MontegoRX7

Its official, they suck in the snow. I was driving home tonight, light snow. Go into the right turn lane to turn into my sub division, and what do I hit, packed snow. I wasnt even on the throttle and the back end whipped out the the right, I tried to steer into it and pull it back, but slid across traffic, over the median, into oncoming traffic and onto the sidewalk on the other side of the road. Luckily I didnt hit anyone. There is now visable damage to the car, but I know the alignment is off, so that may mean some suspension damage. The driver side headlight isnt retracting either. Well I guess itll go into the shop next week, and Ill find out whats wrong. Dangit, and I planned on racing in an autocross this sunday too. Oh well, Ill take luck in living than luck in racing.

Pressurized

Gotta love having a light RWD car in the snow! I know what you mean, I got caught in snow once and I honestly didn't think I would make it home. I was doing about 45 on the highway and people were passing me and honking at me.....I could just feel the back-end drifting all over the place...it was scary!

Flybye

Ditto. It sucks.
I dit a 180 within a 10 foot radius Hitting ice is MUCH worse than hitting a patch of snow....

I guess, the only solution is to put 500lbs worth of sand bags in the trunk

Tommy

I use to get out of work early if it started to snow cause my boss new my fd wasnt worth a crap in it

Steve,
YOu were doing 45 mph in the snow?? I couldnt even do over 10 when the roads were covered.

Tom93R1

iTrader: (2)

Oh yes, I just loved when I would get caught in the snow with my fd. The only thing good about them in the snow is that they have very little low end torque. I wonder how it would be with snow tires, or even all season radials? My fc was alot better in snow, I remeber one year when there was snow and ice on the roads I got stuck behind a 4x4 Jeep Cherokee on a hill. He got stuck and I had to go into the median where there was even more snow to get around him. He must have felt like the no-snow-driving-skills-Californian that he was.

Gir

are these cars manageable in the snow if you have a set of snow tires on them? and some weight in the back possibly?
snow is something Ill have to drive in and need to be prepared for

ejmack1

i was doin 160 on the interstate last week when it began to lightly snow, slow down really quickly though... i lost control of her later that night doin 55 with about an inch of unplowed snow.. it was an empty highway, so i was havin some fun....

Mahjik

iTrader: (1)

I drove my car once (and only once) in the snow. I had about 150lbs of sand bags in the back and it didn't help one bit. I was coming off the highway about 40 mph and the exit ramp had a little left turn to it.. Well, as the exit ramp straightened out, the car didn't. The car started to slide off the side of the exit ramp (which would have been a 30 yard downhill run into a creek), but I got it to shift the weight of the car back the other direction and spun it 180 instead. Didn't hit anything or anyone but it did scare the crap out of me. I waited until around 8PM or so to drive home that night when I though most people were off the roads.

I would recommend NOT driving the car in the snow unless you absolutely have to... If you just have to get to work/school and it's snowing, you might want to invest in getting a winter beater car.

enuttage

This is why my other car is a WRX.

Not that it EVER snows here anyway. At least I can claim rain...some years.

-E

Quik 93 FD

yeah, rain is no more fun than snow. First off, My Falkens have like 30% trad on them and my FD is lowered 2 in". It rained for like 2 hours and the road was 3 in" under water. The front lip caught the water and thats when it got interesting. The water then controlled my car. But it wasnt that bad when the road wasnt flooded and I had much more controll over it. Overall it wasnt soo bad.

enuttage

Quik,

You're in Miami. I feel for you during a heavy rainstorm. I've been a lot of places in this country, but I've only been to two cities where "rain" has a different meaning than it does for most people...Miami and Houston (I'm sure most in the SouthEast have experienced this).

Get caught in a bad enough rainstorm in either of these places and you can't even see in front of you, much less drive. It feels like you've been repeatedly beaten and shouted at simultaneously.

No place for an FD in a rainstorm.

-E

Flybye

Falkens? On an FD? WTF is wrong with you!!
That's like Michael Jordan wearing Keds!

rotary-tt

I can get around ok in light snow with Dunlop AS4000's.

Gir

does anyone run full blown winter only snow tires ??
I will have a second set of rims with winter tires only on them.

Freaky Monkey007

lol.. i was driving home one night and all of a sudden it start to rain. a min. into this its so heavy that you cant see the front end of you car. I had to stop and sit there with like 20 other people till it was over. Then it just kinda stoped.. really weird

rynberg

Preach on Flybye, I can't believe the POS tires some people are putting on their FD. At the least, step up to the Dunlop SP8000 or something similar. I realize not everyone can afford S-03s, but damn.

Flybye

When I bought my FD, I put Goodyear Gatorbacks on it about 2 months down the line. simply because I was flat broke. I used a little more money than I expected for the downpayment. It had the original S01s on it. I only put the gatorbacks on the back because I was going to get better tires anyways, so I wanted a cheap replacement. OMFG what a mistake!! Those tires sucked SOOO hardcore!!! They had like no grip what so ever. I wasted the **** out of them just so that I can get other tires. I opted for the RE71s since they had good reviews and they WERE OEM tires on the 959. with the RE71s, I pulled a .96 on the G-tech on shitty pavement, so they ARE a good bang for the buck.

Shitty tires SUCK ***!

martini

You guys dissing Falkens don't know what you're talking about.

Falken Azenis RS are quite possibly the BEST tires you can get for autocrossing.. And racers know it, stores over here are sold out, they have to ship them from places like Castro Valley, CA where the people have not yet been exposed to the wonders of the RS. Why are they so good? Because they have incredible grip, some say better than victoracers, and they have a treadrating of 200, which won't bump you up a class. It's like having a race tire, but not being penalized for it.

They will be my next set of tires for sure. You all should look into them as well.

anyways, my $.02...carry on.

Ryan95

iTrader: (10)

They're better than a Turbo II.

And a helluva lot better than a GSL-SE with slicks.

MAESTRUL

'I guess, the only solution is to put 500lbs worth of sand bags in the trunk'
Flybye
Your car must have a huge trunk!!!

Let me rephrase it: DON'T DRIVE ON WET OR SNOW!!!

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Why wouldn't a 2800 lb car with 50/50 weight distribution and a posi rear be decent in the rain and snow?....Hey guys, it's the TIRES. It's a shame that you need to drive them in inclement weather, but if you do, put snows in the rear & a wide open tread in front...Possibly Blizzaks all around. I been in cars with the "Z" rated All Season tires, and haven't been able to go over 35-40 in rain because the tires hydroplane. My friend has a new M3 & got caught in a light snow last month, covered the ground, maybe an 1". He could just about keep the car moving..even with the traction control...TIRES. My RX7 has never seen the snow (use a Jeep Grand Cherokee), and only caught in the rain maybe 3 times. Years ago, more than I like to remember, we had a 1979 RX7 Limited, open rear, used it everyday, even in the snow. Snow tires, no problems as long as there wasn't 6/8" on ground.
Bottom line..You can't run a high performance tire and expect it to perform in snow & rain, you must compromise.

enuttage

I disagree...well about the rain part. There are numerous high-performance tires that pride themselves in being great in the wet also. The S-03 is a perfect case in point.

However, it's still dangerous driving a powerful RWD car in a fresh (or really heavy) rainstorm. My father-in-law's Targa has S-03's and it responds very well, but we can still break it loose easily at the beginning of a rain. Lotta power, not much traction. Lack of traction is on the road though.

I can't speak with ANY experience in the snow though. You're probably dead-on there.