Im making a thread for all the 8 winter drivers so that you can tell your story of how you got stuck in the snow, cause im sure some of us will be.

I'll start with my story,
This morning I was heading over to 16th and Markham road to get my snow tires on. As i was backing out of my driveway i already couldnt make it out, there was only about 3 cm of wet snow at the spot i was trying to leave. I ended up shoveling the 15 cm of wet packing snow for and hour before i could get out of my driveway, only to get stuck at the edge of it. I called for help and even with 2 people in my back seat i could barley move up the driveway at all. After placing 3 bags of salt in the trunk and pouring another 3 on the ground around my wheels i finally got the car back in the garage. All in all it took almost 2 and a half hours to move 15 ft.

I rebooked the appointment for tomorrow, i hope i'll make it next time.

Im making a thread for all the 8 winter drivers so that you can tell your story of how you got stuck in the snow, cause im sure some of us will be.

I'll start with my story,
This morning I was heading over to 16th and Markham road to get my snow tires on. As i was backing out of my driveway i already couldnt make it out, there was only about 3 cm of wet snow at the spot i was trying to leave. I ended up shoveling the 15 cm of wet packing snow for and hour before i could get out of my driveway, only to get stuck at the edge of it. I called for help and even with 2 people in my back seat i could barley move up the driveway at all. After placing 3 bags of salt in the trunk and pouring another 3 on the ground around my wheels i finally got the car back in the garage. All in all it took almost 2 and a half hours to move 15 ft.

I rebooked the appointment for tomorrow, i hope i'll make it next time.

well my getting stuck was kinda silly. This is my first rear wheel drive in the snow. I got my 8 a month ago. So i took it to the mall and there is a huge parking lot with no cars nor lamp posts. I started testing out DSC on/off with donuts... really fun indeed. The DSC system is very nice by the way. So as im doing donuts i decide to go where the snowplows dump snow on the edge is way thicker snow. I figured I could do better donuts there. BOOM i get stuck at the far end of the parking lot close to a snow bank. No way to move her DSC on or off i tried moving from 2nd gear, reverse nothing. So I didnt want to bother people walking all the way over I called my dad, he brought a shovel and salt. It took us about 20 mins to clear a path and I was on my way out. And that was WITH snow tires.

Aaaaaand this is why I store my car. :)

Aaaaaand this is why I store my car. :)

Indeed. I picked up a clean little 90s Subaru Impreza AWD with snow tires for what a set of snows for the 8 would cost. Thing is a tank in the snow, plus the gas savings alone will pay for it's self by spring. :)

8, 7 and MSP sit in the garage all winter, Impreza and Yukon deal with this foolishness.

Aaaaaand this is why I store my car. :)

I would store my car too if i had a body kit, but as I dont I can enjoy drifting around in the snow. It alot of fun ya know?

Edmonton - We had a massive snow storm here on Friday night. Was coming home from work at 3am and got stuck on the street in front of my house. Had someone behind me who got out and helped me shovel my 8. We managed to move it about 50ft and then she wouldn't go any further. The ruts in the road were too much and the car was just bottoming out on the snow. Had to dig through a snow drift to make myself a spot on the side of the road until it got flattened out a bit more. Finally got to bed at 5am. I've got brand new Blizzak WS60's on stock rims---go figure.

Edmonton - We had a massive snow storm here on Friday night. Was coming home from work at 3am and got stuck on the street in front of my house. Had someone behind me who got out and helped me shovel my 8. We managed to move it about 50ft and then she wouldn't go any further. The ruts in the road were too much and the car was just bottoming out on the snow. Had to dig through a snow drift to make myself a spot on the side of the road until it got flattened out a bit more. Finally got to bed at 5am. I've got brand new Blizzak WS60's on stock rims---go figure.

You're not the only one in
-Edmonton
-whos has an RX-8
-who has WS60 on his 8 (well on 17"rims)
-to get stuck on Friday night

Yup I got stuck in the back alley and it took some digging and rocking to get unstuck and into the driveway.
Driving on the Hwy2 to the airport on Friday was fun... not really.

