Fiesta, backed up ten yards to get a run up and drove straight past him.
I got fed up by this point, but thanks to the madly spinning front wheels, it was quite easy to push on one side of the back of the car to move him to the side of the road a little. I then got back in my manky Fiesta, backed up ten yards to get a run up and drove straight past him.
Drove my MX5 from Edinburgh to Northumberland during "the big freeze" of Christmas 2010. It was going well, apart from the following facts:
- There was ice on the inside of the screen, spraying de-icer in the car meant I went slightly light headed for a bit.
- It was so low it turned into a snow plough and I kept having to scoop out the radiator grill.
- The Torsen diff worked both ways, so while it gave great traction pulling away, it meant that it locked the rears during downshifts (was only just learning heel toe at the time).
This was all forgotten when I went to turn off the junction and up the hill to my parent's village. The road hadn't been gritted in the slightest. Straight after the T-junction, there's a steep hill. Obviously I had to carry as much speed as possible to get up it.
I carried too much speed. Went sideways (with the passenger side containing the fiancée obviously) into a snowbank outside an old schoolfriend's house. Bounced back off and went up the hill sideways the other way (me looking out of driver's window), towards a car which had (thankfully) stopped at the top of said hill.
I'll never forget how loud the other half screamed, the look on the face off the woman I was heading towards sideways or my Dad applauding me on my Petter Solberg-esque driving.
- There was ice on the inside of the screen, spraying de-icer in the car meant I went slightly light headed for a bit.
- It was so low it turned into a snow plough and I kept having to scoop out the radiator grill.
- The Torsen diff worked both ways, so while it gave great traction pulling away, it meant that it locked the rears during downshifts (was only just learning heel toe at the time).
This was all forgotten when I went to turn off the junction and up the hill to my parent's village. The road hadn't been gritted in the slightest. Straight after the T-junction, there's a steep hill. Obviously I had to carry as much speed as possible to get up it.
I carried too much speed. Went sideways (with the passenger side containing the fiancée obviously) into a snowbank outside an old schoolfriend's house. Bounced back off and went up the hill sideways the other way (me looking out of driver's window), towards a car which had (thankfully) stopped at the top of said hill.
I'll never forget how loud the other half screamed, the look on the face off the woman I was heading towards sideways or my Dad applauding me on my Petter Solberg-esque driving.
I once tried driving home from University across the A66 - it had been closed due to drifting snow.
I spotted a side road to Brough on the map (no satnav in those days and I was in a 2CV) and went off to find it, not thinking that the A66 follows the lowest route through the hills and up on the moors it was even worse.
I did get stuck and fortunately not far from a house - the owner and his wife took me in and gave me shelter until a plough came through - 2 days later.....
I spotted a side road to Brough on the map (no satnav in those days and I was in a 2CV) and went off to find it, not thinking that the A66 follows the lowest route through the hills and up on the moors it was even worse.
I did get stuck and fortunately not far from a house - the owner and his wife took me in and gave me shelter until a plough came through - 2 days later.....
I think there was a thread started by someone with a Subaru complaining about how terrible everyone else was at driving in the snow & ice followed by another thread along the lines of "I've crashed it's the councils fault for not gritting the roads".
Its not in the legendary thread thread so it might have been deleted.
Its not in the legendary thread thread so it might have been deleted.
Where I used to work was a 15 mile commute of B-roads, very winding and undulating, very fun in summer, very difficult in winter.
On a dry day I could get door to door in 20 mins, on snow I'd allow 40, so just a case of leaving home a little earlier.
In my trusty porsche 944 I got to work every day, every single day.
One chap who lived in the same town as me couldnt get to work in his Freelander
A lad who's road I passed on the way, couldnt get to work in his Astra.
A woman who lives 3 miles from work, on the same road as I take, got in to work 90 minutes late in her Trooper.
Day after day I get into work and park on the road outside after an epic 15 miles of throttle control, counter steering, inertia management and braking with my eyes shut I treated every day as an adventure.
Day 4 and I get cocky and decide I can park in the work car park.
Much thanks to the 4 women who pushed me out.
Do. Not. Be. Cocky.
On a dry day I could get door to door in 20 mins, on snow I'd allow 40, so just a case of leaving home a little earlier.
In my trusty porsche 944 I got to work every day, every single day.
One chap who lived in the same town as me couldnt get to work in his Freelander
A lad who's road I passed on the way, couldnt get to work in his Astra.
A woman who lives 3 miles from work, on the same road as I take, got in to work 90 minutes late in her Trooper.
Day after day I get into work and park on the road outside after an epic 15 miles of throttle control, counter steering, inertia management and braking with my eyes shut I treated every day as an adventure.
Day 4 and I get cocky and decide I can park in the work car park.
Much thanks to the 4 women who pushed me out.
Do. Not. Be. Cocky.
Whose going to be first to post the picture of the 1 series with snowchains on the front wheels and not on the back?
No great anecdotes from me, other than some handbrake turn action on large empty car parks and fields.
Although my mate fell off his scooter on the school car park before. Used to go to sixth form on my scooter with a couple of mates, snow had fell during the day so the car park seemed to have a decent layer by the time we were free at the end of the day.
Mucking about as 16 and 17 year olds do, we were spinning the rear wheels up and having a good laugh. My mate thought it would be a good idea to go sideways, speedway style, on a scooter, in the snow, on a car park. To be fair he was going well until he clearly gave it too much throttle, was completely sideways and caught a bit of tarmac that was showing in the snow. Both his tyres gripped at the same time and threw him off and into the air. He hit the snow with a bit of a thud and slid into the rear wheel of the headmaster's car parked nearby.
