I just got my 85 rx7 gs and I am curious about whst to expect in the winter. Like how will it handle on snow? Yes this depends alot on tires and other stuff but in general what can I expect?

 

it handles well in all weather from what I remember. just keep in mind that it's a FR, so you have to be mindful when you tap the gas. sometimes you might have to start out in 2nd gear, but I never really have.

 

I've had to start in 3rd in 4th gear depending on what you are driving in...Just takes time and practice.

And be VERY careful. It's really not that hard, you will slide if you punch it...remember these cars weigh around 2300 pounds and they're rear wheel drive which makes them even more fun in the winter! heh

 

Keep a light foot!!! and behave yourself, I drive mine year round in Michigan, find a nice big parking lot and practice on snow.

 

I drove mine thru our canadian winter, and it handled quite well, never left me in the ditch or snow bank. Just have to have respect for the road conditions.

 

 

finding a nice open abandoned parking lot. and practicing snow driving is so much fun

 

I planning on taking my protege 5 off the road this winter to build the motor for it.....so i'll be puttin the 7 tho the buffalo winter........gonna be a blast!

 

I agree with all of the above. I've had really good luck with winter driving in these cars. A bit of advice for any car; winter tires make a WORLD of difference. They're not that expensive but it's like slippers versus hiking boots!

 

The GS don't even have LSD. Think of what its like WITH LSD. Both wheels spinning no matter what the conditions.

 

Of all the cars I've had, my '80 GS was at the top of the winter driving list, along with my 4WD Subaru. While doing full speed powerslides around interchanges in the Subaru was fun, I did get it stuck once, while I got the '80 stuck exactly zero times.

Now I have an '85 GSL. It sucks in the snow, because of the LSD, but it's a fun kind of sucks. Burning the diff out helped the snow handling greatly.

I am of the mind that driving through snow means you use the throttle heavily to burn down through the hard packed crap down to the pavement. Plus, the act of throwing snow and slush has a reaction mass affect (every action has an equal and opposite reaction - throwing snow backwards moves the car forwards). If you try to drive without spinning the tires you'll never go anywhere, but then that is true for *any* car, except a 4WD.

 

Please tell me you're just kidding.

 

No I am not.

My main problem with winter driving is slowing down. Acceleration is no problem - 1st-2nd-3rd and I'm up to 40-45mph in slushy junk really quickly. Turning is no problem, although the LSD makes the car want to plooooow, and braking with the foot brake makes that worse, so what I've grown accustomed to doing is just grabbing the handbrake and getting the car slightly crossed up towards the direction I eventually will be turning, using the sliding/sideways tires to drag me down like anchor, then turn in at the right point, and then it's off the handbrake, clutch pedal back up, and power away from the corner. I've found that Scandi-flicking is just overkill for snow given our shortish wheelbase (it was necessary with the Sub') but it does work excellent on gravel and dirt to prevent a bad case of the plows.

Braking is just suckful, though, since when the front tires are locked you can't steer, and the brake bias seems to be too heavy to the front. So driving is mainly accelerating rapidly and watching *far* ahead.

The only truly annoying bit is traffic on the roads. Can't drive sideways then, so ya end up driving slowly like the rest of the putzes.

 

a little too enthusiastic, maybe?

 

Snow = drifting for the retarded

 

keep a light foot dammit !!!!!

 

more than the light foot, make sure you never down shift as you enter a corner. That seems where I have had the biggest problems.

 

But that makes the tail kick out, which is beneficial since it prevents you from plowing into the snowbank on the outside of the corner.

Understeer is scary. Oversteer can be dealt with and is generally not a bad thing.

 

i agree with this..but not the taking off fast part, because when you do that, you melt snow, then it freezes which makes what...ICE, where you get zero traction.i dont understand you thoery of how spinning the tires in snow, and losing traction is good.

and yes Bob Holton michigan winters are fun

 

You're not making ice if you're digging down THROUGH the snow to the pavement.

 

My car does great in the winter...
parked in the garage.

 

well i apologize peejay, i dont want to argue with you, you probably are smarter than me, i just dont see how it works, so i will just let you do your thing, and i'll do mine.

 

driving in snow is mostly down to driver skill and not the car (within reason of course!) ... we don't get much snow over here but I hate driving in it as everyone else drives like complete idiots. I will second the comments above about it being the stopping thats the problem and ABS won't save your *** either !

 

perfect circle, the best fun I ever had was a 35 ford coupe on Big Wolf Lake in the winter 360s the whole length. wed night at the Big Boy is fun .

 

what do you mean wed night at big boys is fun, is this something you still do, or something you did in the past in snow