My car flooded on Monday. :(

i got stuck in the snow trying to store my car
i moved it from the top of my driveway to one of the sides
took me a whole hour on summer tires lol, had to be pushed into place

I got stuck in place trying to do a left turn at a yellow light even with my snow tires on. I guess i accellerate too fast. Everytime my wheels spin i feel like its dollars being burnt :(

Last tuesday, I was coming home at about 9PM. This Suzuki is doing about 40km/h in front of me. I figure "OK, it's icy but it's not THAT icy" and pull out to pass at (what I thought was reasonable) 50km/h. Big mistake. As I accelerated the car starts to fishtail slightly. All I can think is "Don't hit anyone!". Instead of hitting anyone, I bailed into the median, where there was about 30cm of snow and chaff from the plow, and promptly got stuck.

While digging myself out, two more people stopped to help dig and eventually push. Definitely, the most Canadian moment I've had in a long time: Two complete strangers stopping to help push my car out while it's snowing and around -20C!

happened to me last yr, exact same thing. but with my 2009 hybrid camry which is heavy as heck

My RX8 haven't got stuck so far. Keeping my fingers crossed. But of course I live downtown, I haven't seen much snow. I use OEM rims with Garit KX.

I was caught out in a moderate snow fall that came at just below freezing without snow tires one time. Suffice to say, TCS and ABS and LSD don't work at all if you don't have any traction. I drifted sideways for about 100 m before I called it off and a gracious co-worker drove me home.

My winter truck dumped tranny blood last week, so I pulled the RX out of the barn, put the snows in the RX to go get them mounted on the rims. Could not get out of my driveway. I slid off to the side with one wheel on the lawn and three in various ruts. It's solid ice from that slush storm 10 days ago. My drive has about a 2' rise over 100' and a slight slope to the south.
I called a farmer with a 'rock pick' on his tractor to smash up the ice, will be taking another run at it today.

We just received two feet of snow yesterday (so, who ordered the white Christmas???). My Jeep deals with this foolishness. ;)

Last night the roads were very slippery in the GTA. The rain water on tarmac froze as the temperature drops below zero. My car on Garit KX was spinning in first, second and third and slides on every turn on unused roads.

Should I have decreased the tire pressure to gain more traction? On that note, for the Ontario folks, what tire pressure are you running with your winter tires?

Last night the roads were very slippery in the GTA. The rain water on tarmac froze as the temperature drops below zero. My car on Garit KX was spinning in first, second and third and slides on every turn on unused roads.

Should I have decreased the tire pressure to gain more traction? On that note, for the Ontario folks, what tire pressure are you running with your winter tires?

im running 29-30 pressure for winter. I dont know what people bitch about because the 8 in winter is amazing. Its better than my lancer ralliart and the stability control makes up for it. It snowed like 1 foot of snow in montreal 2 weeks ago, went to work no problem. Yesterday was raining like hell and there was slush all over the roads I was driving a little slower than usual but I wasnt scared at all. I guess it all depends on how generous your foot is on the pedal. Mine isnt im stingy lol

Last night the roads were very slippery in the GTA. The rain water on tarmac froze as the temperature drops below zero. My car on Garit KX was spinning in first, second and third and slides on every turn on unused roads.

Should I have decreased the tire pressure to gain more traction? On that note, for the Ontario folks, what tire pressure are you running with your winter tires?

No, decreasing tire pressure in the winter is a myth...sorta. I'll try to explain what i mean. when you set tire pressures in the summer, you set the pressure with the tire cold. like, before you've driven anywhere. the tire heats up and the air pressure will increase (unless you use nitrogen). the manufacturer's recommended tire pressure takes this into account. in the winterhowever, your tires dont typically get warm, even on highway drives. so you see, setting them to manufacturer spec is almost like running a lower tire pressure anyways. Yes, on big trucks with big meety tires, in deep deep snow (like up to your axels deep), lower tire pressure will increase traction by spreading load over the snow, sort of like putting on snow shoes. but thats very different than driving a sports car in a city with winter tires. these trucks will dump 15, 20 PSI out of their tires to get this advantage. its incredibly unsafe to drive on a road anywhere with a tire that low. Manufacturers spec takes is the optimum setting for fuel economy, tire wear, and traction.

