Houston shut down by 1/4inch of ice

As a Houstonian, I only have this to say:

F*$& IT'S COLD OUT!!!
 
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Pussies.
 
A quarter inch of ice is actually a pretty fucking big deal. I can drive my low-slung road car in 3 inches of snow - or my pickup in 16+. A quarter inch of ice is "fuck that shit, I'm going back to bed" territory.

Any coating of ice thick enough that the weight of your car on its contact patches won't break it is SERIOUSLY DANGEROUS. Your capacity to brake or change direction (or even accelerate) is only 1/3rd of normal - or worse, depending on the particular formation characteristics and smoothness of the ice layer. Add to this frozen tires (which further decrease that capability) and drivers who don't have any practice at it, and shit gets bad.

It's still possible, but you need to know what you're doing. No front-biased braking, minimal acceleration, the instinct to countersteer and the ability and willingness to assume that nobody else on the road can do any of that shit, and maintain plans for their sudden total loss of control (which is totally different than regular defensive driving, because you only have marginally more control capacity than they do).

Alternatively you need something that can dig into ice to give you positive control - studs or chains. These are typically completely illegal in places that normally have mild winters. In related news, I recently found out that Maryland now requires that all vehicles have chains either on, or ready to be put on during a declared winter weather emergency. This is, as far as I can tell, new since last year when the rule was "Official vehicles only during declared winter weather emergencies. Everyone else GTFO"
 
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? inch of ice? We've had at least 2 inches of ice and 8 inches of snow. Quite fun indeed.
 
I drive in all sorts of snow conditions a lot (I ski) and freezing rain (or ice at near 32 degrees) strikes terror into my heart. That is the one condition that is darn near impossible to drive in, I don't care what anybody says. Please be careful.
Compact snow and 20 degrees? Now, that's fun. Really.;)

Geez, I hope it's not like this for Lemons at the end of February:eek:
 
Yea, we got about 6" of snow at my house since midnight, and its still coming down at this moment. All it has done is cover the ice that has been on the roads since Tuesday. I ventured out to find some lunch in the 4X4 and I can safely say I am not going out again until tomorrow.
 
I didn't know Ice had the power to just shut down a city like that!
 
I drove to the girlfriends house yesterday which is roughly 10 minutes away on a normal day, in my rwd sport sedan on summer tires, took me nearly 45 minutes. I never spun or got stuck though, but even in my dad's awd CUV, it was ridiculously unsafe feeling to drive.

Snow is nothing compared to solid ice with no traction and a bunch of idiot drivers in SUVs thinking they can skirt physics and go as fast as they want. I saw a H2 run off the road and get stuck, and a GMC truck with redneck spec tires being pulled out by a Tow Truck
 
I drove to the girlfriends house yesterday which is roughly 10 minutes away on a normal day, in my rwd sport sedan on summer tires, took me nearly 45 minutes. I never spun or got stuck though, but even in my dad's awd CUV, it was ridiculously unsafe feeling to drive.

Snow is nothing compared to solid ice with no traction and a bunch of idiot drivers in SUVs thinking they can skirt physics and go as fast as they want. I saw a H2 run off the road and get stuck, and a GMC truck with redneck spec tires being pulled out by a Tow Truck

The G will spin its tires on wet pavement... I don't want to know how it feels on ice. Luckily I'm over here in California, where it's cold (by our standards) and at least not raining/snowing. Drive and stay safe guys, best of luck.
 
No Narf, what feels like a very slight change in throttle pressure will spin the tires on anything less than dry pavement and light up the slip warning on the dashboard:p
 
No Narf, what feels like a very slight change in throttle pressure will spin the tires on anything less than dry pavement and light up the slip warning on the dashboard:p

Crappy throttle mapping, insensitive feet, or bad tyres? :p
 
No Narf, what feels like a very slight change in throttle pressure will spin the tires on anything less than dry pavement and light up the slip warning on the dashboard:p

Now, now - he drives fail wheel drive econoboxen that don't have the power to spin the tires... :mrgreen: :evil:

Anyway, snow/ice in Houston is like snow/ice on Gibraltar or on Sicily - it just doesn't happen and nobody there knows what to do with it.
 
Now, now - he drives fail wheel drive econoboxen that don't have the power to spin the tires... :mrgreen: :evil:

Anyway, snow/ice in Houston is like snow/ice on Gibraltar or on Sicily - it just doesn't happen and nobody there knows what to do with it.

G35S is FWD? :blink:
Also MY CAR can spin it's tires so I think most things would be capable of that :p

On topic, ice is a bitch even in small quantities. Most people with any car would have issues on it.
 
G35S is FWD? :blink:
Also MY CAR can spin it's tires so I think most things would be capable of that :p

On topic, ice is a bitch even in small quantities. Most people with any car would have issues on it.

No, that's narf and his cars that both the quoted poster and I are speaking of. :D
 
G35S is FWD? :blink:
Also MY CAR can spin it's tires so I think most things would be capable of that :p

On topic, ice is a bitch even in small quantities. Most people with any car would have issues on it.

I think he was referring to Narf:p
 
Ah ok, I was very confused for a minute. :lol:
 
Now, now - he drives fail wheel drive econoboxen that don't have the power to spin the tires... :mrgreen: :evil:

My car can spin its tyres if it wants to. However, I see no point in doing that.

The thing is, I have the ability to not spin the tyres - his G37 apparently lacks that ability. I find that hard to believe though, at WOT and 1500rpm it only produces 40hp. If his insensitive feet and crappy throttle mapping can make it only do half that I don't see how it would spin the tyres on anything this side of ice.


On topic, ice is a bitch even in small quantities. Most people with any car would have issues on it.

He was talking about his inability to not spin the wheels on wet pavement.
 
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