We had tears in our helmets sat to the side watching, properly funny moment. Made even better by the way he started making excuses as to why he fell off. None of his own doing ofcourse.
No great anecdotes from me, other than some handbrake turn action on large empty car parks and fields.
Although my mate fell off his scooter on the school car park before. Used to go to sixth form on my scooter with a couple of mates, snow had fell during the day so the car park seemed to have a decent layer by the time we were free at the end of the day.
Mucking about as 16 and 17 year olds do, we were spinning the rear wheels up and having a good laugh. My mate thought it would be a good idea to go sideways, speedway style, on a scooter, in the snow, on a car park. To be fair he was going well until he clearly gave it too much throttle, was completely sideways and caught a bit of tarmac that was showing in the snow. Both his tyres gripped at the same time and threw him off and into the air. He hit the snow with a bit of a thud and slid into the rear wheel of the headmaster's car parked nearby.
We had tears in our helmets sat to the side watching, properly funny moment. Made even better by the way he started making excuses as to why he fell off. None of his own doing ofcourse.
Spanna said:
Whose going to be first to post the picture of the 1 series with snowchains on the front wheels and not on the back?
No great anecdotes from me, other than some handbrake turn action on large empty car parks and fields.
Although my mate fell off his scooter on the school car park before. Used to go to sixth form on my scooter with a couple of mates, snow had fell during the day so the car park seemed to have a decent layer by the time we were free at the end of the day.
Mucking about as 16 and 17 year olds do, we were spinning the rear wheels up and having a good laugh. My mate thought it would be a good idea to go sideways, speedway style, on a scooter, in the snow, on a car park. To be fair he was going well until he clearly gave it too much throttle, was completely sideways and caught a bit of tarmac that was showing in the snow. Both his tyres gripped at the same time and threw him off and into the air. He hit the snow with a bit of a thud and slid into the rear wheel of the headmaster's car parked nearby.
We had tears in our helmets sat to the side watching, properly funny moment. Made even better by the way he started making excuses as to why he fell off. None of his own doing ofcourse.
No great anecdotes from me, other than some handbrake turn action on large empty car parks and fields.
Although my mate fell off his scooter on the school car park before. Used to go to sixth form on my scooter with a couple of mates, snow had fell during the day so the car park seemed to have a decent layer by the time we were free at the end of the day.
Mucking about as 16 and 17 year olds do, we were spinning the rear wheels up and having a good laugh. My mate thought it would be a good idea to go sideways, speedway style, on a scooter, in the snow, on a car park. To be fair he was going well until he clearly gave it too much throttle, was completely sideways and caught a bit of tarmac that was showing in the snow. Both his tyres gripped at the same time and threw him off and into the air. He hit the snow with a bit of a thud and slid into the rear wheel of the headmaster's car parked nearby.
We had tears in our helmets sat to the side watching, properly funny moment. Made even better by the way he started making excuses as to why he fell off. None of his own doing ofcourse.
Not me, but my old man once crashed his Capri into a dry stone wall in Cumbria when it snowed. He then walked to the nearest pub and asked them to take him in. In the middle of the night the police woke him up to enquire if he was tbe owner of the car and also why he hadnt filled in the guest information.
I followed this bloke for quite a few miles amazed at either his skill or stupidity at riding in those conditions. He had his legs out like stabilisers dragging along the floor all the way, sliding the back end out and spinning the wheel all of the time and never once looked out of control.. until he pulled into the garage came to a stop and fell flat on his arse with the bike ontop of him. 
A few years ago now i was part of a chassis dynamics teams doing some cold teritory testing at a facility just outside Ivalo in Northern Finland. We had been there for 3 days, and had got to grips with the main ice track (snow ploughed out between snow banks about 1m tall on a frozen lake) and were pretty much now sliding around it with joyfull abandon.
On the Thursday morning, the customers senior program manager flew out to join us, and it fell to me to demonstrate just how good our latest calibration was, so with him in the passenger seat and with the "impress him at all costs" words of my team ringing in my ears, I set out at Warp factor 9 into the first series of nice slaloms. Only to find that unknown to me, that the ploughs had been out over night and they had re-graded and rerouted the course.
A previous invightingly easy right into nice long opening flat out drift left was now the same, fast easy right but now tightening into a hairpin right DOH! To say we went off in spectacular style is an understatement, and i spent about 1 hr digging, at -18degC, to just get to the towing eye so the track security could give us a tow out with their 4x4...............
Lessons learnt: If you're try and gonna show off, make sure you've checked you know where you're going first ;-)
On the Thursday morning, the customers senior program manager flew out to join us, and it fell to me to demonstrate just how good our latest calibration was, so with him in the passenger seat and with the "impress him at all costs" words of my team ringing in my ears, I set out at Warp factor 9 into the first series of nice slaloms. Only to find that unknown to me, that the ploughs had been out over night and they had re-graded and rerouted the course.
A previous invightingly easy right into nice long opening flat out drift left was now the same, fast easy right but now tightening into a hairpin right DOH! To say we went off in spectacular style is an understatement, and i spent about 1 hr digging, at -18degC, to just get to the towing eye so the track security could give us a tow out with their 4x4...............
Lessons learnt: If you're try and gonna show off, make sure you've checked you know where you're going first ;-)
Edited by anonymous-user on Tuesday 11th September 18:54
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