you're talking about the car slipping around on ice. guess what, every car ever will do that. winter tires help, but its going to happen. you have to slow down and drive smarter in those conditions. theres no way to cheat the weather other than to run studded tires, which are ilegal here and will make stopping on dry pavement very sketchy to say the least.

im running 29-30 pressure for winter. I dont know what people bitch about because the 8 in winter is amazing. Its better than my lancer ralliart and the stability control makes up for it. It snowed like 1 foot of snow in montreal 2 weeks ago, went to work no problem. Yesterday was raining like hell and there was slush all over the roads I was driving a little slower than usual but I wasnt scared at all. I guess it all depends on how generous your foot is on the pedal. Mine isnt im stingy lol

completely agree with you about the lancer ralliart. used to have one as well and for some reason the rx8 feels much more consistent in the winter. I have a GS too, so no TC/DSC to help out either. It might be due to the fact that you know the car SHOULD be crappy in the snow, so you drive more cautiously subconciously and the car feels better. still, i used to get stuck in my ralliart all the time. never got stuck in the rx8 once all last winter.

We would actually need snow in the GTA to get stuck....so.....this year so far so good.

Gotta go with Thief on this one.. Mine spends all winter in a nice, warm garage.

Spent 2 1/2 hours getting the GFs Eclipse out of the snow that same night bmacneill is talking about if it makes anyone feel better. :)

My 8 got stuck in the snow 2 years ago, when they didn't send out the plow trucks until there was ~18 inches of snow on the ground. My entire undercarriage was packed with snow in every nook and cranny, there was snow packed against the radiator above the splashpan, etc... Simply couldn't get the tires to the ground any more.


Kinda glad though, as that was at 1pm, and I was one of the first in the state to get stuck, so I got one of the first tow trucks. 2 hours to get home, and the tow truck got stuck on my street for 4 more hours after that. Providence was in total gridlock until nearly midnight, including most of the kids stuck on school bus's until ~10pm.


Since then, nothing winter has thrown at me has gotten me stuck. A few weeks ago I threaded my way between stuck SUVs up a steep hill into work, the guy in the Jeep behind me looked pained and irritated at first, but looked completely shocked when reached the top without issue.

Almost all RX-8s have been mistired for winter IMO. Because we can only minus-size to 17" wheels, and the original 225/45/18 was a weird size to begin with, tire shops often sell us less than stellar winter tires in sizes that are way too wide to cut through the deep stuff.

If you can find traction, this car is really easy to drive in snow. But most of us are slipping and sliding around in our 17" steamroller winter performance tires once it hits 2-3 inches outside. You can see it in all the threads that have been written on the subject here. People who were lucky enough to have gotten good snow tires have no idea why the rest of the board is always complaining about bad snow traction in the deeper stuff.

Heh, if your using the OEM tires in the snow, expect traction to be non-existent with any fair amount of snow/slush. The tires were designed for dry warm pavement. Even in the rain, they aren't that great. They have no grooves and they are way too stiff.

I recently bought quality winter tires, Blizzak LM60 225/45/18 mounted on the OEM rims. This basically makes the car now drivable. Instead of not being able to move from my driveway when the snow falls, I can now drive around np. I've been waiting for serious heavy snow to come for testing but so far hasn't happened since I got the snow tires on so I can't say in serious snow yet. But now I'm not checking the weather anymore every time I go out to make sure its not going to snow that day lol.

Although it took away the fun with minor snow where you could initiate a drift with just a flip of the wheel and a blip of the throttle. You can still do it but its not as smooth anymore, the tires keep catching traction so I don't bother anymore lol. Also, can't go up hills with the car climbing sideways anymore either but thats a good thing haha.

thewird

Are you saying that going to 215/55/17 is a bad idea?


