View Full Version : driving in the snow
kmrnskier
08-23-2003, 01:51 PM
OK, this may be an odd question. How many of you snowlovers out there, at the first sign of a snowstorm (if you're not skiing/riding), get in your vehicle, and just drive around town aimlessly? :skiplow:
Frankontour
08-23-2003, 08:18 PM
Personnaly, as long as the snow falls, I'm the nose stick in the window and I can stay a while just looking snow falling :D
I think this year that as soon as there will be 2" of snow, I'm going to the top of la Réserve to ski the beginning of the "Luge" or even the "Croque-Mitaine" at bottom, if there is enough snow into it (opened with a t-bar, on oct 26 last year would have been skiable since oct 17)
Hah! Next to skiing I like getting ready for skiing. That always includes a trip to a large parking lot for some snow scape automotive derring do. Doughnuts, figure 8's, starts, stops and my fave, the decreasing radius cyclone...start straight at 30 mph and initiate a long continuous curve slowly getting tighter.
Every time I blow it, I go back to the beginning and try the moves again...once a security guard got testy, but a local cop came around and asked me about the details of what I was up to. The security guard went away and the cop tried a few moves...not bad either!
Anyway, that's what snowy parking lots are good for!
When I was a kid in HighSchool - I used to hit that back parking lot at school with my 1972 Ford Pinto and do doughnuts... Fun stuff!
Every once and a while I'd drive my Mom's FWD Dodge Omni and I'd have to do the doughnuts in reverse... :)
elwood
08-25-2003, 08:26 AM
DMC, ya gotta love the front wheel drive donut...
As for me, I love driving in the snow. You'll find me driving around Burlington with my windows down fishtailing around corners and laughing the whole way. I got nuts when the snow starts...
SkiStooge
08-25-2003, 08:31 AM
DMC: As the proud owner of 5 (five!) Pintos over the years (OK, 2 were parts cars but they were still MINE!) I have to say that they were the best car for Winter Parking Lot and Back Road Olympics. #2 Item: I stay home until about an inch or so falls (has to be going to stay awhile) and then head out for some aimless wandering. My favorite aimless wanderings are usually up through the White Mountains. (Over Rt 28 to 16 to N. Conway , up past Tucks, check Wildcat, etc, back down past Storyland, right on Rt 302, up through the Notch (Crawford), down Rt 3 (Franconia Notch), Ashland exit back towards the Lake and toward home. Sometimes the first decent snow trip is shorter but, generally, this is about right. I love living in the area up here! OK. Have fun, be safe. Al :skistooge:
BladeGirl
08-25-2003, 09:43 AM
What a great idea, RR. Do you have a fave parking lot in the area? I'd like to try that out.
-BG
SkiStooge:
DMC: As the proud owner of 5 (five!) Pintos over the years (Mine was bright orange!!!
Had the gas tank firewall modification... Dad insisted....
Remember the old joke?
What the biggest highway nightmare?
Being stuck in traffic with an Audi 5000 behind you and a Ford Pinto in front of you....
North Shore Shopping Center, but there are so many lights now that I'm looking for a new spot.
Mind the gradient, those downhill cyclones can get expensive.
Favorite winter car: 1976 Capri Ghia with the Contis mounted and some old Bill Haley on the box! Still have the last one, the tape died though.
boarder25
08-25-2003, 12:10 PM
I bought a jeep wrangler.I installed a 4 inch suspension lift and mounted some monster grip 33 inch tires.Just so I could drive around in the snow.Regardless of whether I'm heading for the mountains or just going to the store (over and over and over again lol).
Jolly J
08-25-2003, 12:49 PM
I have a 95 Jeep YJ and it's blast for spinning around in the snow. Gotta love the short wheelbase!
DRPHIDDLEPHOS
08-25-2003, 03:27 PM
the best doughnut machine is a ford escourt! front wheel in reverse!! our high school parking lot was the bomb for phat 8's! usually had my drink on.......... :beer: makes me crazy!
Bannick
08-25-2003, 03:34 PM
DRPHIDDLEPHOS:
the best doughnut machine is a ford escourt! front wheel in reverse!! our high school parking lot was the bomb for phat 8's! usually had my drink on.......... :beer: makes me crazy! I would like to have my 77 pinto and 77 chevette back for fun in the snow. rear wheel drive is far superior for doing doughnuts....you don't have to strain your neck around to see what is out there.
When Christine and I got married we got a 1977 Dodge Charger SE, 360 V8. Before that car was done, we had H series tires on it. Once, with chains on we went 2 miles takin a shortcut on twitch roads in 14" of fresh....them, them Dukes!
Dam'n tough car, lasted 10 more months until a Ute-body pickup hit me head on.
Then we got a Datsun 710 (a peanut next to the Charger), another fine car for the snow!
kmrnskier
08-25-2003, 08:37 PM
You guys ROCK!!!!
Jolly J
08-26-2003, 07:43 AM
Front wheel drive cars are all about the parking brake come winter. It adds a whole new dimension to manuvering around in a parking lot.
2plankerider
08-26-2003, 02:02 PM
holy crap! i've only been here a day and already feel like family! I LOVE DRIVING IN THE SNOW...most of my freinds think i am crazy due to the fact that if i'm not skiing/riding, i'm doing something else in the snow while they are bundeled up for the winter. i had a subaru wagon back in college and would drive around like a mad man in 4WD. it wasn't great for donuts,but you can fly around all the backroads in it. it's a poor man's :hummer: after some creative bondo work to pass inspection (duct tape,toilet paper etc...) the guy at the garage told me to get the most out of it cuz next year there was no way it was gonna pass :D i killed it before the sticker was up :( R.I.P.
elwood
08-26-2003, 02:05 PM
2planker, where in VT are you located? I used to live in central VT...
2plankerider
08-26-2003, 02:07 PM
montpeculier. the home of high taxes! really though, a nice place to live
NH_tele
08-26-2003, 02:10 PM
Snow is an amazing thing. No matter what you do in it, it makes stuff so much cooler/more fun. Driving, skiing (ok, skiing is pretty hard without snow), hiking, sitting, whatever.
One thing I like about winter is that you never run out of things to do on weekends!
Skilasnow
08-26-2003, 02:10 PM
When my Mom taught us how to drive she would take us to a parking lot in the snow and just let us have at it until we figured it out for ourselves. A rear wheel drive station wagon, we had a blast!!!
And driving around aimlessly is a little dangerous during the first snow storm. It is amazing how many people in New England seem to completely forget how to drive in the snow until January
We've got two volvo's: One front-wheel drive, and the other rear-wheel drive. They have the gas tanks on opposite sides too... so I'm always pulling up to the wrong side of the gas tanks, and sometimes trying to do a donut in the wrong direction (forward vs. reverse).
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