[mykp]

Okay we finally had snow today "Hurray"

Well yes and no...

Yes in that I got up early and made some doughnuts and nice sideways slide marks in the local forest and forest carparks.

and No, because all the numpties have decided that today is the day that they also want to go out on the roads, despite their lack of skill / talent / common sense / driving ability / etc.... Some people should just not be allowed to sit behind the wheel when there is now on the ground, there should be a computer in the car which notices there is snow on the ground and makes the car refuse to start or even better electrocutes said driver!

There are some people out today, who've no idea how to drive in the snow (well drive full stop, really). They either drive too slowly, I got stuck behind some numpty who was going so slow the speedo on my car didnt register any speed! And when I over took him he made a gesture which cast aspurgions on sexual activities I might perform on my own. What the feck he was doing out on the cat and fiddle road in 12 inches of snow in a two wheel drive golf is anyones guess. He certainly couldnt drive. (light blue gold, reg BU55)

Another numpty I had the misfortune to come across today, was driving down an unplowed, unsalted, minor road in an escort van. Again I had to overtake due to the absolute pathetic lack of progress, at least he pulled over to let me past. By the way this road leads to the middle of no where apart from a few farms, and a forest car park :crazy:

Coming back about 2 hours later, the other way said numpty was now attempting to get up the hill and was sliding all over the road! He must have been there for a while as the road is in a high state of polish, so I stop and offer my assistance. "wanna tow?" "no, i'm alright! i'll get there eventually" :crazy: Okay!

I then had to follow another village idiot down the cat and fiddle driving in an Audi Q5. Who nearly put the car off the road everytime he touched the pedals. Accelerating too hard causing all his wheels to spin or braking too hard and sliding in a straight line.

Heres a note for all those who have no idea how to drive in the snow.

Stay at home, where its safe, warm and the rest of us will be safe, where you wont cause danger or inconvenience to us normal folk :shake: and get some lessons! :shrug:

enough rant over!

roll on tommorow.

 

[NorthDownsScooby]

Top ranting :woohoo:

Unfortunately spot on though.

 

[bwtucker]

I concur with everything you said. On the flip side, you get the idiots in the AWD/4WD vehicles that think they can do normal speed and think they can stop just as good as before. ABS or not, you still have 4 wheel brakes like everybody else. I always get a good chuckle when I see one of those guys slide into a ditch.

 

[Alan MaC]

MY,

Don't get me started.

Minus 7 this morning when I went out to get the papers @ 7 .AM.



Dead simple, leave a decent distance from the car in front, nothing too harsh with the fun pedal, & NO harsh breaking.

Oh & don't drive like a Nun or Alan Partrridge????:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

They were all out today, 20 MPH masturbaters, high speed ( Bmw's Audis) knobs, then brake, botties out, (them Sauer Kruat rear drive shows them up for what they Aren't HEAR THAT CLARCKSON?


And in the ditch 1 lovely Penis in his 3 Series 320D, Oh I wish I had my camera!!

I know I have had a bit ofr expenditure on my Foz, due to wear & tear, However, troday it wa\s joyus to go out & have fun in the snow.

I even got a bit of a twinge downstairs!1

And it was not the downstairs neighbours, I live in a Bungalow>>>:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

Great stuff MY/ND'S


regards




AM:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:

 

[mykp]

yep there was a few test pilots in bmws out today as well. staight line they where sailing, come the corners they where either straight on and up the curb or back end is out and there facing the wrong direction a moment later!

As for those in 4x4's, your spot on bw. 4wd does not mean "4 wheel stop in the snow as you would normally". cadence braking is the order of the day, even anti lock brakes sometimes lock up in the snow and ice.

One thing I learnt and practised on a recent driver training day was such a technique which is taught to ambulance and police drivers. if the wheels are locked and skidding then you arent in control of the vehicle. if they lock then take you foot off the brake, which is counter intuitive I know, and the wheels will turn, then turn to avoid any obstacles or re-apply the brakes and repeat as neccasary. Imagine the scenario where a kid runs out in front of the car, you turn and slam the brakes on. The car slides towards the child. If you just take your foot of the brakes because the steering wheels are already turning, the car will automatically move in that direction once the front wheels are unlocked from the skid.

