Winter Tyres

[Pukmeister]

Didn't Arsey way lyrical about owning a Panda 4x4 ? ISTR a photo of a beige looking one ??

When my elderly mum stopped driving we bought her canary yellow FWD 1.1 Panda and gifted it to our daughter as a runabout. Its such a cheap and easy little car to have in the family, I doubt we will ever part with it.

Great little cars, even in FWD form with decent tyres I'd wager any half decent driver could get through poor roads in it.

 

[NeverRodeBefore]

Back in 2010 we had a rare dump of snow as far down south as Portsmouth and everything ground to a stop once the drifts had frozen.

My Vectra estate company car on low profiles did absolutely nothing, just span its wheels on summer tyres it was going nowhere.

My late father’s unloved old diesel Citroen Picasso was sat on the drive on some or other cheap tyre brand and we were out of food so I gave it a go to try and reach the local supermarket on local uncleared frozen roads. The bloody thing merrily cruised along finding grip everywhere, it was unstoppable. I was genuinely amazed by it.

When I was still cycling to work regardless of the weather, one of our sales reps with his saloon car got stuck in the snow right outside the factory door. He'd parked in fresh snow to load up, and he couldn't get going again. He came back in muttering about the snow and went back out with a small shovel and after a bit I heard him cursing that he'd dug his wheels clear but he still couldn't move. I thought maybe a gentle push would help so went to help. He'd only dug the rear wheels clear, so once I pointed out it was front wheel drive and dug those out a bit for him, he was on his way

When my Dad was working I used to get up early and clear the snow so he could get out before I then cycled to work. Clearing the drive was actually a lot of work because I had to clear across 8 garages and the same distance down the big slope to the main estate roads. I did this by myself each day it snowed. Then on a weekend I was tinkering with my Landy and a few of the neighbours were clearing it so they could go out and asked if I was going to help. My reply was, 'does this look like it needs snow clearing?' When they finished, they'd pushed the snow towards my Landy into a bit of a bank... I made a point of driving through it rather than shifting it

 

[Davey B]

....... I thought maybe a gentle push would help so went to help. He'd only dug the rear wheels clear, so once I pointed out it was front wheel drive and dug those out a bit for him, he was on his way

Reminds me of a couple in a small hatchback, struggling up a snowy 1 in 6 hill (to nowhere...or rather to a car park where I presume they were going for a wintry walk...morons) They were stuck with wheels spinning. As wife and I walked past, I told the young feller to drop back a few metres to get his drive wheels into the little 'culvert' with dry concrete edges that may well give him traction to get going...'then keep going slowly with no hardsh acceleration, and when you come back down the hill...no harsh braking". He rolled back, revved the tits off it and the front wheels just span on the snow/ice.
"You've put your back wheels in the culvert"
'Yes, and it's still not gripping'
"It's a front wheel drive car."
'Oh, I didn't know'. His girlfriend had the look of "He's a f#####g moron, isn't he!'

 

[Pukmeister]

Reminds me of a couple in a small hatchback, struggling up a snowy 1 in 6 hill (to nowhere...or rather to a car park where I presume they were going for a wintry walk...)

His girlfriend had the look of "He's a f#####g moron, isn't he!'

Perhaps he was on a promise of some Risque outdoor action and was so excited he couldn't go easy on the accelerator pedal.

 

[Davey B]

The biggest 'risque' would have been getting dog shit on their shoe/knee/back.....

 

[NeverRodeBefore]

Reminds me of a couple in a small hatchback, struggling up a snowy 1 in 6 hill (to nowhere...or rather to a car park where I presume they were going for a wintry walk...morons) They were stuck with wheels spinning. As wife and I walked past, I told the young feller to drop back a few metres to get his drive wheels into the little 'culvert' with dry concrete edges that may well give him traction to get going...'then keep going slowly with no hardsh acceleration, and when you come back down the hill...no harsh braking". He rolled back, revved the tits off it and the front wheels just span on the snow/ice.
"You've put your back wheels in the culvert"
'Yes, and it's still not gripping'
"It's a front wheel drive car."
'Oh, I didn't know'. His girlfriend had the look of "He's a f#####g moron, isn't he!'
View attachment 465207

I've had a similar conversation with a bloke trying to leave our town (it's all hills really) and as he was spinning the nuts off it it first, I stopped cycling by his window, and said, 'you're polishing the ice under your wheels, drop back a bit, then, slip the clutch in first or second if you can, and gently pull away, don't try to speed up too much once moving until you get over the top of the hill, look, I'm cycling, and there's plenty of grip if you're careful." He nodded, wound his window up and proceeded to rev the nuts off it and started to move sideways towards me and the curb. I left him to it at that point and peddled off up the road.

 

[er-minio]

The most anal clenching drive through snow was the one I mentioned above, when the Eurostar got stuck in the chunnel, many years ago.

We (me and my father) were supposed to travel across in the morning, got stuck on the motorway nearly 12 hours, got to France at around 10/11pm and slept between Arras/Reims (don't remember exactly).
We got up very early the morning after as we knew that the shit weather was closing in.

Everything was completely covered in snow.
I remember driving along the motorway and for most part of the northern bit the only way of understanding where the road was going was to keep an eye on the central guard rail sticking out as everything else was completely white and my main aim was not to end up in the ditch past the hard shoulder
At least this was on completely flat land, so easier.

