It's SNOWING! :)

abdelkader Wrote:
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> In central Poland, where I live, it's -10ºC
> right now. At night it drops to -13ºC.


Wowsers, theres just snoway jose I could cope in that!


Jenson drives it like he owns it; Lewis drives it like he stole it

Someone spilled 3 billion € worth of coke in my garden ...

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REHAB IS FOR QUITTERS

There's coke being spilled in Dundee again too now! First time since the night this thread was started! But it's been so cold, none of the previous snow has melted yet, so we might get it piling up - if we're lucky...

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i made it to work 20 miles away in Blackpool, but it took 1 hour to get there as everyone was going on the motorway at 30-40mph. it took some people 3 hours to get in from Manchester. then at 11 o'clock they shut the site and told everyone to go home cos not many people made it in, so it took me 1 hour to get home again! shouldn't have bothered!

hope they let us know tomorrow if it's worth trying to get in. i personally found it easy to cope, just stick it it the highest gear possible and let it go with only slight dabs of throttle. saw some old woman in a Merc trying to get up a tiny slope, screwing the nuts off it but going backwards lol. she only had to apply throttle very gently and she'd make it, plus her car will have had traction control and a button for special winter settings (my dad's C Class has these).

view from my lab at around 9am today:

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2009 03:51PM by Muks_C.

Looks cool, indeed. I simply use winter tyres. Start from 2nd gear and it works fine. I have never gone backwards on a slope. As you say, throttle needs only a gentle touch and it'll be fine.

BTW, yesterday I stopped at the traffic lights behind a small car with the windscreens completely covered with ice. The driver opened the door, took a bottle of dishwash and poured some of it on the front screen. I thought I'd laugh my arse off . His electric screen washers must have been frozen. Don't people know that they should place at least a piece of carton on their front screen to keep ice away? Jeez!

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/21/2009 04:40PM by abdelkader.

Driven 3 cars in last few days up and down into town through some winding country roads... Citreon c -something (some 4 door saloon thing), Merc A-class and my multi-coloured Rover 400 :p

No doubt the best car in the snow and on the ice was the Merc, by a long way! And my old Rover was even easier and I felt alot safer in that the Citreon!
Following a car yesterday, a Pug-208 completley snow covered! The rear windscreen covered, the roof, the windows (so god knows how this driver saw!)... snow chunks were coming off her car and once at speed were being chucked onto my windscreen! I wasnt even close behind! I was too scared to go near because the rear-windscreen was completley covered! Turns out it was a lady-driver :p! I know that's illegal in Germany, driving around without having cleared the snow of your car.

Not seen this much snow in England a good few years!

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Its so cold when you have a broken boiler!!!!

Kx
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Haha... we suck in Britain with coping with snow.

Today it snowed pretty much solidly here from about 16.00 to just a few minutes ago. This resulted in my car being snowed in at work's car park. After a few attempts at simply driving out failed spectacularly there was only one thing for it, yes I had to dig my way out.....with my windscreen scraper!

That took some doing...accompanied by much swearing and many failures. I eventually made good after about 15-20 minutes. The weather isn't going to get any better here for a few days...but I'm going to be just as unprepared tomorrow because I actually don't have any tools for these situations.

My Fiesta is the worst car I've driven in the snow, but then the tyres aren't exactly winter spec.

As of right now, it is not snowing here in Brazil. Just thought I'd let you know.


Now really, I'm very envious of you guys, I've never seen snow and probably won't until I get to uni and manage to actually travel to places...

I hear that British people suck at snow driving, so how does this affect your lives? I'm imagining utter chaos and pile-ups everywhere

What seems to happen is that people drive in first gear and hit the brakes every 10 metres or so. This means they are in a constant state of lock or wheelspin. Its truley remarkable to behold.

And Chet, last friday i saw a lady in an Astra, the only peice of glass clear was the windscreen. Even the side mirrors were covered. Glad to know some people like to be aware of whats around them ey?......

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J i m Wrote:
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> Haha... we suck in Britain with coping with snow.
>
> Today it snowed pretty much solidly here from
> about 16.00 to just a few minutes ago. This
> resulted in my car being snowed in at work's car
> park. After a few attempts at simply driving out
> failed spectacularly there was only one thing for
> it, yes I had to dig my way out.....with my
> windscreen scraper!