Almost all RX-8s have been mistired for winter IMO. Because we can only minus-size to 17" wheels, and the original 225/45/18 was a weird size to begin with, tire shops often sell us less than stellar winter tires in sizes that are way too wide to cut through the deep stuff.

If you can find traction, this car is really easy to drive in snow. But most of us are slipping and sliding around in our 17" steamroller winter performance tires once it hits 2-3 inches outside. You can see it in all the threads that have been written on the subject here. People who were lucky enough to have gotten good snow tires have no idea why the rest of the board is always complaining about bad snow traction in the deeper stuff.

narrow tires are best, you want to cut through snow not float on top of it with snow shoes. look up wrc rally snow tires they are super thin like 175's

Are you saying that going to 215/55/17 is a bad idea?

Yes, but I think choosing the right winter tread pattern is even more important. IMO if you need to drive to work everyday and don't have a backup beater for the snowy days, you should not be using winter sport tires on the RX-8. Stick with the winter touring tires. The dry handling will suck royally, but you will not get stuck in snow in the GTA. Winter sport tires on RWD cars start to get dicey once you have more than 2-3" of snow on the ground.

There are basically three types of snow tires out there. The old-school aggressive tread snow tires, the winter touring tires with a million sippings like the Michelins, and winter sport tires with all kinds of asymmetrical tread design to strike a compromise between dry and snow handling.

Yes, but I think choosing the right winter tread pattern is even more important. IMO if you need to drive to work everyday and don't have a backup beater for the snowy days, you should not be using winter sport tires on the RX-8. Stick with the winter touring tires. The dry handling will suck royally, but you will not get stuck in snow in the GTA. Winter sport tires on RWD cars start to get dicey once you have more than 2-3" of snow on the ground.

There are basically three types of snow tires out there. The old-school aggressive tread snow tires, the winter touring tires with a million sippings like the Michelins, and winter sport tires with all kinds of asymmetrical tread design to strike a compromise between dry and snow handling.

I fully agree. I have Hankook Icebear W300 which are great in the cold cold dry, great in the wet, but only marginal in the snow. If there is under 3", I am ok. However, on the highways with the truck groves, my car is always bottoming out and these tires do not have good enough traction to keep my straight at speed.

40-60KM/H on the 401 is about all I can do in heavy snow.

My GF's Brother just bought a Genesis Coupe 2.0T They come with 225/45R18 up front and 245/45R18 out back. Hyundai sold him a winter tire package with 215/55R17 up front and 225/55R17 in the rear. They are Hancook Winter I Pike tires.

We drove the cars back to back in light snow and his tires made mine feel like I was driving on grease. His grip was awesome in comparison.

Next year I am getting 215/55R17 Winter I Pike tires

I chose the Garit KX this winter because I want to retain some of the car's fun-to-drive character when the ground isn't covered in inches of snow. Living downtown means that I rarely drive on unplowed streets. A couple of weeks ago, it was snowing really hard in the middle of the night, it was my first time driving in real snow with these tires. I pussied out at around 40km/h on normal roads, but at least my car doesn't handle like a boat for the rest of the winter. The car will allow you some slip, I find. If you are not being too unreasonable with the throttle and brake, it will straighten itself.

I've used the IceBear W300 before and I liked it. In memory, they were more stable than the Garit KX on snow covered tarmac. But I had them on a FWD car. Too bad your experience with them isn't that good on the RX8, otherwise I'd consider them as my next set of winter tires.

So... if you live downtown and don't go out of the city that often... and like to have fun driving, it can't hurt to get winter performance tires.

I run winter performance for 3rd winter..

Dunlop Wintersport M3's on 225/45/R18 alloy winter rims!!! So sweet lookin'.. hahahahah :lol:

Handles no problem, even in the past 2 year's Toronto has had the most brutal winters. This winter is mild so far in comparison.

OK cool. Thanks for pointing out the difference between WINTER/ICE tires and WINTER/Performance tires.

