I drove my new MX5 in the snow this weekend for the first time and it was not good. I was driving very slowly in a straight line and the back of the car kept coming round for no reason what so ever, even when not accelerating! I had the DSC turned on maybe this was the problem? Or maybe I was the problem? Has anyone else had a similar experience? <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = “urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office” /><o:p></o:p>
Was this in a Mk3, then? Oh dear, it doesn’t bode well for me then when the snow comes! What tyres? It’s a very light car so that might make it hard for it to find grip in snow. The DSC SHOULD help - when one wheel starts to slip it should compensate on throttle and brake til it finds purchase again - but even computer wizardry can only go so far! Time to invest in chains? lol
Yes its only 2 months old so it has the factoty fit bridgestone tyres.
DSC like ABS is useless in snow… When I drove my RX8 in the snow I switched the DCS off as it interfeared too much. Snow by it’s nature is a pig to drive on, in a rear wheel drive it’s just fun. Embrace the drift, get to a big open space -car park - where you can’t hit anything and play, it is the only way to learn how to cope with an unexpected slide.
We get so little snow these days, and front wheel drive cars make it easy, that we have lost the art of the power slide/drift. Tyre make doesn’t make that much difference, just narrow snow tyres.
This was @ 60mph on a Prodrive track day… deep joy [:D]
I drive in snow most years when travelling to and from chattel for skiing. Yes dsc abs will not help on snow and ice as the dsc will lock the wheel opposite the skid to try and pull the car back but with no traction it’s pointless.ABS end up not applying the brakes hardly at all because of lack of traction.
Luckily i drive the snow routes in a discovery 3 and it’s built for the job, but the main thing that makes the biggest difference on snow are tyres. If you have standard tyres they will just fill their treads with snow and render themselves useless. Winter tyres have a self clearing tread patterns which are like small triangles the compress the snow into small triangular blocks than increase grip and release from the tread.
The only thing i can say is on snow drive slow and where possible use engine braking to slow down and keep the wheels turning
Thanks for your advice.
i can;t wait for the snow, only problem is i live up the side of a small mountain, lol, so i dunno if it’ll be best to reverse part the way up, reason being the gritters don’t come up the road 
If you try and reverse uphill you will get more wheelspin, the weight transfer is in the wrong direction.
(It would work with a FWD car however)
i don’t fancy the back end coming out, cos the road is off camber so don’t want to slip into the stone wall all the way up
I’ve had that problem a couple of times - just getting the first 50 yards uphill to a gritted road can take half an hour of comedy wheelspin and desperate attempts to stay on the crown of the road and not end up in the gutter. Since then I’ve put a set of winter tyres on my old original 14" wheels for use December to February, but we haven’t had snow to test them yet.
I’m a coward I cheat and let my husband drive. or leave Mazzie save at home and take the Focus
i havent tried driving my mx in snow, but years ago i had a triumph TR5, and i used to put a 1 cwt ,hundredweight bag of cement in the boot, that used to help no end, i was a builder so it wasnt wasted ether [:)]
Well I don’t know about snow but I lost it on a damp roundabout yesterday lol It was a tight exit I always relished in the summer, as it comes off a steep camber down and hard to the left. Haven’t done the route since the rains and temp drop, and stupidly attacked it in the same jerky aggressive way, which in the dry always gave a satisfying little amount of ‘give’ at the back end but all nicely within control. On the damp road it provoked understeer at the front end as I came over teh rise, then snap oversteer as I tried to wrestle it round. Scared Katie to death even though it only slipped sideways a little before DSC cut in and it righted itself. Plain stupidity of me to not adjust to the conditions, and very lucky it was late and no oncoming traffic that could well have met my side-sliding rear end!
I had a 1.8 MX5 a few years ago, and a week after buying it, we had 3 inches of snow - I live in a tight residential street with cars parked on both sides and only enough room for one car to get through the middle and uphill. OMG! nightmare - the slightest touch of the accelerator and the back end would drift one way and then the other, nearly hitting cars on either side - the sweat was pouring off me ! Felt so incompetent after driving endless front wheel drive hot hatches beforehand and never having a problem with snow. Anyway, 4 years later - I’ve just gone and bought a Nevada yesterday - so it looks like I’ll be on the train to work next week if we get snow !!
I have an automatic mk1 and no choice but to drive it as its my commuting car - luckily I’ve not had to drive it in bad conditions too much as it is very slippery and throttle control is all[:|]but not unusable.
All the caveats about driving in snow and ice apply to any
car even a lot of 4x4s, its so treachorous all the ‘safety’ goodies in the world can still leave you unstuck. Its all about smoothness, slowness and distance
if you believe the Swedes and Finns but then they get lots of practice and snow chains[;)]
Some people say letting the tyres down a bit is supposed to help? Is this a myth? I’m sure I saw this on one of the motoring/techy type programmes recently.
Lowered tyre pressures are required for driving in very deep snow. Top Gear drove a 4x4 to the North Pole recently…
That would be it then[:)]
Letting the tyres down a bit will help, since there is a greater surface area to contact with an grip the snow, as well as spreading the load a bit, however, on the low profile tyres on the MX5, there will not be a huge difference (and you risk a blow out once condtions improve (on the way home), and will have un-even tyre wear).
Worth a try though, and it could always be enough to get you up the hill at your house/work that is not gritted
Or get the council to supply a grit bin and grit… they did in my partners road when everyone kept sliding out onto a dual carriagway…[:|][:O]