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?ber sex in the snow?

Ultra_Kool_Dude

Ultra_Kool_Dude

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I'm trying to convince my dad to get an RX-8, but he says that it is trouble driving a RWD car in the winter. He'd have to use it as his daily driver in the winter.

Does anyone have any knowledge or experience driving a RWD car in snow? The RX-8 would have some kind of traction control right?

It's either that or an A4 or SUV. :?
 
All cars have 4 wheels, so traction doesn't vary much. It's only when accelerating that front wheel drive and 4 wheel drive cars have the advantage.
 
^cornering too

RWD in snow is loads of fun, going sideways all the time, but it isn't very safe nor fast. i think over time, you get fed up with constantly holding in and driving safe, you'll crash in a moment of not paying attention
 
doesnt have the RX8 some electronics to solve most of that problem?

Just make sure your dad doesnt go flatout throurg corners, FWD an AWD have an advantage when going fast, If I go fast with a FWD i slip too, but its more controlable then a RWD, you two should get a testdrive and hopefully the car convinces him;)
 
a testdrive is the best way to find out how a car reacts and drives
and i think if you go with your dad you should get almost every car for a testdrive.
 
I owned a Camaro Z28. I bought it new in 1994 loaded, 6 speed, horsepower ozzing from its gloss black pores. Cheap tire melting fun for the summer and a coffin in the winter. Winter tires meant nothing. It had enough torque to start from 3rd gear, that did nothing. That was the worst car Ive ever driven in snow.... if your not religious before you start the car you were by the time you got home :lol:. I will say that the ABS system, aside from the Vette and TA, is the only one in GM's line up that worked. It may not have been able to drive in the snow but it could stop... which I took as a hint to keep it stopped till spring.
 
So far I've heard that the RX-8 is absolute crap in snow. Btw, I've always wondered why Volvo used to make RWD cars... and why anyone living in Sweden would prefer one over a FWD Saab. :mrgreen:
 
I have loads and loads of experience driving a rwd car in snow, and it is definetily not as good as fwd, however rwd is a lot more fun and if you know how to drive you will never have any issues with it.

rwd will have trouble in some places where fwd will not (uphils, corners etc.) but only if there is really a lot of snow or ice.

Traction control helps a lot, makes the driving easier as you do not have to concentrate so much, but it still does not make the car as good as fwd. It is still going to get stuck on uphills or deep snow where you could possibly still go with a fwd car...

having said that a good rwd car with proper traction control will be better than an old fwd car even with some degree of TC.
 
Hmm my feeling always was that I had more control in a RWD in the snow. Now that might sound strange, but I thought it was a lot easier to corner with it. Sure, most people say it is safer in a FWD because you don't spin, your front just "washes" away, but I think when you know what to do and how to react when your rear is getting loose then it is not worse. And I like the fact that the engine is not connected to the steering, so while cornering I felt like having more grip With FWD you have the steering forces on the front wheels, the engine forces, the engine weight and the transmission... well it's hard to explain for me. But I have to admit that I wasn't driving a very powerful car, it had around 85 kW (115HP) and was quite heavy (around 1400kg, Opel Omega Station Wagon). But the last time I was driving it in the snow was with worn out winter tires, which is fun, but probably not very safe (proper winter tires are better than the best 4WD with summer tires). But I never lost control and I never missed a stop (and I never hit anything).
Just be sensible when driving in the snow. :) My opinion, others might disagree :)
 
Get training wheels ;)
 
Most problems I've had with RWD in the snow is with the Firebird that I had (got caught without snowtires on it, so that doesn't count I guess).
However I also had a pickup truck (a Ford Ranger) that was 4wd that you manually had to engage (as in: get out of the car and lock the hubs).
If I tried to drive it uphill in slush in 2wd, it really started to fishtail vey very very easily, especially if the hill had a bit of a corner to it.
Adding some weight over the rear wheels helped, but if I was in 4wd, I had no such problems.

The fun with awd in the winter is that you can practically floor it when taking off and it will (for the most part) stay in a straight line.
 
testdrive it to be sure but it shoudln't be much of a problem.

Best would be to go with 16" or 17" max snow tires on winter wheels (higher profile to keep the overall diameter the same) and the RX-8 is a modern car with more than enough elerctonics (traction and stability control) to keep you out of trouble. The weight distribution is almost 50:50 and there isn't a boatload of torque anyway so.

I woulnd't be affraid of having one, with good winter tires, even here. But I urgh. I'd hate to see my beautiful RX-8 in the snow, being all dirty and shit :lol:

I asked one of my local Mazda dealers and they said about 50% of the 8's they sold will be winter driven, but consider that we have very very bad winters here.


A4 or SUV.... :roll: wtf did your dad chose the RX-8 and then your mom started to talk about safety and shit? :lol:
 
Renesis said:
I'd hate to see my beautiful RX-8 in the snow, being all dirty and shit :lol:
Click to expand...
Exactly! I think I would start to cry if I saw a filty RX-8 plowing through the snow. :cry: :p

My thoughts: if you can afford to buy an RX-8, you can afford to buy a winter beater as well. Get a little sub $1000 FWD car, and uninsure the RX-8 in the winter. An RX-8 should not be subjected to an eastern Canadian winter.
 
zenon said:
Renesis said:
I'd hate to see my beautiful RX-8 in the snow, being all dirty and shit :lol:
Click to expand...
Exactly! I think I would start to cry if I saw a filty RX-8 plowing through the snow. :cry: :p

My thoughts: if you can afford to buy an RX-8, you can afford to buy a winter beater as well. Get a little sub $1000 FWD car, and uninsure the RX-8 in the winter. An RX-8 should not be subjected to an eastern Canadian winter.
Click to expand...

But isn't there a fee to uninsure a car temporaily and then get the insurance back on?
 
^ I'm not sure of all the specifics, but you can change a cars insurance to parking insurance while it is off the road. That will cover theft and things like that, but you can't drive the car at all.

One of our new members - ryans_supra - is a friend of mine, and he is doing this with his Supra. He's getting parking insurance on it for the next few months, and then driving\insuring a Micra for the winter. He'll know the specifics atleast.
 
I used to do this, but I got sick and tired of driving a POS for about half of the year.
I wanted something fun that i could drive in the winter, so I bought the STI :lol: .
 
I remeber when we had snow early this year most of the accidents I heard about were women driving their mx5s to work in the snow and not having a clue what to do.
 
ESPNSTI said:
I used to do this, but I got sick and tired of driving a POS for about half of the year.
I wanted something fun that i could drive in the winter, so I bought the STI :lol: .
Click to expand...
That is very true, I didn't think of that! :) Out here on the west coast it rarely snows and when it does it's not around for long. People drive beater cars for 2 or 3 months at the most, but I think it would drive me insane if I were driving a beater for 6 months knowing there was an RX-8 in the garage. :lol: Maybe you should try to convince your Dad to buy an STi. :p
 
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