You guys really are unprepared. In my parking place there has always been a couple of shovels, just being there all year long, in case someone needs it for some reason. I really admire your effort with the windscreen scraper. That's a good one. I don't think I'd manage to do it myself.



> My Fiesta is the worst car I've driven in the
> snow, but then the tyres aren't exactly winter
> spec.

Last year me and my friends would drive a Fiesta to the uni every two weeks. It was a great car for snow, even with completely worn out tyres. I really don't know why you don't like yours This year we get to the uni on a different car, a better one, but Fiesta has carved a huge positive mark in our memory and none of us wants it to be erased. We'd call it Red Rusty Arrow.

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Quote

What seems to happen is that people drive in first gear and hit the brakes every 10 metres or so. This means they are in a constant state of lock or wheelspin. Its truley remarkable to behold.

The logic that stupid people use is that you use lower gears to go slower, and you want to go slower in the snow, therefore a lower gear is better.

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Quote
mr.napa-br
I hear that British people suck at snow driving, so how does this affect your lives? I'm imagining utter chaos and pile-ups everywhere

The cause of which is that we get so little snow normally that we don't get enough practice (that's so backwards, but in a way it's true), and skid-pans and the likes are barely used - they should be compolsory.

And of course, ice tyres would be useless, as there is normally so little snow you'd be changing wheels constantly. Oh, and there is never enough grit/salt for the roads, so you get roads which are just like an ice-rink.

As Dave said, people are constantly driving without experience, not knowing what to do, panicking, and as a result, you do get areas where there is trouble.

I live in the north of England, so do get more snow than the south normally, and there's a lot of ice, but I still managed to get my motorbike (not an off-road one) the 20 miles to work until last year, when it stopped working. I spun 240 degrees in it once in the snow, but never came off, and there were plenty of slides on ice. If I can get to work on a laid-back Honda Shadow with normal tyres, others ought to be able to get around with a car... you just have to think as you go and be constantly aware.

exactly, people don't think about what they're doing. set off from a standstill in 2nd gear, and don't even use the accelerator, you won't stall if you do it very gently.

that woman yesterday was hilarious, foot down the rear of her Merc was just swaying side to side without moving forward, while i just trundled past in my sh!t Escort.

keep enough distance and lay off the brakes with no sudden movements and you'll be fine.

oh and another day off for me today, i was wise enough to stay at home till it was confirmed, rather than travelling to work then being told to go home 2 hours later.

my back garden a few minutes ago:

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RIP Jules, never to be forgotten. #KeepFightingMichael



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2009 11:16AM by Muks_C.

abdelkader Wrote:
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> Last year me and my friends would drive a Fiesta
> to the uni every two weeks. It was a great car for
> snow, even with completely worn out tyres. I
> really don't know why you don't like yours
> This year we get to the uni on a different car, a
> better one, but Fiesta has carved a huge positive
> mark in our memory and none of us wants it to be
> erased. We'd call it Red Rusty Arrow.

In general it's the best car I've owned, certainly in normal handling anyway. The engine is also pretty good if a little thirsty. This is the first time I've had to drive it in this kind of snow... I happened to be off work (holiday) all of February, and I tend to leave the car at home for small trips so didn't drive at all in february. And I never remember having trouble getting any of my other cars( some of epic shiteness) out of a parking bay before.

Once I got going it was okayish... but I put that down to having a brain and getting into higher gears, and staying the @#$%& away from the brake pedal. I even got up a hill with no problems to speak off... so I'm still kind of baffled as to why it wanted to surrender in works carpark.

But like I say... it's probably going to snow again tonight... and maybe for the next few nights... and I'm going to be no better prepared

Although... I hope that maybe if I park my car in the bay forwards... it'll cope with reversing out of the bay better than it did coming out forwards. I'll test the theory at least twice today, I plan simply reversing on the street from my driveway/carpark from my flat anyway.