The weather today to be honest is mild, I have driven cars in snow when progress has actually been slowed by the build up of snow on the front of the car and actually had the front valance ripped off the front of one car because of the pressure of snow. But thats just the nature of where I grew up. My parents still live in the same place on the edge of Saddleworth moor and i'll bet there house is snowed in (luckily there on holiday). but when it snows up there it snows big time. I've even seen snow upto the top of the roof!

 

[The Rookie]

You're all teasing me, we've had a grand total of about 1/4"....

Having said that I do know what you mean about numpties, the memory I will always prize is towing out a Landrover that got stuck in the snow in my Mum's 1.0Metro (with chunky M&S tyres on the front), he'd cut a 'Y' junction and got stuck in the 12" deep snow bellied out, I was on the clearish (about 3" of snow) and dragged him out!

Mind you that Metro would climb a 1:4 hill on almost sheet ice with the handbrake on (just a test!) the wonders of sensibly skinny tyres and light weight - most of which was over the front wheels!

Simon

 

[fpan]

Well put, you see those [email protected] every day! Leave some distance from the car in front and drive gently!

 

[hora]

I was doing numerous donuts in the Old Trafford/Halfords carpark yesterday - funny how the rear just spins on the spot considering its 4wd?

Plus I pulled a handbrake turn at a fair speed in the Sportcity carpark and ended up doing an almost perfect 360 :biggrin:

 

[NorthDownsScooby]

- funny how the rear just spins on the spot considering its 4wd?

You should you haven't put a fuse in the 2WD slot in the fusebox and been driving around in 2 wheel-drive mode...?

 

[fpan]

It took me 1hr 50min for 8 miles that normally takes 15 min!

After taking a B road deviation though I started to make some progress with no cars on the road, it was awsome driving on roads covered up with snow. Subaru AWD + winter tyres = goes anywhere. Problem is you have to watch out for idiots that stop the car uphill and try to start with the steering wheel turned and giving more gas.

There's a bridge just outside where we live and it was comical watching from the window the chaos. A guy burnt his clutch trying to move.

It's gonna be worse tomorrow as all this sludge is going to freeze and I haven't seen a single gritter on the road tonight. M3 is completely stuck.

If only there were more gritters out there, people used winter tyres and were taught how to drive on a skidpan during the driving test we wouldn't have this problem!

Rant over.

 

[mykp]

totally agree, in other countries car control is part of the test, along with motorway driving. Both things I would like to see incorporated into ours, plus refresher courses every 5 years or so. That would help reduce the accident rate more than any army of speed cameras!

 

[Nich B]

Spent an hour last night driving around and past cars that couldnt cope with a bit of snow, it was carnage on the main roads, so used all the minor country lanes

didnt bother me or the friendly land cruiser that was going the same way

Journey should have been 20 min

anyway Kings college cambridge on the cd, loads of snow, kids loved it, and I cant be tempted by RWD or FWD

 

[agkq62]

In my humble opinion it isn't 2wd that is the problem, but tyres. Over the last few years the sections have got wider and wider. In years gone by when the only 4x4 was a Landrover I got around just fine and the sections varied from 145 to 185. If the winter was looking very bad and I had the cash then M&S on the driving wheels did improve things a great deal.

My neighbour has a RangeRover Sport and he says it is very bad in the snow, the back end fishtailing all over the place. Tyres are enormously wide.

Max.

 

[Nich B]

actually I was impressed by the Ford Ka that was able to just, with careful driving, and negotiating of the mobile obstacles, last night. Mind you to it got stuck in the end, she waved me past in the end

Skinny tyres

 

[Telemarker74]

Just out of curiosity are most of you running winter specific tyres or staying on your summer ones?

