Winter Made Me an Enthusiast

"shpuker" (shpuker) 12/08/2013 at 17:05 • Filed to: Winter

1

14

We all remember the first time we drove on a snow packed road, confused, intrigued, and oddly aroused. Wait, you weren't aroused? Ok maybe just me on that front.

My first time driving in the snow got me truly passionate about driving for the first time in my life. Sure I liked cars before then, I knew numbers like it was my job, was on forums more than my fair share of the time, but I didn't have any idea what it was like to truly enjoy driving, to find an obscene pleasure behind it.

It may help to consider the car I was driving at the time, a 1994 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.2L Limited on super cheap all season tires.

AKA how to turn a vehicle that's normally amazing in the snow into a drift machine. And that's exactly what I did. If any of you have driven a GC in the snow you probably know this too, they're incredibly predictable when you're hooning about. The back end is easy to slide out and just as easy to pull back in. So being my young self I would drift wherever I could (without risking hitting other cars of course). This taught me my first big lessons as a car guy.

1) Never stop paying attention to what you're doing. Even if you aren't texting or any of that crap. Especially when in the snow.

2) Good tires are massively important. Especially in the snow.

As you can guess this is where my first ever "crash" happened. I say "crash" because it was both low speed and consisted only of me sliding into a curb. But it did require my first major repair as well! Replacing an entire front axle, and every link it attached directly to. See when I hit that curb it bent the the entire front axle about 2 inches to the drivers side. Oops. What did I invest in just after that though? That's right, a good set of Wrangler radials. Which are known to be great in the snow.

Now I wind up with this weird dilema. Every time I think of what cars I want to get, or what mods I want to do, I always come back to one question. "What would it be like in the snow?" So what did I proceed to buy as my first real car?

An 05 WRX. And when it came time to buy long term tires, what did I buy? A beautiful set of Conti Extreme contacts. Which so far are great in the snow.

Enough from me though, how has winter made the rest of you stronger enthusiasts?

Oh and if you've got any good winter wallpapers/ pictures here would be a good place to dump them ;) All of the ones above (other than the shoddy one of the Jeep) are of wallpaper resolution. Oh yea, these are too.

Kinja decided there was too much porn in one post I suppose. Fixed though

shpuker > shpuker 12/08/2013 at 17:10

1

Apparantly Kinja disliked one picture. Odd.

D > shpuker 12/08/2013 at 17:17

0

We all remember the first time we drove on a snow packed road

I am yet to create that memory.

shpuker > D 12/08/2013 at 17:17

1

But you will, and it will be magical.

D > shpuker 12/08/2013 at 17:18

2

I know, I look forward to it. Plus I can drive decently now so it's going to be a blast.

zadtheinhaler > shpuker 12/08/2013 at 17:20

1

Every car I get I take out to hoon. Except for my current one - she is pushier than my ex-wife, and the hoon factor is low.

Getting stupid with one's car in a parking lot and learning from it is the best way to drive safe and smart on the roads.

desertdog5051 > shpuker 12/08/2013 at 17:37

1

When I lived in Michigan and it was snowing, I was always called on to do the driving cause friends or co-workers knew I was the best for the situation. Not bragging. Just stating. I always loved to drive in winter conditions. It teaches you new skills.

Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire > shpuker 12/08/2013 at 17:47

1

My first time was in a crown vic.

JR1 > shpuker 12/08/2013 at 18:26

1

I own a 2000 Chevy S10 and that is currently my only ride, it has four wheel drive but to truly be a drifting master I leave it in two wheel drive and go fine a empty parking lot, with no weight over the rear end things get quite interesting!

Harrison Voorhees > shpuker 12/08/2013 at 18:28

0

It was in a 93 Explorer in the rain for me. Many slides were had.

6shelBfan6 > shpuker 12/10/2013 at 01:50

0

My first car was an AWD Explorer. That thing was fantastic in the snow. It was always in control, unless you told it not to be. Like the GC it was very easy to noon and not kill yourself. I still miss that thing.

Poundingsand > shpuker 12/11/2013 at 17:52

1

Well, it doesn't snow much here in Los Angeles, but working on my E46 the last several nights in the (relative) cold (low 40 degrees when I live) strictly for fun has re-affirmed my "enthusiast" status. At least to me. Not to mention the fact that I was cleaning parts under the hood with Q-tips. haha

But driving in the snow? Nothing quite like it. I have fond memories of picking my way to Tahoe in a blizzard with near zero visibility in first gear, and making handbrake turns from one road to the next in the middle of nowhere on a clear day.

Poundingsand > Arch Duke Maxyenko, Shit Talk Extraordinaire 12/11/2013 at 17:53

0

Front, or back? hehe

Poundingsand > shpuker 12/11/2013 at 18:05

1

Road-tripping in my little Eclipse, and being the only car on the road for long stretches...nothing like it.

Vikings-230 > shpuker 12/11/2013 at 22:34

1

My story is similar to yours. First time driving in the snow I managed to get the ass out on my KIA on a couple corners. Then on one particularly slippery street, the brakes locked up and sent me sliding sideways towards the curb. Thankfully I straitened out before I hit the curb so I didn't hurt the car too bad but the stop sign on the grass wasn't so lucky. I knocked it clean out of the ground and since it was a block away from my house I drove home and got some rope and tied it to a tree right next to where it was standing before. The stop sign was tied to the tree for a couple of weeks before someone ended upo replacing it.