I am a litlle disappointed about the roadholding of my Scooby on the snow. It understeers like a crazy horse, stops like a piece of soap and drive like sh*t when I push the accelerator too much.
Of course, with GSD3 215/40.17 summer tyres, it has a terrible ride but here in Belgium it snows only 3 days a year so its not worth to invest in winter tyres.
I just expected that the 4x4 system works better than this....
Maybe time to invest in an other front diff, and ditch the ABS ???
Or keep it stalled and use the company car...

 

Wally, the AWD system makes the car more predictable in the snow, the larger tyres will affect the car more as it wont dig into the snow as well as a skinny tyre but the car will give you some good feedback
I had my scoob last week in a good few inches of snow, i was also one of the first to get to work that morning and park in the "snow covered" car park where i had a little play as it was empty
Winter driving is different to normal driving though, you cannot expect the car to be the dogs danglies if it doesnt have any grip, and braking is affected, you should give 3-4 times as much stopping distance as normal, and you have to adapt to the conditions and not rely upon the car to do everything for you.

Tony

 

Yeah I know that, but still a bit dissapointing especially the ABS and the severe understeer.Maybe next year whenit snows, put some real spike tyres on it, and THEN it's playtime. In the meantime driving carefully and calculate the braking distance and so...

 

if u had severe understeer u were goin too quick for the conditions, period

 

Didn't Jeremy Clarkson say the exact same thing about an Elise? It was a understeering in every corner and he couldn't get it too oversteer. Then the Lotus bloke took him out and had it oversteering around the Top Gear test track.

If you don't drive it properly, it will just understeer - it's designed to do that like every other Joe Public car. You can dial this out through the suspension and geometry mods if you wanted.

My car oversteers very nice in the snow

Stefan

 

I know this might seem a little strong but I don't believe that you can make your car oversteer whenever you want - unless you're including the use of the handbrake in your everyday drivign techniques!

 

Phil, on snow only, and probably only this morning ... Quite happily power-on oversteering providing I was slow enough in and gentle enough with every other input.

Sorry, I was a bit harsh with my tone but as I was doing just that this morning I thought it'd be worth a post.

I do wonder about Wally's geometry?
Cheers,
Nick.

 

Phil,

You can if you have enough road to play on. Try flicking it quickly in the opposite direction, then steer into the bend and the back end will step out nicely.

Or just lift-off mid-corner

Stefan

 

Ha - guys thanks for keeping me sane; Whilst I like the spirt of the reverse flick on the queens highway I'm not sure that is the general way to go!!! Mind you can you image the reaction if that became normal driving behaviour?

 

Phil,

Any news on that nice young man Phil Deane from Faking it. He made quite an impact on this BBS at the time the show was aired. I'm sure we would all appreciate an update on his current race career if you have any inside info for us.

 

We've just had 10" of snow overnight and another 8" due throughout the day up here in the highlands. My thoughts are that a four wheel drive car will handle the same as a front wheel when in snow, ie it will slip and slide just the same. The only difference being that the back end will swing about more as thats where most of the power goes unless like me you have an adjustable diff. Either way when the surface is slippy, 4 wheel drive aint gonna make that much difference.
A report has just come in to our office that a snowplough has come off the road, easily done in these conditions just goes to show you that even knowing your limitations isnt enough when good ol mother nature is involved.

I find this weather a great opertunity to get some free control lessons, take the car to a desolate car park and practice some manuvers. Get the car upto speed (slowly to begin with to gain confidance) start to corner and as the car starts to slide I try to keep it in control with lots of correction/acceleration, brakes arent really needed.
The vital thing about this is in choosing your open space, if you do choose a carpark make sure you know where the kerbs are under the snow ie find a car park that you know doesnt have kerbs.

Before I get told off on the differences of the FWD and AWD, remember this is based on my own experiences ive had with front wheel and all wheel cars.

 

I've had no problems getting my MY99 Sport on 205/50 R16 to oversteer in the snow all weekend!

 

Tyres play a big part in all of this - but I amazed at the number of people who refuse to accept that the Impreza is an understeering monster!

I did some driving for photography work that is used for the Subaru UK. They wanted some oversteering shots and were staggered when I said that this really wasn't the car for O/S, etc, etc.

Ultimately I think I said something like "The Impreza is an understeering piece of ****". The marketing guy from IM was very surprised as he said "all our owners tell us how wonderful the car is....blah, blah".

So I guess unless you speak up you are stuck with it this way.



[Edited by PhilBennett - 2/3/2003 11:33:00 AM]

 

It must be my imagination that my car oversteers on the snow whenever I want it to. Thanks for correcting that for me, I am so dumb.

If your car understeers, you are trying to corner too fast as has already been said. My car (MY00) seems very happy to corner, then power oversteer out of corners if i want it to.

Just a thought, but have you had the geometry checked?
Cheers,
Nick.

[Edited by chiark - 2/3/2003 11:42:04 AM]