snow report

[treed2 at wsu.edu (T. Reed)]

Well, after a few weeks of minimal dustings and wet, slushy snow due to
near-freezing temperatures, yesterday we finally got rain (which froze)
followed by a sharp temperature drop and some semi-decent snowfall..
making for an icy layer covered with a couple inches of traction-assisting
snow.

I hadn't bothered taking the roc out for a snow romp previously because of
the weak snow, but last night I went outside and cleared the roof and
hood, scraped the ice off the windows and fired her up. I was very pleased
with how well my 'split pipe insulation over the wipers' trick had kept
the wipers from freezing to themeselves and to the glass. It took a good 5
minutes off my prep time not having to deal with all that ice.

Before I even made it out of the parking lot I saw a Honda with all
seasons that had skidded across the pavement and in to a dirt mound.. he
was paying a tow truck driver to pull him out. I knew then that it was
going to be a fun night.

And how! The ice kept virtually everyone off the roads (only other car I
saw was a cop who gave me a suspicious look when I gave him a thumbs up)
and gave me a chance to get to know my new studded tires.

It was an absolute blast; I couldn't believe how well the Scirocco did. I
felt like I had 4wd! M+S tires kick ass! But at the same time it wasn't
"like driving on pavement" which is good too because pavement is boring to
drive on now that 'I'm hooked on the white stuff'.

So I hit an empty parking lot and started seeing how far I could go.
Oversteer was obviously the biggest problem, but a little throttle to
shift weight to the rear seemed to overcome that every time. I only got
understeer once and when I turned in to the skid it vanished and didn't
come back; must have been a patch of bare ice. The handbrake is my new
best friend; it's so much fun in soft powder! I had snow all over my car
again when I got back home :)~

I was concerned about 'too much torque' being an issue with my 2l 16v
and 3.94 r&p but I found that all I had to do was upshift and the problem
went away. And 1st & 2nd gear were fun for flinging snow and zigging
around as fast as possible.

I only came close to getting stuck once, when I had "trailblazed" through
untouched snow about a quarter mile.. I was turning around and got
the front end in to some deceptively deep(er) powder. The tires were just
spinning so instead of panicing I backed off immediately and went in
reverse, turned a little and tried going forward again. With some careful
clutching to control wheelspin (in order to gain initial momentum) I was
able to pull right out of the tough spot in 3rd gear. It felt a lot like
driving a boat on the way out with the tires spinning about twice as fast
as the car was moving as they clawed through the powder.

I went back home to grab a thermos of hot chocolate and a camera and took
some pics.. here's one of the better ones:

http://students.washington.edu/treed2/orange-snow-sky.jpg

(as you can tell I was having a problem with the side windows fogging up;
I wish I could get the blower motor to give me about twice as much
throughput..)

Die hard canadians will get a good laugh from the amount of snow in the
picture, but keep in mind that there's a nice layer of ice underneath it
:) I almost fell on my ass a few times walking around on the bare
ice before the snow started falling.

Anyway, the verdict is: rocco + (ice and snow) = (fun and excitement) !

-Toby