Things I learned on a late night backroads blast

"TheOnelectronic" (theoneelectronic) 02/12/2016 at 07:26 • Filed to: None

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Random patches of ice and snow that have blown onto the road mean you have to take things a bit slow, but it certainly ups the challenge factor when you have to deal with three different stages of traction in a corner

Road markings in Pennsylvania are not as thorough as they were in Missouri (where I learned the art of backroads). A sudden 130 degree plus kink followed immediately by a square left-hander onto a one-lane bridge? Nah, that doesn’t need a sign or anything.

I couldn’t figure out why my headlights seemed less effective than usual until I got back and noticed they were basically salted over. The beauty of winter.

The BRZ’s heater seems to have its limits. Above 10 degrees, it’s fine. It maintains temperature at about 2 bars of fan speed. Once it dipped down to 8 or 7, though, I noticed the fan was having to run pretty strongly, up at 5 or so bars, to keep the interior warm.

Snow tires are great and all, but some of that advantage is lost when understeer feels exactly like normal driving. I could only tell that the front tires had traction if the car started changing direction. The steering wheel certainly had nothing to say on the matter.

It amuses me that what passes for “rural” here still has a house every 50ft.

In case someone takes #1 as some sign that I was being reckless, I assure you I was being very cautious. I don’t play around with ice.

uofime-2 > TheOnelectronic 02/12/2016 at 11:59

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I found the same thing while ice racing, you basically have to saw at the wheel a little bit to figure out what your front tires are doing otherwise you don’t get enough resistance to actually feel what they’re up to.

TheOnelectronic > uofime-2 02/12/2016 at 12:50

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My problem is just that these tires have such soft sidewalls that there’s no feel. There have been times driving on perfectly dry pavement that I couldn’t tell if I was understeering or not.

Jonathan Harper > TheOnelectronic 02/12/2016 at 12:54

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so you hoof the throttle and then you’ll surely get some over steer :)

uofime-2 > TheOnelectronic 02/12/2016 at 12:59

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could be that, my ws80 are quite soft. laughably so in some cases, I can sit in the seat and shake the whole car on the tire flex by moving my weight around.