Winter driving

[Coligny]

Th3 Stupid... it hurtz...

If you put snow chains on your tires, (be they real chains or the spiked rubber kind that allow to drive up to 50kph, with horrible vibrations...)

BE SMART (unlike me)... remove the fancy plastic faceplate on the wheel first... because it will end up badly scratched before the end of the morning drive... And end up looking even moar miserable than usual. (and you might also enjoy reading aboot suspension design and the adverse effect of unsuspended masses in the car drivetrain on the road worthiness *)

Back to the paintshop again... lucky i'm stocked on white paint... And if you have alloy or low profile tires, maybe some plastic between the wheel and the chain can be a good idea... (PVC from file organiser looks enough for that kind of jobs...)



* to make it short: to stay on the road, better have as little weight as possible in the interface between the shock absorber and the road also alloy wheels are usually much lighter...

[wuchan]

Th3 Stupid... it hurtz...

If you put snow chains on your tires, (be they real chains or the spiked rubber kind that allow to drive up to 50kph, with horrible vibrations...)

BE SMART (unlike me)... remove the fancy plastic faceplate on the wheel first... because it will end up badly scratched before the end of the morning drive... And end up looking even moar miserable than usual. (and you might also enjoy reading aboot suspension design and the adverse effect of unsuspended masses in the car drivetrain on the road worthiness *)

Back to the paintshop again... lucky i'm stocked on white paint... And if you have alloy or low profile tires, maybe some plastic between the wheel and the chain can be a good idea... (PVC from file organiser looks enough for that kind of jobs...)



* to make it short: to stay on the road, better have as little weight as possible in the interface between the shock absorber and the road also alloy wheels are usually much lighter...

chains? are you turning Japanese?




ZOMG WHITE STUFF IS FALLING WE ARE ALL DOOMED MUST GO INTO EMERGENCY MODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Most people have FWD cars, snow tires work fine. Japanese people break out the chains when the snow gets 4cm deep. So far I have never seen conditions here that would require chains. Unless you are trying to climb BIG mountains you don't need them.

[Mike Oxlong]

Not sure about that. I see a lot of rain, freezing overnight, snow, thawing, freezing, thawing and refreezing. Sleet that freezes to the road. Those riverbank roads with the three metre drop on either side, no shoulders, and a mix of F1 wannabes and seniors confused about which is the gas and brake...

[Taro Toporific]

[SIZE="3"]Whatz this "snow" stuff you guys are talking about?[/SIZE]

[Coligny]

chains? are you turning Japanese?
ZOMG WHITE STUFF IS FALLING WE ARE ALL DOOMED MUST GO INTO EMERGENCY MODE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Most people have FWD cars, snow tires work fine. Japanese people break out the chains when the snow gets 4cm deep. So far I have never seen conditions here that would require chains. Unless you are trying to climb BIG mountains you don't need them.

Yeah, you don't exactly like to think stuff all the way thrue don't you...

I live in Toyohashi, we traditionnally have 1 or 2 days of snow every year. That don't justify to buy a set of snow tires. Meanwhile chains cost little, works damn well and need 20 minutes to put and remove when the weather needs it.

Monday, without chains, you just couldn't exit any parking, there was black ice on the roads until late in the afternoon, and since the city is cut in the middle by the shinkansen railtrack, you had steep -frozen- bridge all clogged with cars driven by people who also think that the weather condition can't affect their allmighty mad driving skillz.

[wuchan]

[Bucky]

chains? are you turning Japanese?

For the year I lived in Hokkaido, I don't recall seeing anyone with chains. Everyone had snow tires. So I think it depends where your are. In places like Toyohashi that get 1-2 days of snow a year, chains are probably a decent solution.

[Mr Doricar]

Snow is awesome, I love it.

Regular snow tires work wonders. Just buy some off Yahoo. I buy brand new 17" tyres for drifting all the time and pay 6,000 each new. So used snow tyres should be nice and cheap. Pretty sure there is an Up Garage in Toyohashi so go and check out what stock they have. Probably with wheels too. What car is it?

[Coligny]

Snow is awesome, I love it.

Regular snow tires work wonders. Just buy some off Yahoo. I buy brand new 17" tyres for drifting all the time and pay 6,000 each new. So used snow tyres should be nice and cheap. Pretty sure there is an Up Garage in Toyohashi so go and check out what stock they have. Probably with wheels too. What car is it?

It's more a shopping trolley than a real car:



And buying a set of snow tires would double its value... So, next car will certainly have its own set of tire per season... This one, will have to do with chains... And the weather is already back to normal...

[waruta]

Snow is awesome, I love it.

Regular snow tires work wonders. Just buy some off Yahoo. I buy brand new 17" tyres for drifting all the time and pay 6,000 each new. So used snow tyres should be nice and cheap. Pretty sure there is an Up Garage in Toyohashi so go and check out what stock they have. Probably with wheels too. What car is it?

I used to hoard a set of spikes from the pre-ban days, used for the kei-car, had a buddy at a tire shop put on a lot more spikes (of course after hours), ended up with something like 400 spikes per tire, on ice with 4wd and a little turbo the kei-truck couldn't be beat!

