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Moderators: WR 1mposter, The Swede, Megaman, danr55, WR1 Bro, Moderators
Driving in the snow
Tech help, forget left foot breaking ( to technical )
Apart form the obvious about going easy on the breaks and powering in and out of corners etc. Advice on controlled roads as i have found the 1 to be worse than the wifes car. Joseph
 Good point, Joe. I'm probably repeating myself here. 1. Driving on wet snow as can be found in the milder European countries is very different from driving on compact snow/ice. Left foot braking only helps when you drive like a  on the latter, with open roads and adapted rubber. It's not useful at all in the UK. Why do you think left foot braking is a Scandivian speciality ? Driving on snow is a matter of keeping traction so YOU control the forward movement and direction instead of it being the slush deciding where the car goes. A decent amount of wheelspin DOES help in soft (and deep) snow to keep in control whereas on compact snow/ice, it just means you'll spin off and look like the village idiot. 2. The scoob is very understeered like any real 4WD. This is normal as, besides having the inconvenience of a FWD car (where the front wheels need to steer and create forward movement), a 4WD has its rear wheels pushing on top of that while the front ones are trying to cope with traction AND a change of direction. Not surprising the nose wants to keep going straight. This means you absolutely need to go slow into the corner and then power out gently leaving the diffs time to lock (if you're too brutal, the car goes sideways first and then the diffs lock making you head for the scenery at Mach 3 !  ). It does help to unsettle the back a bit before entering a corner (which is probably where the locals got their "Scandinavian flick" from).3. The scoobs, and especially the STi's, have a few extra problems on snow. - Their summertyres are focussed on grip on tarmac. Most tyres overall cr@p on snow and they are too wide to 'cut' through it and find grip on the more solid base. (You wife's car probably will have narrower tyres with a more open tread) - If you're on snow (or ice) on summertyres, being super gentle on putting power down and braking is key. Again the STi's are very bad at that. The lack of low down power means you easily give it a bit too much stick (in which case the power comes on brutally and you're lost). When it comes to braking, you should not attempt to slow down using the engine brake at all. I found the engine tried to slow down the 4 wheels too fast and the lack of grip means the wheels easily lock. Clutch and brake... I'll honnestly admit I (also) thought I'd be the King of the Road with my 4WD rallycar when winter came on here  :brick:. Found out the hard way that a well driven Fiesta one proper tyres wins it any time from an Essex boy in a Jap-rocket.Unfortunately, it takes LOTS of practice to get the best out of these cars in these circumstances. The ample power and the aggressive difflocks mean you have to be very gentle on the limit and get lots of feeling. Once you start to get the hang of it, it's amazing what you can do though and it's fantastically rewarding ! Took me 3 winters of practice still. Maybe you should enrol for the February 2007 WR1oc trip to the Artic 
You been getting some snow joe? HA HA. I heard the sunderland game got cancelled the other day, has the snow made its way south!
You'll be happy to know its nearly reaching 36 degrees out here, its a shame am not getting a chance to work on my tan! There can be only WR1!
 DUDE ! You're in a scary place !  Ever considered moving to a safe place. Finland for instance ?
Thanks for that mate, im not sure it will help, as you said it takes practice. Not enough snow for that. After finding out how bad the tyres are in the snow i will shy away from those white frosty days and leave that to those who CAN.
Joseph
Wouldn't go that far !
I just learned the hard way that a scoob might have 4WD (so in theory should be better than your average car on ice/snow) but has several inconvenients to 'balance' that (tyres, power deployment,...). Otherwise, what can we say: Vatanen, Toivonen, Kankunnen, Makinen, Gronholm, Solberg
STi in the Snow
FWD Ford Transit  We find it better to leave the Scoob at home & use the Transit Transit goes alot better
kangoo van is beter in the shit weather than my 1, i take that everytime
One of the sales techniques is to mention how good it is in the snow, how wrong, shame i learned the hardway.
Joseph
Indeed. Mind you, let's not get too negative. Once on proper winter tyres, the scoob is first of all a very safe car. My wife even regularly takes the mick when she sees me trying to pull away at a junction with the Merc's traction control struggling while she never has ANY traction problems under normal driving. Also at speed on ice, the car is incredibly stable. The issue lays in the 'normal driving'. We're all used to a car moving at a decent pace and we sometimes try to get that same level of performance on slippery underground.  If you want to drive the scoob like Solberg (or Woza), it can be incredibly efficient and rewarding too. It just takes lots of practice and a really good set-up (correct suspension and tyres). Even the studded tyres we use (Nokian Hakka 4, 150 square 1.2mm studs per tyre) are nowhere as good as proper Lappi's which are 15cm wide and have 600 6mm studs per tyres. Martin 1mposter can confirm, I went out to play on the sea when there was quite a bit of snow. He called it "Miss Daisy" when he saw the video and he was right !  We think we're gonna see it blast around like a rallycar in Sweden. Instead it looked like a 'sit-in' WR Blue snowblower. The tyres just ploughed the snow rather than to cutting through it.  Maybe I should just get myself an old 2003 Sti as a 'toy' next winter, raise the suspension, mod' it to hell and put WRX brakes on so I can fit narrow 16" wheels with rallytyres... And then I'm gonna take 1mposter for a ride ! 
Thats gonna be one fun ride miss daisy  be sure to wake me when we get back 2007 BMW M5
2004 Petter Solberg STi
 That's OK. You're gonna be paying for the tyres and the insurance of the car anyway. See you on 25-8 !  I feel that's gonna be ONE fun weekend !
I know what you mean 2007 BMW M5
2004 Petter Solberg STi
Stonehenge being between Finland and Cornwall sure doesn't help the communication
There's only one way to sort it. Most companies can't get their Xmas party sorted till the following year, so why should we even attempt to be any different. So, the WR1OC going to Finland for its Winter break sounds ideal. Bring it on!!
 If you're very good all year, children, and keep your car as clean as your bedroom (ahem!), then you never know - you just might get a glimpse of Grandpa 'Santa' Torrekens as he "ho, ho, ho's" his way across the landscape on those studded reindeer hooves. Torrekens ... YES MATE... let's do it! Gotta go to Finland. Can we start a poll? 
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