Driving in the snow?

Nah you just enjoy watching pedestrians suffer and recording them fall and break every bone in their body. You get pleasure watching them from your cosy car with heating listening to Morgan Freeman narrating and drinking a nice hot chocolate with exrea EXTRA cream.

Does anyone actually enjoy driving in the snow? I like learning how to correct slides etc by deliberately using the handbrake and tipping the weight of the car around slighty (on a completely empty straight backroad of course) to test my ability. One thing the driving test doesn't teach you, is how to 1. drive in the snow and 2. how to correct slides in general.

Driving in the snow isn't hard at all, but the news makes it out to be, since people are impatient, heavy footed, have close following distances etc... which all add up to more accidents.

I can't wait to go out tomorrow and have a slide about (within my limits ofc). Am I insane?

I totally disagree about how to correct slides in general though.

please please do NOT drive in this weather unless it is really essential. life changing injuries to you or other people are not amusing or edgy.

I enjoy being a passenger in the car when it snows because it's so pretty to look at but I doubt I'd enjoy driving in such dangerous conditions.

I totally disagree. On snow and ice it's relatively easy to crash, but chances of causing a serious injury are the lowest possible, because if anything happens it will at very low speeds and of all emergency situations, on snow car is easiest in control because it reacts very slowly and gently, and you can't drive it fast anyway.

Rally drivers always recommend starting lessons of car control on snow.

Black ice is dangerous, but mainly when you meet it when there is no snow and you're driving too fast because conditions appear to be good.




It's not dangerous. It's a bit difficult most of the time, but doesn't cause any serious danger, unlike fast, confident driving in the summer.
Dry tarmac in the summer is, because if a car loses grip then, most likely it will happen at speed so high that your chances of survival are next to none, and because of speed and high grip, a car will be practically uncontrollable.
On a road covered with snow, a very good driver in a car with winter tires can go 30 mph, or 50 mph if the road is wide and absolutely empty at tops- chances of getting killed at such speeds are next to zero, you won't even have an injury.

But people who did not spend whole day training on a frozen lake, are not likely to go faster than 12mph- at such speed the worst that can happen is light damage of a wheel.

The problem starts when you've got a downhill road covered with partly molten snow, or ice, or at worst you have summer tires.

It is urgent on snow or ice to have winter tires and visualise towards which directions pendulum can push your car at particular corner attack angles, etc.
Also engine braking is crucial, especially on the downhill. Engine braking on low rpm's is the only way to somehow slow down on ice.
But still, you can't drive dangerous speeds on snow anyway.

this is bad advice. you can kill or maim at any speed in a car. encouraging people to drive in the snow is ridiculous.

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You can also kill anyone with a bread-knife, but such event is unlikely even if you actually attacked someone with that knife, while any sane person will try not to harm anyone with a car.
Maybe for you, this is ridiculous, because you've never driven on snow, or you didn't pay the slightest attention to learn on what you're doing, then you had no idea what to do with difficulties of accelerating, braking or turning or snow. I personally believe that if someone can't drive on snow, such person should not be allowed to drive at all, because snow is a surface on which the car is EASIEST to control, because all there is that may ever happen, you will experience at very low speeds, and due to low grip, a car will present the most gentle reactions ever possible, while on dry tarmac in emergency it will kill you before you even notice.

A car on snow does all sorts of skidding at lowest speeds and it is easiest to control them firstly because of low speed, secondly because low grip means it loses and gets it back gently.
I know this because of this is my 10th winter behind the wheel, I've learned as much about driving as I could from books, then tried and tested all sorts of manoeuvres on dedicated training.
I always take an opportunity of first snow for training.
On some closed parking or road, as at least one of rally champions recommends in his book on safe driving, I try braking, and turning at varous different lines and angles, faster and faster to learn what grip do I have, how the car will react and get feeling necessary to control it,it gives better idea what to expect and may come in handy also in rain. On tarmac maybe not, because challenge is too difficult anyway, but at least it gives an idea what to avoid and where to seek danger.
I'm also still using a car that doesn't even have ABS and I don't feel any need for it. Haven't had a crash in winter for 9 years. On snowy road I feel perfectly safe, even if other drivers are not so well prepared, they drive very slowly so they can't harm me, at worst they will damage my car.

While on dry tarmac they take risks, do speeding, and I know that in case of emergency, they wouldn't be able to take control of the situation - I know I probably wouldn't - once grip on tarmac is overwhelmed, a perfect speed and precision is required, speed and precision much farther beyond regular driving skills, than controlling a car on snow.

If I were to expect a fatal accident, I would say it will take place on a warm sunny day. In many countries, this is actually statistically true, that most of the fatal accidents take place in excellent conditions.

Of course, I presume that nobody is stupid enough to see snow, and think he or she can drive on it as fast as on tarmac. Such person should have their license taken away instantly as lack of imagination may prove deadly in any conditions.

it is highly irresponsible to encourage young first-time drivers to venture out in the worst winter conditions for decades on your say-so.

smh

it is highly irresponsible to encourage young first-time drivers to venture out in the worst winter conditions for decades on your say-so.

smh

What if they lived in Scandinavia or eastern Europe?
Not all nations suffer from irrational fear of snow. Snow is the best training condition. I didn't invent that, I just repeat after one of rally champions. I passed my own driving test in a middle of snowy winter. It teaches feeling, control and respect.

Once again, there is much greater chance that they kill themselves in summer as a result of oil spill, tire failure or side wind blow, rather than in winter driving 12 mph. Of course, any attempt of driving any car in any conditions should start from reading a book written by someone like the Stig. After that, there are plenty of racing tracks across the UK, I'm sure it's possible to find some place that organizes some track days. If you ever perform a succesful save, it will be thanks to the winter and such training.

What if they lived in Scandinavia or eastern Europe?
Not all nations suffer from irrational fear of snow. Snow is the best training condition. I didn't invent that, I just repeat after one of rally champions. I passed my own driving test in a middle of snowy winter. It teaches feeling, control and respect.

Once again, there is much greater chance that they kill themselves in summer as a result of oil spill, tire failure or side wind blow, rather than in winter driving 12 mph. Of course, any attempt of driving any car in any conditions should start from reading a book written by someone like the Stig. After that, there are plenty of racing tracks across the UK, I'm sure it's possible to find some place that organizes some track days. If you ever perform a succesful save, it will be thanks to the winter and such training.