Hey guys I just joined here so i'll start off by talking a little about me. I am 18 years old and currently live in NY, I've been saving up for around 2 years for an RX8 and finally had enough money to buy one (i've test drove at least 10 RX8's in 2 years, never in the snow though). I am sure you guys hear this question a 100 times but I need to know how the RX8's preform in the snow. I plan on investing around $800 in snow tires and the car will be parked outside at all times (i live in a dorm so no garage). I was always a careful driver in the snow with my parents SUV's so I can handle driving extra slow). The problem is I am not a millionaire so pouring thousands of dollars into this car due to damages frequently is not an option. My 2004 RX8 has 85,000 miles (bought it used on craigslist, good carfax report). Any information would help. This is my only car so I will drive it all year round. Usually the highways/thruways are plowed so i'd usually be driving in around 1-3" of snow. I also plan on putting sand bags in the drunk.

 

Car should be fine in the snow if you change the tires. You have my blessing young one.

 

Head on over to the "Wheels and Tires" Section and read the stickies. That should answer your questions

 

Dubble, the car will be fine through snow if you have good winter tires. Just don't accelerate crazily and you'll be perfectly fine! I drove it last winter in Canada, and it was amazing.

One thing to note is that PLEASE make sure you get your car rustproofed properly, I drove mine only 1 winter and rust started coming out bad. So make sure you rustproof it, given it will be out the whole winter (just like mine was). Rear wheel wells will rust, trunk lid will rust, etc.

 

Well....if it's a 2004 then........I dunno, you might be in trouble in the snow. Just playin, but get some good winter tires.

 

Where in NY? If you have snow tires, your main issue will be clearance, especially if your car is lowered. With snow tires, your car will do better than crossovers with all-seasons in the snow.

 

i was asking the same question a month ago, and the guys at tirerack said

"I always tell my clients that I would feel safer in a rear wheel drive car with snow tires on than a all-wheel drive vehicle with all season tires. "

this really convinced me, and i'm ordering some blizzak ws70's this weekend (i hear they're the best)

 

^ have them, love them

 

Thanks everyone for the replies and I live in Buffalo, NY. I'll keep you guys updated on how it goes!

 

HEHEHe
You get all of Toronto's snow

 

Winter is coming...but won't ever need snow tires here in Vegas and i don't have to spend for extra tires like the rest of you...lol

 

As what others said, winter tire is a must and know how to turn-off the DSC(if ever you stuck on snow)..

 

You should be fine with snow tires, Id put some weight in the trunk also, 2 25lb. bags of cat litter should do it, just dont try to plow thru any high drifting snow or you will get hung up due to the ground clearance.
I congratulate you on your excellent taste in automobiles.

 

The only extra weight in the car that is needed for snow is the driver.

Adding 50lbs of weight to a 3,000lb car is a 1.6% increase in weight. People who do this are ACTUALLY attempting to increase the pounds per square inch of the tire to the snow. Greater pressure means greater traction.

Going from a 225 width tire to a 205 width tire is a 8.88% decrease in surface area of the tire to the snow, and with the same weight spread over the reduced contact patch, a roughly 12.1% increase in the pressure of the tire to the snow.

And that's just some napkin math to the common 17x7 205/50r17 winter package people go with without factoring in the added benefit of narrower tires cutting through the snow better. So, if you want to add weight to get the same increase of effectiveness as going to that tire package (without going to the tire package), add 363lbs of weight to the car.

2 burly guys should be about right.




Edit:
I'm going into my 5th New England winter with my 8, and I absolutely love it. I wouldn't trade it for a traditional "winter vehicle" at all. The number of times I've driven around stuck trucks, SUVs, and even an occasional Jeep keeps me laughing all winter. If the snow on the road is too high for me to clear (stock height), it's because the state is closed down and the plows aren't out, which means I don't have to go anywhere anyway.

 

I have a 2004 GT and it's actually pretty good in the snow with snow tires. In fact it's quite stable due to the 50/50 weight distribution (ie: rear won't spin out unless you have DSC off).

You won't run into the harsh temperatures I have (-30c) so you will be fine.

 

TL/DR: do what RIWWP said: get narrower winter tires.

IMHO, adding weight to a car to increase the force of gravity isn't all that helpful as the mass affects centripetal force just as much. When you consider that the force of kinetic friction is modified by µ (coefficient of friction, this multiplied by the normal force [which is itself a function of gravity]) while the centripetal force isn't, you can see that it can actually do more harm than good.

For instance, if the mass of the car is 1370kg (~3000lb) that means that the force of gravity is roughly 9.8m/s^2 X 1370kg = 13,426N (N = newtons or kg*m/s^2). The "normal force" (the ground pushing backup against the tires) is equal to that in the opposite direction. The force of friction would then be µ X 13,426N. Per this website, the coefficient of friction between rubber and wet snow is between 0.3 and 0.6 so we'll use a median value of 0.45. So, that would mean that the force of friction of the car on snow would be about 6,000N.

Centripetal force (the force opposing friction when traveling in a circle), however is going to be the mass of the car X (tangential velocity)^2 / radius. No modifier here.

So, for every kg you add to your car, you increase friction as though you only added .45kg but increase centripetal force by 1kg. You actually lose turning ability by adding weight.

This matches up with the conventional wisdom regarding race cars: you want a lighter race car rather than a heavier one due to acceleration in both strait line as well as turns. The coefficient of friction works the same way but to different degrees on all surfaces.

People add weight in pickup trucks and similar to bias traction to one end of the vehicle due to the suboptimal distribution of weight from the factory.