On a side note, when I was in the US, a friend drove an Audi with dual turbos and awd/4wd? (the old one) and that thing drove like it was on rails, no problems at all in the snow or ice with spikes. I heard good things about Volvo too, but don't really like their styling...

[American Oyaji]

Yeah, I had two sets of tires too living in Aomori. You HAD to have snow tires.
So many roads don't get plowed.

[Coligny]

I used to hoard a set of spikes from the pre-ban days, used for the kei-car, had a buddy at a tire shop put on a lot more spikes (of course after hours), ended up with something like 400 spikes per tire, on ice with 4wd and a little turbo the kei-truck couldn't be beat!

On a side note, when I was in the US, a friend drove an Audi with dual turbos and awd/4wd? (the old one) and that thing drove like it was on rails, no problems at all in the snow or ice with spikes. I heard good things about Volvo too, but don't really like their styling...

yes all the Audi Quattro with Thorsen differential are made for the snow (A/Q/S/RS/R model 4/5/6/7/8 ) the R8 is quite impressive on snow days, one of the most idiot-proof supercar on the market.

I don't know why spiked tires are supposed to be worse than chains... i fear a lot of stupid(tm) went into that decision...

[FG Lurker]

I don't know why spiked tires are supposed to be worse than chains... i fear a lot of stupid(tm) went into that decision...

They chew up roads. You put chains on when you need them but people leave studded tires on all winter.

[BigInJapan]

I don't know why spiked tires are supposed to be worse than chains...

I thought they were banned as FGL said (because they destroy the road surfaces), but apparently it was due to the added pollution caused by excess dust coming off the roads getting chewed up by studded tires.

They were just starting to phase them out when I arrived in Japan and worked at a ski resort. Great traction in the snow and on ice, but they were not good on wet pavement, and made a racket when driving on dry pavement.

[FG Lurker]

I thought they were banned as FGL said (because they destroy the road surfaces), but apparently it was due to the added pollution caused by excess dust coming off the roads getting chewed up by studded tires.

I wonder if it was done that way to avoid pissing off the construction lobby who no doubt loves seeing roads get repaved yearly...

[Mr Doricar]

[Coligny]

[Mock Cockpit]

Buggery christ Coligny, you've really Euroed the fuck out of that car. I thought the roof rack was a spoiler for a second. Anyway, driving on snow is for gay lepers. My solution- when it snows stay home and drink beer. Hth.

[waruta]

[Mr Doricar]

[Mr Doricar]

http://www.araimotorsport.com/products/wheel/spiketire.html

This may or may not be me practicing

[YT]VNZhl1dg-Es[/YT]

[waruta]

[Coligny]

[Mr Doricar]

Well its good to find some other car people on this forum.

Heres some other vids of me if youre interested..

This is some rally practice in my own Evo 4 RS

[YT]eYWZxwu_-DM[/YT]

This is me testing a customers car. He wanted it set-up for drift so I took it to the circuit and make adjustments until I was happy with it

[YT]IEX_cQKxMXM[/YT]

[Coligny]

Well its good to find some other car people on this forum.

w00t w00t w00t... if 1980's Renaults count as cars in your world I'm one of them...

(but for reason of dramatic lack of skills, i'm more into rFactor or RC cars than the real one as far as driving goes...)

Meanwhile... getting ready for Polish winter :

[yt]Ce58pVxPmwg#![/yt]

You'll notice how little counter steering is needed to straighten the car. React like a Thorsen while usually Audi's transversal engine cars are sort-of-ish AWD with haldex crap instead, and a lot of computerized lunacy where few worm gears could have done nearly the same...

[Mr Doricar]

Nice! I didnt even know there was an S3...Knew about S4 and S8 but didn't know they made a 3. Would love something nice like that as a daily driver. Driving semi-race cars gets annoying after a while haha!

[Coligny]

Nice! I didnt even know there was an S3...Knew about S4 and S8 but didn't know they made a 3. Would love something nice like that as a daily driver. Driving semi-race cars gets annoying after a while haha!

Nope, not a basic S3 which existed for every iteration of the Audi A3, here it's the first RS3 model.

Their lineup switched from simple A3, A4, A6, A8 to an inbreeding mess with to many models and variant to care aboot, nearly as endless as toyota...

[FG Lurker]

Just been watching videos of the RS5... Tempting, tempting...

[Coligny]

Just been watching videos of the RS5... Tempting, tempting...

Before you get too tempted...

Audi customer service and garage in Japan are absolutely dreadfull...
You think bad, and multiply by eleventy billiun... It's like if they were fucking with you on purpose. The only good thing is that Audi have a web subscription for customers to access all their factory repair manual.

and resell value is beyond fucked... We nearly jumped for joy when we were told that we were getting a free spare smart key from Nissan as take back value for a 30.000 km old kraut... No need to pay recycle fee... yatta...

[FG Lurker]

Audi customer service and garage in Japan are absolutely dreadfull...

This is a concern, certainly. I have an indirect contact who is connected to Audi's new service center here in Osaka so that might help. Or might not...

and resell value is beyond fucked...

This I am not so concerned about. My next car will likely be a business lease for right-off purposes.

I'm not looking to change cars right away anyway, but I am starting to look around and think about what I want...