VNTs In Winter?

[Whorse]

My TBI Lebaron is dying quickly, and it looks like the VNT Vert will be my winter car now.

Does anyone have any experience with VNTs in the winter or any tips? It does get reasonably cold here and I don't want to be overspooling it all the time. I generally drive pretty easily on my way to work, so it shouldn't be too bad but I do have a few hills, and plus it's a turbo and we all know how we drive them.

[Will Martin]

Feather the gas brother, that's all you can do! LOL

[cordes]

Feather the gas brother, that's all you can do! LOL

No kidding, I cant immagine trying to get around in one that will lay any real power down while there is snow on the ground. That would be pretty rough I would guess.

[Whorse]

Well it's not the snow, not quite that cold, but when it is that cold there's usually ice, which sucks in a 3500 pound convertible.

[vxvxAndrewxvxv]

I always played the game of, see how fast I could get my tires going on the ice. Usually pussed out at about 70.

[cordes]

I always played the game of, see how fast I could get my tires going on the ice. Usually pussed out at about 70.

If you do that for more than 4-5 seconds there is a strong possibility of them going fast enough to fail from centrifugal force.:eek:

[Subliminal]

I drove my VNT in the winter with no real problems. Sure, you've got the normal 'oops, it's too slick for that much boost!' problem, but fwd really helps a guy out a lot in that respect. No accidental spinning around in circles. More of an 'accidental front end going a little bit sideways towards the edge of the road, wait, i let off the gas and i can steer again' sort of thing.

[Whorse]

I guess my biggest concern was traction because of the weight and overspooling because of the temperature, which combined could be a bit interesting.

[Subliminal]

Yeah, but you've got all those speakers and amps to slow you down...

grin

[Whorse]

Yeah I wonder what that all weighs combined. I took the amps out and put the sub in my commuter car for now. I'm going to do a full sound system wiring job coming up soon and use some nice thick gauge wire from work. Hopefully I'll have it wired so it's semi-permanent but very easy to swap out amps and speakers if I upgrade.

[Whorse]

In the recent snow I found out why wide all season tires aren't the best. Great in straight lines, bad for corners. The heavy car just wants to go straight all the time. The back end was stable as long as I wanted it to be, but I need better tires for snow (which we've had twice this year, so it's tough to figure out for tires).

[ShelbyZD]

I fail to see what the problem is. Its a FWD.. the only thing better in the snow is AWD.


all season tires

No all season tire is good in the snow. Do yourself a favour at pick up some winter tires. Even 3/4 bald winter tires are better than all seasons. Granted.. if you only get snow a couple times a year you'd be ok with all seasons.. just be careful. Don't go too fast around turns and give yourself extra breaking time... and don't hammer on the breaks.

[Whorse]

I fail to see what the problem is. Its a FWD.. the only thing better in the snow is AWD.


The problem with FWD is that all your traction is on two wheels, regardless of how much weight is over them. If they don't grip, you have a hard time controlling the direction of your vehicle.

Normally getting grip isn't bad, except that with the cold weather associated with snow, the VNT has a tendency to spool up extremely quickly, so even at low or part throttle, the wheels are seeing torque very quickly, almost immediately after shifting gears.

[ShelbyZD]

The problem with FWD is that all your traction is on two wheels, regardless of how much weight is over them. If they don't grip, you have a hard time controlling the direction of your vehicle.

:confused: I think that holds true for any vehicle. :) I'd wager its much easier to control a FWD whereas the the front tires are doing the propelling as it would be to drive a RWD where the Front tires can't do anything should they loose traction.

[Whorse]

I would say most drivetrains have pros and cons. My friend at work has a turbo AWD Eclipse that drives great in the snow, even with his low profile summer tires, but it eats gas and seems to lag once it's off the line.

[turbovanman²]

Buy and OBX and get some real snow tires, good as gold, :nod:

[Whorse]

I might be buying a 79 golf instead :P