Winter hooning tips?

"twochevrons" (twochevrons) 11/16/2014 at 19:30 • Filed to: snow, hooning, 850R

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This weekend, I finally got around to sorting out the winter tires on the 850R (after putting them on backwards last weekend). I haven't had the chance to drive it much yet, but the way that it conducted itself on my neighbourhood's unploughed and steepish (by MN standards) streets leads me to believe that I might have an real snowbeast on my hands.

The next logical step, of course, is hoonage. Problem is, I've not done all that much winter driving, and although I'm by no means scared of getting some oppo on (I've done plenty of miles on gravel and dirt roads), I'm a bit of a newbie to the whole snow-and-ice thing.

Could anybody lend any advice? The Volvo's somewhat hamstrung by a broken handbrake and front-wheel-drive, but I'm sure that there's still some fun to be had.

jkm7680 > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 19:36

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Are those hubcaps?

vdub_nut: scooter snob > jkm7680 11/16/2014 at 19:40

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yes

Milky > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 19:40

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First - Hoon erry'day

Second - I just approach every corner/intersection like I'm going to understeer through it. Then power out for fun. It only takes one time of plowing straight on into a snow bank to learn to slow down.

Third - The R looks lovely. I wish you many fun miles this winter.

jkm7680 > vdub_nut: scooter snob 11/16/2014 at 19:40

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Just as I suspected.

vdub_nut: scooter snob > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 19:43

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Find yourself a nice friendly parking lot (or, one owned by a nice friendly person) and get some guilt free, danger free (hormone free, free range, Non-GMO) snow sliding practice in.

davedave1111 > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 19:46

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Take it easy, work your way up slowly. The thing about snow driving is that the difference between how fast you slow down once you've lost traction, and how fast you slow down when you have traction, is much bigger than normal. You lose almost no speed while sliding, so it takes a long time to regain control.

It's easy to think you've got it, having done a couple of little drifts, then go for something a bit bigger and find out that it's a poo-comes-out amount bigger.

E30Joe drives a Subaru > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 19:55

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When in doubt, power out. It's a bad idea to lock up your brakes in a slide, worst case scenario is just to lift.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > vdub_nut: scooter snob 11/16/2014 at 20:09

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Remove them! Let those steelies be free!

4muddyfeet - bare knuckle with an EZ30 > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 20:37

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Not useful whatsoever

thereisnospork > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 20:41

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A little left foot braking should give you all the hoonage you could want.

CPT Speedbump > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 21:26

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Any car is a snow beast with winter tires, lol

In my case though, since I bought a pick up for winter, I don't need to use 0ver 500 dollars on snow tires, just about 12 dollars on 180 pounds of sand bags :P

NWAForester > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 21:57

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#1 Take it slow. Some of the best winter Hooning fun I have had, was at 10mph, for real. No reason to haul ass. Period. #youareNOTKenBlock

#2 Plan far ahead. Much farther than best conditions. Its easier to correct for planning to far ahead, than it is to try and save for not planning ahead. Plan too far ahead to make a turn, and have too much grip, straighten out and try again. No biggie. Plan too late, and you have hit something. And probably the only hard object within a 26 mile radius.

#3 If you start to under steer, keep your cool. It'll be fine. (Because you are going slow, right?) If you are understeering toward a curb, and there seems to be no escape from hitting it, just turn the wheels straight at it to roll on over it, you may damage your bumper, tire, wheel, etc,(which would likely happen either way) but your suspension will thank you. Been there both ways, the first time, I broke and or bent every piece of my right front suspension. After that lesson, I learned to straighten the front wheels and just roll on over, didn't damage a thing.("tested" this several times, #imnotKenBlockeither)

#3.5 If it is something more substantial than a curb, another car, pole, wall, building, etc, do what you can to save it, but if you are gonna hit it, go for the head on approach once again, as cars are far better at protecting you from a front end impact as apposed to a side impact. This is the same reason that automotive safety experts will tell you to put the better tires on the rear rather than the front.

#4 Practice in a safe location. See what it takes to get the car to do what you want, and, more importantly, how to save it when the car DOESN'T cooperate. Traction can change quickly in winter driving conditions, so the level of grip can change in a blink, so learn how to react to those changes.

#5 If you are going down a hill and are afraid of losing traction and sliding over into the curb and damaging something, try just slowly moving on over to the curb and "ride the wall-rus" If you are 10 feet from a curb, you have a lot more time to build up momentum and speed toward the curb, to cause impact damage, than if you are only a few inches away. Also, riding the curb if you have lost traction all together will help slow you down slightly, and keep you straight.

