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Actually the skilled driver knows that "a skilled driver will always make to their destination in snow" is false. A skilled driver does not overestimate the capabilities of his vehicle and recognizes that sometimes you can't get to your destination and that you need to wait until the streets are sufficiently passable before setting out.
Depends on what you drive. If you have 18 inches of snow on the ground & drive a Ford Mustang, you're probably not going to get anywhere.
When I lived up north I had a very heavily modified Jeep Wrangler Rubicon edition which included a 7" Sky Jacker lift kit and 37" Toyo Open Country tires. There really wasn't anywhere I couldn't go in snow
Depends on what you drive. If you have 18 inches of snow on the ground & drive a Ford Mustang, you're probably not going to get anywhere.
When I lived up north I had a very heavily modified Jeep Wrangler Rubicon edition which included a 7" Sky Jacker lift kit and 37" Toyo Open Country tires. There really wasn't anywhere I couldn't go in snow
If the mustang is anything like my camaro, you are not going anywhere with 2 inches of snow, and even at about 1/8 inch you are going to have trouble. I have driven it through two winters and wished that I had left it in California the whole time. Now I can finally garage it this winter and drive a truck.
If the mustang is anything like my camaro, you are not going anywhere with 2 inches of snow, and even at about 1/8 inch you are going to have trouble. I have driven it through two winters and wished that I had left it in California the whole time. Now I can finally garage it this winter and drive a truck.
Snow tires! I drive a Mustang with snow tires and get around just fine in Pittsburgh winters, even with all the steep hills in this area. I actually do better than many front wheel drive sedans that just run all-seasons in the winter. I also keep 4 bags of rock salt in my trunk for extra weight over the drive wheels. Without snow tires, my car is basically a sled though.
I don't consider the two mutually exclusive. You can have driving skill and still be a stupid driver. I think I have a fair amount of driving skill. I have autocrossed for 15 years, even attended the National Championships 5 different times where I never placed near the top, but didn't embarrass myself either. I would say because of that experience I have better car control skills than at least 95% of the population.
But throw a bit of fresh snow on the roads and I turn into a raving idiot. The red-mist starts flowing and I start driving my turbocharged AWD car like the morning commute is Rally Sweden. I'm seeking out the most untraveled route to work, pitching the car sideways into turns then countersteering and laying into the throttle, throwing a quartet of snow rooster tails as I exploit the fact that the snow tires I have actually achieve their best forward bite with a fairly healthy bit of wheel slip. Once committed, backing off the throttle is not an option because it will unload the rear tires and make the car spin. The only thing to do is to keep my foot in it, make SMALL steering adjustments, and let the car eventually pull itself strait. Hopefully that happens before the rev limiter kicks in (about 65 mph in second) or that whole "unloading the rear tires" thing can rear its ugly head. My adrenalin is absolutely maxing because I'm on the hairy edge of going sideways into a ditch, and its not even clear which side it might be.
This glorious antic simply isn't possible to do on pavement with any car I've ever owned. Its something I've never been able to do in the controlled environment of an autocross.
Then there's the roundabout in the newly-laid-out, but sparsely-built-out subdivision along the way. Normally I bypass the subdivision but if there's fresh powder I'm going through, hoping there's no traffic near the roundabout so I can take a slow, lazy, slightly-sideways loop-and-three-quarters around it.
Mind you when the crops are down the visibility down the roads I'm taking is quite far. If there's other traffic around I calm back down to normal. And when I get back into the regularly populated areas I put the rally-racer-wanna-be persona back in the glove box. I try to minimize the risks to other people. But that only make it less stupid, but still stupid. tupid.
P.S. The front tow hook is installed Dec 1 and doesn't come off until mid-March. Knock on wood, I haven't needed to use it yet.
Snow tires! I drive a Mustang with snow tires and get around just fine in Pittsburgh winters, even with all the steep hills in this area. I actually do better than many front wheel drive sedans that just run all-seasons in the winter. I also keep 4 bags of rock salt in my trunk for extra weight over the drive wheels. Without snow tires, my car is basically a sled though.
Sounds like it gets along alright. What's the deepest snow you can go through in it? I would think anything more than 10 inches would be a no-go in a Mustang.
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