My question was 'Do you think going to 215/55/17 is a bad idea?' and your first answer was 'Yes'. I might be misinterpreting your response but it sounds like you think another dimension might be better??? From what I've been reading narrow is better. So... 215/55/17 is the most narrow you can get on the RX8 and better than the 225/45/18 etc.

Can you clear that up?


Yes, but I think choosing the right winter tread pattern is even more important. IMO if you need to drive to work everyday and don't have a backup beater for the snowy days, you should not be using winter sport tires on the RX-8. Stick with the winter touring tires. The dry handling will suck royally, but you will not get stuck in snow in the GTA. Winter sport tires on RWD cars start to get dicey once you have more than 2-3" of snow on the ground.

There are basically three types of snow tires out there. The old-school aggressive tread snow tires, the winter touring tires with a million sippings like the Michelins, and winter sport tires with all kinds of asymmetrical tread design to strike a compromise between dry and snow handling.

I fully agree. I have Hankook Icebear W300 which are great in the cold cold dry, great in the wet, but only marginal in the snow. If there is under 3", I am ok. However, on the highways with the truck groves, my car is always bottoming out and these tires do not have good enough traction to keep my straight at speed.

40-60KM/H on the 401 is about all I can do in heavy snow.

My GF's Brother just bought a Genesis Coupe 2.0T They come with 225/45R18 up front and 245/45R18 out back. Hyundai sold him a winter tire package with 215/55R17 up front and 225/55R17 in the rear. They are Hancook Winter I Pike tires.

We drove the cars back to back in light snow and his tires made mine feel like I was driving on grease. His grip was awesome in comparison.

Next year I am getting 215/55R17 Winter I Pike tires

Isn't the Genesis Coupe ~1000lbs heavier as well? Or does that even have anything to do with it...(Noob thinking)
________
Anime Xxx (http://www.fucktube.com/categories/3/anime/videos/1)

Heavier means more pressure of the rubber against the surface available, so better traction. However, that generally only helps in acceleration, since the weight adds more to braking distance than the improved traction can overcome. Lateral grip for turning is a toss-up.

Isn't the Genesis Coupe ~1000lbs heavier as well? Or does that even have anything to do with it...(Noob thinking)

The base 2.0T Coupe weighs 3296lbs, so roughly 275lbs more weight

wow cars are becoming a pig...

That new CR-Z is such a disappointment.... I read somewhere....

1988 CRX Si... 100 HP, 2000 Lbs, 35 MPG

2011 CRZ.... 122 HP, hybrid engine, 2800 Lbs, 37 MPG

23 years of automotive engineering improvements, and this is all Honda can muster. It's going to be such an epic fail of a car... It's not comeback!! :(

Dimensions are all wrong too.. if you look at the side.. the car has a HUGE overhang, like the Galant, and the rear is way too big and high...

last yr i drove a ford escape v6 4x4 it was a fine winter car. but comparing it to a ford focus with winter tires this yr. the focus is much easier to control when it starts sliding due to it being much lighter and has less momentum when sliding. the suv had higher limits but i wouldnt dare get it into a slide the few times i did i was barely able to get it back under control.

i feel far more comfortable in a light weight car. im having tonnes of fun this year chasing hummers and big 4x4 trucks and over taking them on the snow covered twist country roads.

Yeah... but I bet that new CR-Z has tuns of safety equipment like airbags and a much better 'crash safety rating'.


wow cars are becoming a pig...

That new CR-Z is such a disappointment.... I read somewhere....

1988 CRX Si... 100 HP, 2000 Lbs, 35 MPG

2011 CRZ.... 122 HP, hybrid engine, 2800 Lbs, 37 MPG

23 years of automotive engineering improvements, and this is all Honda can muster. It's going to be such an epic fail of a car... It's not comeback!! :(

Dimensions are all wrong too.. if you look at the side.. the car has a HUGE overhang, like the Galant, and the rear is way too big and high...

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/anrobin4/Stuck.jpg

Long story short...couldn't get up the off-ramp during the huge winter storm in Virginia...car got plowed over and and over again...and the next day had to go with a friend to get it out. Sickening...mostly because it ended up tearing off my Burnout lip. Kill me.