I have two sets over here to cope with winter and summer.

But then that doesn't stop the tourists from all over Europe trying to get up to the ski areas (Megeve in one direction and val d'isere etc... in the other) sliding into all sorts of problems and chaining up in the worst imaginable places!

 

[fpan]

In my humble opinion it isn't 2wd that is the problem, but tyres. Over the last few years the sections have got wider and wider. In years gone by when the only 4x4 was a Landrover I got around just fine and the sections varied from 145 to 185. If the winter was looking very bad and I had the cash then M&S on the driving wheels did improve things a great deal.

My neighbour has a RangeRover Sport and he says it is very bad in the snow, the back end fishtailing all over the place. Tyres are enormously wide.

Max.

Exactly.
There was an interview with someone from BMW from a car magazine and when the journalist asked him "how does the X5 go off road with those tyres?". The BMW person gave an answer something like "you have to be joking to think these cars can go off road".

In scandinavian countries they have absolutely no problem at all whether FWD or RWD because everyone uses winter tyres!

If only people in UK did the same. Winter tyres are not only for snow but when then average temperature falls below 10C the summer tyres become hard as a rock hence don't grip well.

But no, we in UK know everything and don't need winter tyres because we are great drivers! :crazy:

Just out of curiosity are most of you running winter specific tyres or staying on your summer ones?

I have two sets over here to cope with winter and summer.

But then that doesn't stop the tourists from all over Europe trying to get up to the ski areas (Megeve in one direction and val d'isere etc... in the other) sliding into all sorts of problems and chaining up in the worst imaginable places!

Yes using winter tyres and have no problem at all. Of course the laws of physics still apply and you need to be gentle on icey patches but they are 100 times better than summer ones.
Winter tyres are widely used in mainland europe it is mainly Brits who say "why do we need these"?
Once you try them and see the difference they make you will realise driving with summer tyres is like skiing.

 

[agkq62]

actually I was impressed by the Ford Ka that was able to just, with careful driving, and negotiating of the mobile obstacles, last night. Mind you to it got stuck in the end, she waved me past in the end

Skinny tyres

Exactly, just been speaking to a friend from Warrington who is visiting just after Xmas. He has just swopped his very old Mondeo for a Mazda 6 . Mondeo was no problem Mazda won't even get out of the drive. They are coming in his wifes Ka.

Max.

 

[forester200]

Bentley

You guys will like this .... I was the car behind him in the snow and he got stuck ......It was amusing for 4 reasons ..1. he had a Bentley Turbo convertible thingy worth 100k ! 2 . he had to leave it in a really dodgy area 3 because the old Foz of which he could probably buy about 50 of in exchange for his Beckham mobile made it look completely worthless in that situation and finally the 'icing ' on the cake or should I say Bentley ........I gave him a lift home , touche ! :Banane29:

 

[pwebb]

Have been observing quite a bit of inappropriate driving and plain stupidity on the roads this week too - Its not ( just) that people don't have the right skill or equipment, but there seems to be a totally misguided oppinion out there that each ('Me Generation' especially) motorist should be able to travel their familiar route every day, irrespective of the weather conditions and at an undiminished speed.

Is it just me being an old git? - Or did we not used to make a judgment call on whether a journey was really necessary or not and just stay at home/leave the car behind when the weather was bad?.

Now it is seemingly the 'fault' of the authorities that roads are not kept clear 100% of the time.

I think they should go out and pour water on the roads not grit/salt - then all these chumps would just end up in the ditch - and serve them right too.

As an aside - despite my part of Cheshire having 90% of the Chelsea Tractors ever manufactured, I am curiously seeing very few out on the roads in the snow - seems like
the owners don't want to get their Q7/Rangey/X5/Cayenne dirty - puzzling?

Paul W

 

[twade76]

anyway Kings college cambridge on the cd,

Wouldn't be christmas without it!

I remember hating this when I was a child and my mum played it on loop from the first of december til the 25th, but now I think it is just beautiful.