I wouldn’t put weight in the back but I would try and keep the fuel tank full this time of year. That’s enough ballast for me. I seldom give up due to weather but there was one day last week when it was so tempting to hit the first warm pub and get a cab home. I’m afraid I succumbed (to several!).
Cheers Pete
… and who can blame you! Surely you weren’t cold in your MX-5 though, I’m sure my boots started to melt the other day. [:@]
Rear wheel drive is bad in the snow even with traction control - I’ve seen more stuck BMWs than anything else this week. A FWD car either goes or doesn’t (the forward weight bias helps both with traction and with keeping the car pointing in the right direction), a RWD car tends to yaw (fishtail). A lighter car may get up snow-covered hills easier, but on deep snow tends to “float” instead of sinking through to find grip. Early UK cars all have open diffs which means you’ve had it once one wheel loses traction (although in practice they’re very well balanced and both wheels usually let go at the same time).
It’s not that bad - nearly all cars in the 1970s were RWD and we had more snow then but, in my father’s words, it was often like driving a snake.
I used my wife’s FWD car in the bad snow this week, and even that needed a dig out and a push to get it back up the hill to our house.
Had a scary experience yesterday on ice and ended up in a ditch - car’s fine as am I but it’s put the frighteners on me and I’m in my partner’s Ibiza today.
Is the mk3 any better in these conditions than the mk2.5? I have a 16 mile commute each way over B roads in North Yorkshire and would consider changing if there’s a difference.
Well, I ventured out to Uni’ on Monday in about 3 inches of snow, came home at around lunch time hoping to be able to get up the (quite long, quite steep) drive… No.
In fact, I couldn’t even get to the bottom of the drive - the (near enough) flat bit of road at the bottom defeated me - Because you have to turn to get up the drive, you cannot carry much speed (in the snow), and because 5/6 houses all use that piece of tarmac to turn on (it is the end of ac cul-de-sac), the snow was all compressed/ice by lunch time, and I literally could not move forwards on it. No amount of gentle clutch control, selecting second or even third, or slowly applying the handbrake was making any difference. I could actually bring up the clutch (slowly) with no throttle, and the rear wheels would spin - I could have got out of my car with the engine running and in gear, and it would have stayed there (I could always have done that and pushed it!).
So, to conclude, with Bridgestone Turanzas (which are pretty good tyres, especially in the dry), the handbrake does not help in very bad conditions - just makes you look like an idiot in front of your neighbours for longer.
Maybe if I had winter tyres it would have been enough though. (On that note if anybody has some Sport Alloys going, please send me a PM - a second set would be nice (condition does not matter, as long as they are round, and tyres do not matter) as long as they are cheap!)
What you need is sensible tyres and the proper diff. proper winter tyres, or even better, some cheap rally M&S (mud & snow) tyres will help enormously. Worth remembering that even if you have an LSD it’s likely to be the wrong one, ie a Torsen. Torsen’s arent actually LSDs, they are torque limiting devices, and while they work very well in the dry or wet, they don’t work well in snow and ice. They need to see some level of grip at both sides of the axle otherwise they operate much like an open diff. This is why Torsen and Quaife ATB diffs aren’t favoured for racing purposes, if an inside wheel gets airborne over a kerb then the diff doesn’t do it’s job. Earlier cars and especially Eunos imports with the viscous diff work extremely well in the snow, or at least very well for a ligtweight rear wheel drive car!
I would consider snow chains if it looked as if there was more to come, since they are a lot cheaper than tyres, and should help.
From what I’ve seen, you can fit and remove them in under a minute or so if you know what you are doing, so it is not too impractical to get out of the side streets with them, and then take them off.
The biggest problem I have with winter tyres is that I would want them on another set of wheels - I don’t want the hassle of somebody else having to take down a set of tyres for me (because you won’t get 4 tyres in an MX5) twice a year, at a time that in conveniant for myself, them, and the garage.
But, Sport wheels are rare, and insurance companies can be a pain when you put different wheels on…
Yes, snow chains are another good option, as long as you get ones that are easy to fit and you practice putting them on! Having to faff about getting numb fingers while you struggle to work them out isn’t good - guess how I know that?
A big part of the problem is that we don’t get enough snow and for long enough to make snow tyres practical, great if you are in Scandanavia or the like and know that your studded tyres will be on for a couple of months or whatever.
Just the cold temperatures would make winter/snow tyres a good option - keeping in mind that normal tyres lose effectiveness at around 7°c.
If I had another set of wheels I would, but I don’t so I can’t [::(]
Nice having some warm weather back - ring road at 70, roundabouts at 50 - I’ve missed the sun!
so here again uk becomes snowbound, im running goodyear eagle f1…that are fairly worn :(.
mk1 eunos roadster 1.6. Have to say its crap in the snow, its easier to push it though. Iv taken note of the driving smoothly and such but if its deep is there any other tips? I read the weight in the back thats done. I seen the rocking technique that the nordics use 1st to reverse and repeat rocking motion till it moves over some bits.
Anything else? also any tips for getting up hills in the mx5 >< apart from any real expense such as new tyres?
What we all meed is someone to have some snow tyres fitted so that they can tell us how the car behaves in snow etc.
My home security man has been, last week, to service our home security after he had to postpone his visit as he couldn’t get his small rear wheel drive to go in the snow. He promptly went and bought snow tyres all round and up to his visit to me he hasn’t been stuck in the snow since. If I was driving my Eunos in the snow, I would have snow tyres fitted for winter and then taken off again in the Spring. It shouldn’t cost more than about £50.00 to have them refitted especially if you used the same tyre fitters who fitted the snow tyres. I am fortunate that my tyre supplier and fitters are very good and will help all they can.
Good point, but especially now for about 3 years in a row now I think we have had snow quite bad. Where can I get cheap snow tyres? What are snow tyres like in the wet? are they better then normal?
Or even better do what i have for years,get a set fitted to a spare set,rims can be bought cheap enough on the bay now,so it’s just a case of swaping wheels and away you go in your little rear wheel drive and just wait for the looks of disbellef as you go driving past other car owners that are stuck
Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, what is this “driving in the snow” s**t? Mines tucked up in the garage and will be till all this nasty white stuff and the horrible salty muck has gone thank you very much.
Mind you snow chains on my van 215/60/16’s don’t do snow and ice but chains are brill.
Snow tyres are very expensive because we have snow! I paid £42 each two weeks ago and they’re £80 each now.
They are not a panacea - you can certainly still lose it completely - but they will stop you getting stranded.
Top tip: do NOT accelerate out of a bend in snow. The car may spin, like mine did this morning (I was actually trying to provoke it, since there was loads of room and I wanted to see what the limit of grip was with the snow tyres, but was still surprised by how quickly it went) . Don’t try and increase speed at all until the front wheels are pointing in a straight line.
Drive mine every day, tis my only car. 
Same here…Never missed a days work last year (20 mile commute) & so far so good this year too. Same set of Bridgestone tyres too.
Having said that we`ve had 5 inches so far today so i may well be singing from a different song sheet come Monday morning 
In comparison to my previous car, fwd, heavy diesel engine, as light as a MX5 overall, it would be fair to say the MX5 is poor in the snow. I’m going to look at the snow chains option, should not be too expensive and hopefully will help considerably. Although there is something childishly funny about sliding sideways out of your local hospital (Singelton Swansea) exit, whilst pointing in the general direction of home .
Keep safe guys, Neil