[Miata] First Winter Drive

[mark moore]

The original question was about sleet and freezing rain. If it were 
me I wouldn't be moving if that's what's coming, or get out ahead of 
it. We get a fair bit of that here on Canada's east coast and it's 
dangerous stuff. I'll drive in blinding snow but not in freezing 
rain. You'll have to make an informed decision but if it's nasty then 
remember life is short. No snow tire is going to handle freezing rain 
well. Cars will step out with no warning to the driver and you don't 
know what the other cars will do.

Good luck with it. Mark


At 9:33 AM -0600 12/1/06, MH wrote:
>- Throttle steer is your friend. <grin>
>- Enjoy hollering things like, "get out of my way you 4x4 summer 
>tired idiot!" on your way by.
>- You can now take all the ricers and wanna-be at the lights.
>- You get to really feel and play with the balance of the car as you 
>run at the limit of adhesion at 30mph.
>
>I am guessing that getting to run a Miata in winter is like running 
>a more powerful car on pavement.  Just guessing because I've never 
>driven anything near supercar status, but the poor winter conditions 
>give the Miata the ability to easily overpower itself.  Now you have 
>to be nice in down shifting, all your transitions on/off power have 
>to be smoother, and you have to be nice to the accelerator pedal. 
>In the dry I have the bad habit of mashing it to the floor and 
>waiting for the car to catch up.
>
>I really enjoy inclement winter driving when I get to run at the 
>edge of what my ability/conditions/ and the car allow.  (When I am 
>alone on the roads, of course.)
>
>With the snows on, (Nokian Hakka's) I have not had any desire for 
>doing the weight in the trunk thing. Balance is fine.  But play with 
>your tire pressure.  +/- 5 lbs changes the feel of snow tires quite 
>a bit.
>
>Marvin
>
>
>
>From: miata-bounces at realbig.com [mailto:miata-bounces at realbig.com] 
>On Behalf Of Dillon
>Sent: Friday, December 01, 2006 8:16 AM
>To: MiataBigList
>Subject: [Miata] First Winter Drive
>
>Hi guys,
>
>I happen to be in downtown Chicago today (got in yesterday morning) 
>for some work stuff.  I have to drive about 70 miles to get home 
>starting this afternoon.  Apparently we're under some sort of crazy 
>snow/sleet/ice storm.  I put a set of used Arctic Alpin winter tires 
>(got them free from the buy who sold me my hard top) on my car last 
>month, so hopefully I'm equipped. 
>
>I haven't driven a rear-wheel drive car in the winter since my old 
>5.0 mustang ~8 years ago, so this could be an experience.  I have 
>lots of winter-driving experience, but I"m wondering if there are 
>any subtleties specific to the Miata I should be aware of ?
>
>Regards,
>Dillon
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://ftl.realbig.com/pipermail/miata/attachments/20061201/69fad855/attachment.html