#6 Those other people on the road, don't know what they are doing. Plan for that. Expect that the SUV trying to stop at that intersection that you have a green light at, has no ABS, bald tires, and is updating their BookFace status, telling their friends how the roads are perfectly fine. Once again, plan ahead.

#7 If your friends BookFace status was wrong about the roads, and you do have an accident, stay calm, this is why you have insurance. If there is other traffic moving around you, and you can't pull off to a safe location, stay in the car and buckled up. Call the police and wait for them to come control traffic to keep everyone safe.

Also, fix your hand brake. And rock the steelies.

Thunderface > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 22:00

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What to look out for:

http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/dangers-of-sno…

twochevrons > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 11/16/2014 at 22:04

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Heh, it looked all hardcore without them, but the front hub nuts are missing their protective caps, and since I want to do some suspension work come spring, I thought that I'd try to keep the snow and salt out of there for now.

twochevrons > Thunderface 11/16/2014 at 22:15

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... and I completely missed seeing that. Thanks!

Thunderface > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 22:16

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No prob :)

twochevrons > NWAForester 11/16/2014 at 22:28

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Sounds like just the kind of sensible advice I was after. Thank you! It sounds a lot like what I've encountered on gravel, just with even more caution.

I'm in total agreement about the speed thing – I'm a firm believer in not outdriving one's abilities – but I figure that if I can provoke the car into light misbehaviour at low speeds, and learn how to bring it back under control, it'll help with my confidence in regular winter driving.

And the handbrake is definitely high on the to-do list. It just feels wrong to not have it working, but first I've got to figure out the infernal drum-in-disc rear brakes that Volvo inflicted upon the 850. Not something to do on an icy driveway in sub-freezing temperatures, methinks.

twochevrons > Milky 11/16/2014 at 22:35

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Thanks! It's a bit scruffy close up, but in a way, that's perfect – it's beat-up enough that I'm not too precious about it, but at the same time, it's nice enough that I feel motivated to try and keep it nice. It was an absolute hoot to drive this summer (I got it in the spring), and although I suspect that winter will limit the amount of OMGBOOST acceleration that it is so good at, it should still be a fun drive.

In an ideal would, I'd be hooning that thing every waking moment, but its appetite for premium fuel, and being miles away from any good driving roads, limit my enjoyment of it :(. Even so, with this week's snow, a trip to the shops was enough of an adventure for me!

Milky > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 22:47

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IIRC R's are AWD, you should be having plenty of fun this winter.

twochevrons > Milky 11/16/2014 at 22:55

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AWD came in later with the V70R, but the 850R is very much front-wheel-drive. The amount of front-end liveliness when it comes on boost is simultaneously hilarious and terrifying.

Milky > twochevrons 11/16/2014 at 22:59

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Ahhhhh, well still. Boost plus snow has to be fun.

twochevrons > Milky 11/17/2014 at 09:14

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That gif is exactly how it is. And I can't stop watching it.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > twochevrons 11/17/2014 at 15:12

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Ahh Ok then. I understand what you mean there lol

vdub_nut: scooter snob > Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey 11/17/2014 at 17:35

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It's not my car, but it appears OP found this comment anyways.

Dingers Ghost, Champion Jockey > vdub_nut: scooter snob 11/17/2014 at 20:05

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Ahh ok I see. My bad, guess I got confused!

Amoore100 > twochevrons 03/12/2015 at 00:05

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I dunno, I'm kinda digging the sleeper look that comes with the basic wheel covers...

twochevrons > Amoore100 03/12/2015 at 09:26

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Me, too. But then again, it could also definitely rock the beater look without them. It's pretty rough around the edges in places.

Regardless, I'm really looking forward to putting summer wheels and tires back on. It kind of ruins the sleeper look, but with bright red paint, a tailgate spoiler, and tinted windows, who am I kidding anyway? The tall and skinny snow tires don't do the handling any favours, and if I may say so myself, I love the look of the Tethys alloys.

Part of me wants to make the swap this weekend, but I'm sure that if I do that, either it will snow again, or I'll bend a wheel on one of the murderous potholes that are out there at the moment. The previous owner told me that was the fate of its original Volans wheels :(.

Amoore100 > twochevrons 03/12/2015 at 11:57

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Those wheels do look great but I can imagine that they would be easily damaged...from the thumbnail pics I always think they look like steelies because of the dark color... :P