Winter Driving

[PeteB62]

I've had my V8 Vantage now for almost 6 months, with one minor warning in the wet which was good learning to hold off a little.
With winter coming up and living in Scotland wanted to get some feedback on how they are in snow?
The indication when I bought it was best not to venture out.

[Jibberingloon]

I would advise do what most of us have done...................


Buy a Land Rover or Range Rover for when you need the space and the all weather driving conditions

[wtdoom]

I'm planning to use my V12VS in winter . I have 2 concerns regarding winter driving grip sdncorrossion .
Id recommend a set of winter tyres and get the car up on a ramp . Give her a good clean and dry and liberally spray with ACF 50 to stop corrosion . Repeat this a few times over winter and the car will stay mint . I've used this tactic on a few exotics and have always been fine .

I'm sure you will be ok , have fun and post pics

[shinjuku]

On who's ramp? I'd like to do the same but I don't have my own ramp. .

[bogie]

Im with Loon, and have a Land Rover product for the winter months

Seriously, I think winter tyres make the most difference to actually staying on the road. The other issue really is just ground clearance in deep fresh snow. For general road use and commuting through winter, Id change wheels and tyres.

[wtdoom]

shinjuku said:

On who's ramp? I'd like to do the same but I don't have my own ramp. .

This is a very good point . I don't have one either but I'm lucky enough to be friendly with a local garage and they let me use the ramp early on a Saturday morning to do this . Failing that you can get your detailer to do it, many retailers can get under , provide him with product and get him to do it for you .
Failing the above , unfortunately it's a case of jacking the car up one side at a time and getting on your back and grafting .
That's what I used to do until recently .

[rovcallum]

Winter tyres and a spare set of wheels would be an absolute must if you were considering driving throughout the Winter.
I'll be running the old Landy as usual - it's probably cheaper than spare wheels and tyres for the Aston and "keeps it real" as far as driving experience goes.

Salt and grit into every conceivable nook and cranny is not something I would want to encourage.
That's assuming the local Council actually has the funds for spreading such stuff on the roads in the first place!

[8Tech]

All that torque, rear wheel drive and a lightweight car do not bode well for bad road conditions. I would not use it at all in the ice and snow and just drive carefully the remainder of the time.
Any cheap 4 wheel drive would be/is my recommendation for the really poor conditions.
I use an X5.

[GingerMunky]

shinjuku said:

On who's ramp? I'd like to do the same but I don't have my own ramp. .

There are lots of ramp hire companies around, we have one locally called The Ramp Room. For a few quid you can hire the ramp and all the tools in the facility.

[shinjuku]

Well, I drove my SL55 (more torque, more power) and BMW M3 (ditto) throughout two winters without winter tyres and didn't have any issues.

I'm considering it for the Vantage, but a 4x4 is a nice prospect... will have a think.

[V8V Pete]

I have winter wheels and OEM winter tyres. Work well and never had any major moments with the proviso that you respect the fact you're driving a 450bhp rear wheel drive car. I do not have a second car/4x4 to take the worst of it but do have a winter pushbike with mudguards and 4 season tyres to take the pain when there is lots of salt/grit down. Works for me but I realise I may be in the minority on here.

[PeteB62]

Thanks for feedback and great tip on ACF 50, will be looking to source some of that this weekend.
On the second car would love the old Land Rover, actually learned to drive in Series one with hand throttle and manual wipers, just need to convince the wife it's a good thing, ~2-3 months to work on that.

[telum01]

Something to keep in mind with the V8 Vantage (not sure how much it applies to the V12V) is that the throttle response is very, very sluggish. Don't jab the gas pedal to get it to do something when there isn't a quick enough engine response because once it catches up, it'll bite you.

[XLR Motorsport]

telum01 said:

Something to keep in mind with the V8 Vantage (not sure how much it applies to the V12V) is that the throttle response is very, very sluggish. Don't jab the gas pedal to get it to do something when there isn't a quick enough engine response because once it catches up, it'll bite you.

Really? I haven't found this to be the case on my V8VM. Quite the opposite in fact.

[bogie]

XLR Motorsport said:

telum01 said:

Something to keep in mind with the V8 Vantage (not sure how much it applies to the V12V) is that the throttle response is very, very sluggish. Don't jab the gas pedal to get it to do something when there isn't a quick enough engine response because once it catches up, it'll bite you.

Really? I haven't found this to be the case on my V8VM. Quite the opposite in fact.

I think it got better in later cars, the early 4.3 did seem to have some lag. Later 4.7 seems better ...to me anyway

Winter driving really depends on what kind of British winter we have and where you live. Live Near a city with a local commute on a gritted road, and you can drive anything. I ran a Lotus Elise on track tyres for a few years through winter when I lived in a large town.

Then I moved to a village in the North, on a farm lane thats not gritted, with an incline/hill in 2 directions. I did wonder why everyone on the street had a 4WD and we moved in with our 3 x RWD sports cars

....the first time we had 4" of snow and tried to get off the drive to the lane we got stuck and had to get a tow.

Lesson learnt - A 4WD vehicle with all weather tyres is a useful thing to have if you live in a rural hilly area and need to stay mobile during winter