But brits really do suck at driving.... it seems to be a natural instinct to panic and hit the brakes in any slightly iffy situation... which is actually in many cases pretty much the worst thing you can do because it turns your car into a glorified sledge.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2009 12:39PM by J i m.

J i m Wrote:
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> But brits really do suck as driving.... it seems
> to be a natural instinct panic and hit the brakes
> in any slightly iffy situation... which is
> actually in many cases pretty much the worst thing
> you can do because it turns your car into a
> glorified sledge.


That's probably true for most countries in the world. Most have terrible driving lessons programmes, which means that 90% of the drivers suck at anything other than driving in normal situations. You wouldn't believe what happens over here when it's raining, lots of people either driving like maniacs or like 80 y/o grannies.

Haha...

In-spite of Britain using really @#$%& and non durable material for our roads which means even recently re-tarmacked roads soon have epic potholes at least the drainage is usually pretty good, not too much standing water, maybe the odd puddle that most people drive around.

Yet... when I've been anywhere else in Europe even though the road surface is usually far better than home... the drainage is awful or non existent. On many tRL trips to Le Mans it tends to rain on the journey there... and sometimes really heavily as well, which gives near zero visibilty in spray, and more aquaplaning than gripping the road. So our convoys are usually wheel spinning in 4th gear or something stupid.

And yet... as we're aquaplaning all over the place at piss slow speeds... some Frenchie in some epically @#$%& car (often a twingo) overtakes us at about 80mph.

J i m Wrote:
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> Haha...
>
> In-spite of Britain using really @#$%& and non
> durable material for our roads which means even
> recently re-tarmacked roads soon have epic
> potholes at least the drainage is usually pretty
> good, not too much standing water, maybe the odd
> puddle that most people drive around.


Potholes...drainage...mhm. I suppose you haven't been to Poland yet I have been driving to my grandma every year since 1991 and there was no single journey during which I didn't come across road repairs. They are always doing this kind of work for the past 20 years but our roads (if they still can be called 'roads' anyway) really suck. In major cities they try to patch the tarmac up but the holes appear from nowhere all the time anyway.
The worst things happen in the North-Eastern lake district. The less important roads are never repaired (recently I found out that the road which I use to get to my grandma was made in the 60s and was unrepaired since then!!!) Besides, those roads are winding, there are huge hills and lots of trees next to them. What is more, Lithuanian truck drivers are incredibly careless - in all weathers. No matter if it rains, snows it's dark or foggy, they always try to overtake on double solid lines, on curves. I even witnessed the situation in which that %^#$%&*Lithuanian truck driver was overtaking a car in front so that its driver had to make it to the right to the roadside to avoid collision. Luckily there were no trees, otherwise his death would be more than inevitable ...back then I was wondering why my dad does so much swearing while driving but now I do the same while driving. What I'm afraid of is not that I may make a mistake but that some jerk would make mistake and I'd have nowhere to pull over.

Generally, the Polish drivers drive quite well as they have learnt to do it correctly in our harsh climate and on our low-quality roads... Here, snow, rain, fog don't impress the drivers as everyone knows what to do. The bad thing is that about 70% of all the Polish drivers don't use their brains

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J i m Wrote:
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> Although... I hope that maybe if I park my car in
> the bay forwards... it'll cope with reversing out
> of the bay better than it did coming out forwards.
> I'll test the theory at least twice today, I plan
> simply reversing on the street from my
> driveway/carpark from my flat anyway.


Well, Fiesta is a FWD car so I think that coming out forwards was the best you could do. Remember that, while reversing, your car is gonna act like a RWD car. As a result the front wheels will be PUSHINg the car through snow. It'll be easier to get out of the snow with the car which is actually PULLING its weight. I hope you know what I mean.
I still remember me and my family get stuck in a pile of snow some 10 years ago. We had a small Fiat 126 with rear wheel drive. My dad, while pushing the car, kept saying "Why the hell don't we have a front wheel driven car?'. That's what I remembered from that situation and just thought I'd let you know.


Anyway, good luck and definitely keep us informed whether it worked out this time or not.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/22/2009 04:38PM by abdelkader.

hardly any snow in the midlands
Not enough to even make a snowball where i am.