Car was an old C class mercedes with 4 gear torque converter and square setup with low profile 255ish-wide tyres on Pirelli P Zero Rosso, feathering the gas pedal all the way . It was like steering a barge.
Never again.

At some point there were salt spreaders, so following those made it slightly easier and most of the snow started clearing out with miles and road became visible again over time.

I should have some pictures somewhere as it was slightly insane.

We pushed through trying to not get sucked into the snowy weather and we made it to Switzerland where everything was peachy and clean tarmac.



On a slightly happier note: we had a Panda Van for a while and it was a fun runaround (also could drive it into ZTL zones). But it was set on fire sadly.

 

[NeverRodeBefore]

On a slightly happier note: we had a Panda Van for a while and it was a fun runaround (also could drive it into ZTL zones). But it was set on fire sadly.

Sad end for a Panda. My yellow Panda 1.1 got wrote off but rebuilt by someone else. My Panda 1.2 4x4 had a hiccup on the motorway so I traded it in pretty much the same day for the Suzuki Swift 4x4.

My Landrover was set of fire whilst it was in bits under a tarpaulin.. it shrugged that off as there was no interior or petrol to burn once the melted plastic had done its damage.

 

[er-minio]

Sad end for a Panda.

Indeed.
It was in Rome. At the time this guy would set parked cars on fire. Got arrested, then released, and after release he decided to set some more cars on fire on the road where my parents live.

Car in front was set on fire directly, our Panda caught as it was parked next, electrical system shorted and it engaged the starter motor. Car was in reverse gear so drove itself 20 meters backward onto the grass and "crashed" in the Roman wall.

On top of that: we got fined by the metropolitan police (Vigili Urbani) because the car was on left on the grass area. Took us a couple of days to sort removal.

 

[Neil W]

Everyone knows that an (original) Panda 4x4 is all you need in the snow

Father in law had one superb little beast in the snow until he broke the transmission, had a Citroen C15 Visa diesel van ... he broke that , he had a Bedford Rascal.... he broke that . He had a supposedly unbreakable Subaru Brat , guess what he broke the transmission on that one as well

 

[Pukmeister]

Father in law had one superb little beast in the snow until he broke the transmission, had a Citroen C15 Visa diesel van ... he broke that , he had a Bedford Rascal.... he broke that . He had a supposedly unbreakable Subaru Brat , guess what he broke the transmission on that one as well

Reminds me of one of our neighbours. The silly old fuck keeps destroying cars one after the other because his idea of starting an engine is to bury the throttle pedal in the carpet then turn the key. He probably puts a good few thousand miles of wear on it at every start, the bell end screams the tits off his cars from cold start every time. No wonder they let go on him.

 

[Steve398]

I hadn’t known my (now) wife Debs very long when she announced we were going to take the dogs for a walk. Dead of winter, heavy snow on the ground, and damn cold, but I was trying to make a good impression so I greeted her suggestion with apparent joy but inside I was thinking “You are utterly deranged…”

Off we go with her driving her Honda Jazz. I didn’t really know the area other than she’d hauled me up onto the South Downs Way the week before by way of a winding, steep, and poxy little single track road, and that I immediately dismissed on the basis that no-one was that stupid in this weather. However, as we continued through the rutted snow I realised that yes, that’s where we’re going. On we went… but perhaps I was mistaken, seriously no-one would really… and then we turned left onto the very same poxy little single track road, and my heart sank, but on she went climbing upwards, past an abandoned 4-wheel drive Range Rover and onwards, on almost to the top where the plucky Jazz finally admitted defeat and lost traction about 30’ from the car park, sliding gracefully backwards to come to a stop against the verge, where she immediately decamped with the dogs before handing me the key with the immortal words “ You’re the Advanced driver so you can drive!”

90 bloody-cold minutes later we’re back at the car, which I managed to spin around so we’re at least pointing in the right direction, and off we go. I quickly discovered that the ABS did little to reduce the downhill momentum so did my own cadence braking which gave me at least a semblance of control, but I knew we had a wicked right hander coming up all too soon. As I approached it I was already planning where I would probably lose it on the polished ice and end up through the wire fence, which was from my perspective the best option rather than the sturdy gate and posts directly in my path, when suddenly and very unexpectedly the tyres gripped and around the corner we went.

As I drew onto the Give Way at the end of the lane I’m aware that my wife-to-be was waving her hands above her head and shouting “wheeee!” like it was a fairground ride. I, on the other hand, could feel the sweat trickling down my back and thanking whatever Gods had taken pity on me.

We laugh about it now, but it took a while…

 

[Neil W]

Reminds me of one of our neighbours. The silly old fuck keeps destroying cars one after the other because his idea of starting an engine is to bury the throttle pedal in the carpet then turn the key. He probably puts a good few thousand miles of wear on it at every start, the bell end screams the tits off his cars from cold start every time. No wonder they let go on him.

He would knock the transmissions and driveshafts out of them , the Subaru ended up driving the front offside and rear nearside wheels simultaneously and that was all , the Panda ended up with only having reverse and top gear.
He wasn't much better with hus boats

 

[jags]

simca 1100 with bacon slicer tyres. the farm road was uphill all the way with a90 deg bend 100yds from the top. the last bit was even steeper. if the simca couldn't get up going forward it usually did it in reverse. only snow over 9" deep stopped it.