(no subject)

[randomness]

As I was clearing snow off the car this morning it occurred to me that clearing the roof and windows used to be the easy part of getting the car ready to go.

Now it's the hard part. What used to be difficult was digging out, which to a first approximation I don't have to do anymore. I'm pretty sure I would bog in a meter of snow, but I'm equally sure that if I drove carefully I could probably drive through a third of a meter fairly consistently without serious problems.

Snow tires would probably improve this performance but as one of my friends said recently there are limits to preparedness beyond which it begins to look like hoarding. Where reasonable limits are is up to one's own situation and temperament.

I did see a guy across the lot from me dig out his BMW crossover fairly completely. It seemed like he'd gone to a lot of trouble to no real point. I have trouble believing his X3 would be less capable of getting out of that space than I would, particularly given his chunky tires. But I guess he got some exercise. We all decide where "reasonable" is.

Comments

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I put snow tires on my car, I have rear wheel drive.

In your car, I would definitely get snow tires. But I have all-wheel drive, so mine is a different trade-off.

I once rented one of the car you drive on a memorably snowy trip to Pittsburgh and Cleveland. The Pennsylvania Turnpike was exciting! More so because the windshield wipers weren't keeping up with the snow.

Anyway, I had a great time with it but I waited until I'd dropped off bedfull_o_books at CostumeCon before doing donuts in an empty mall parking lot in suburban Cleveland.

It's really lovely having rear-wheel drive. I practiced doing bootleg turns in the newfallen snow.

[donnad.livejournal.com]

It did take some getting used to, especially after driving a front-wheel drive vehicle for 20 years. But I learned to drive in snow on a rear-wheel drive car, so it came back quickly. I do still have my peel-out moments even on dry pavement.

But you know, the best thing about my car is not the rag top, it's the 6-cylinder engine. I love being able to know that when I step on the gas, my car is going to respond. I love being able to get up to highway speeds on the on-ramp before I get to the highway.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the first car I drove regularly was a rear-wheel drive GM product. I taught myself a lot about vehicle handling and dynamics in that car in snow. In fact, it wasn't hard to spin the thing in the rain. Memorably, one time in high school I came out of a strip mall parking lot a little too fast on wet pavement and did a quick 180 in front of traffic. Fortunately no one hit me, but I learned something useful that day.

I can't remember whether this rental had the V6 or the V8 (this was the late '90s) but whichever it was it had torque aplenty.