Davut

Any interesting stories to share?

Many of us including myself have said that the RX-8 is good and fun in the snow.

But yesterday I almost got stuck. Basically I think the 8 is good in the snow except when it's uphill and u're trying to do a standing start.

Yesterday on one uphill section of the DVP during the traffic jam, I was stuck.
The car wouldn't move foward and kept going to the right. It was like the car was travelling horizontally to the right!!

I had to reverse back down the slope (lucky there was a merging lane there), and tried a few times to finally literally sliding back into the traffic and a 45 degree angle.

It was so bad I thought there was no way out of it and the car kept going to the right and was almost driving itself into the guard rails.

Whew!

Smokin_LaLa

If you want better traction to get uphill in the snow try turning off your DSC

climacus

Same here, my car kept wanting to oversteer to the right (the passenger side) in low traction condition. Do you guys find the same thing, or is my rear toe alignment off?

Miker

I was stuck in snow in a Green P lot and remembered reading here to turn off the Traction and DSC. It helped but I really had to spin to get onto St. Clair. From there I found myself moving forward but with the ***-end sticking out...it was comical except for the pissing my pants part. 7:30 at night at St. Clair at Yonge looked like it hadn't seen a plow or salt truck all day.

On the DSC/TC part...why do you have to turn the ignition off and back on to re-enable both? DSC works on/off with the button. Why not the traction control?

DarkBrew

The car follows the road crown.
I left early and took it easy. Traction was low but I didn't see any cars having an easy time.
Uphill starts are a bitch and yes shutting off DSC does help.

Paddyz

The Blizzaks made the trip home a breeze. I had to try to get the car loose and then the DSC would bring it right back in line (no fun).

A previous respondent is correct about the Road Crown or slope to the right causing the rear to drift right while searching for traction. If you were in the left lane of a multi lane street you would drift left in the same manner.

Regards.

Paddyz

Davut

I did turn off the DSC, in fact I always turn it off when it snows, because I find it more dangerous if left on. When the car oversteers, and u're countersteering to correct it, and then BOOM the computers kick in and all of a sudden u're over-correcting and heading towards the nearest curb.

The tail always going to one side or another is also because of the LSD, which is stupid because it makes the car go to the side with LESS traction. For example, like yesterday, I was on the right lane, and the right rear wheel is slipping, so the LSD shifts the power to the left wheel, which pushes the tail to the right. Similarly when I was in the middle lane once when my left wheel spinned, causing the tail to go more to the left...

red8gt

well i already posted this, but yesterday my traction light went on and then the traction control wouldn't work at all (so i didn't have to worry about turning it off, it did it for me lol). But like most rear wheel drive cars you will find that trying to start from a standing point will cause the back end to push to the right, should've seen my camero 1 year, had it going side ways up a hill in newmarket. I found the 8 to actually be pretty damn good in the snow even with the traction control not working.

Neo

I miss driving rwd cars in the winter!
I have to deal with dreaded understeer. Damn fwd cars!!

Going sideways is the only way to travel in the snow...

spd frk

My car was fine in the snow yesterday. It was deep up around Brampton, Kleinburg, Aurora too. My only close call was I got caught at a light where Queen St (Brampton), cross the 427, partway up at a redlight. When I started I barely got through the intersection before it was yellow, I was spinning lightly all through to the end of 4th, and I was only going 30km/h

Today I took my mom's truck instead, because of all the ice.

delhi

Always use winter tires with RWD!

Davut

You think I (or we) were using summer tires??? lol

ChrisP

I am neither particularly exerienced, nor adventurous, when it comes to snow and ice. There are two conditions that I have discovered the 8 doesn't like (or maybe it's just me ). Heavy rutted slush and deep tracks (with frozen snow between them). In both cases the front end is just pushed around - probably because it's very light. With the deep tracks, there's the added enjoyment of scraping a layer of the stuff off with the bottom of the car. Having already had a couple of thousand $$ worth of damage underneath from hitting "something" on the 401, I'm a bit sensitive about that. However, unplowed snow, packed snow and even this morning's layer of ice are just fine.

Pulling away on a slope in this muck seems to need the gentle touch. On some ice once, I tried pulling away in 2nd gear (as I had learned many years ago) only to discover that doing that fooled the traction control completely. One of these days (when there aren't 17,000 other commuters around) perhaps I should give it a go with the traction control off.

R888

Yesterday it was fun...

Here is my experience with heavy snow on the road, I always leave 2 to 3 cars spaces in front of me when I saw the uphill is coming. That is because I need the speed to move up, but sometimes it won't work due to the fact that other cars will cut into my lane.

But if that happens, I will release on the gas and step it back constanly to pressure the rear tires can grip and spin on the road before I got stuck. Keep in mind I always do have the DSC on, thats kinda of different with you guys. But it helps me a lot.

The worst thing is when u stop in the middle of the uphill, its very hard to push the car moving forward. Since you know that automatic will start moving forward when you release the gas. So I just let it moves by itself or step, release and repeat.

I guess my driving style are bit different with the MT drivers.

Anyways, I always have fun on snow and took me 2 hrs sitting in my rx8 to get home.

Remember always stay in left lane, why? Because if....you can move the car out of your lane and get into the share empty lane immediately. That means open spaces are very important to avoid 45 degrees moving car and for your rear bumper!

BTW, I also order the Wed Sport SA70 today...he ha! Back to the topic ! SNOW STORM!