Snow.

[Everton]

It's mainly down to the driver. My golden rules for driving in snow are:

Try to avoid using the brakes at all - engine braking is your friend

Leave plenty of space between you and the car in front. If some plank pulls in front of you, back off and create the space again

Treat the loud pedal like it's an egg

Smooth gentle steering

Works for me

 

[V6SINGH]

It's mainly down to the driver. My golden rules for driving in snow are:

Buy an ugly Zetec Cougar with a 4 x 4 conversion

Have it resprayed one colour

Have wheels refurbed like new in bright white (aka steal a new set hahahahaha)

Laugh at the idiots that think they can drive in the snow but can't and get stranded as I sail past in my fourby and they can see their pathetic reflection in my shiny paintwork

13 year old Ford indeed!!

Works for me

Bit harsh John!! True though

 

[Mako]

It's mainly down to the driver. My golden rules for driving in snow are:

Try to avoid using the brakes at all - engine braking is your friend
Leave plenty of space between you and the car in front. If some plank pulls in front of you, back off and create the space again
Treat the loud pedal like it's an egg
Smooth gentle steering
Works for me

Absolutely can't argue with any of that at all. Ignoring the stopping disatance thing for a minute, I'd say that the most important piece of advice there is to be smooth - on all the controls. So when you inevitably screw up (because we're human) or conditions do something unpredictable, you've got plenty of time and options to do something about it.

Unlike the bloke I saw in 2010 coming downhill to a roundabout in a Clio who was too fast, braked too late, and ended up entering the roundabout backwards before completing a full 720. How he didn't hit the curb is a mystery.

Or the girl who took a 90 degree bend, realised she was going too fast and slid downhill sideways. Cars pulled onto the verge as she went past with her face in her hands, sobbing her heart out. I LOLed, which makes me a bad person.

Bit harsh John!! True though

ROFL

 

[ggsumo]

The biggest issue with the cat in the snow is .................................................. the ineptitude of other drivers!!!!

I pmsl last year as a pikey flatbed pulled out in front of me to go up the hill, only to find himself sliding sideways down the next side road. I gave the royal wave as i cruised past in my cat.

 

[kittylover]

It's mainly down to the driver. My golden rules for driving in snow are:

Try to avoid using the brakes at all - engine braking is your friend

Leave plenty of space between you and the car in front. If some plank pulls in front of you, back off and create the space again

Treat the loud pedal like it's an egg

Smooth gentle steering

Works for me

Agreed

Only 2 very minor incidents in snow in over 20 years driving - which is less than my incidents in the absence of snow

 

[jamie_duff]

On the subject of engine braking... I've got to admit I've never got on with it.

I'd strongly argue in favour of allowing the same amount of space as you need for engine braking, but I prefer to use the brakes and declutch at the same time. On some of the slipperiest winters I've driven in, I found that trying to use engine braking resulted in loss of traction on the driven wheels. In one particular episode I found myself slowing for a junction on a heavily cambered road and when I tried to engine brake like 'the book' says I started sliding downhill towards the kerb as the front wheels were rotating at a speed which suited the engine, not at a speed which suited the car.

To avoid this, ever since I have declutched and used the brake pedal. The braking force is uneven front to rear, but at least it is shared amongst all the wheels unlike engine braking on a 2WD car. It's absolutely not a means of driving normally, but I have found it a better way (for me) to retain control of the car under extremely slippery conditions. Clearly, you have to apply the brake pedal as though there's a butterfly on it which you wish to survive, but with a delicate touch you can use the traction available from all your wheels to help slow you down.

Of course, the moral of the story is "just do whatever the feckity feck you like, so long as you've left more room than you thought you needed (that's the difference between knowledge and experience, experience being knowledge 5 seconds after you needed it) and you're not expecting the car to offer you hellish much in the way of traction or grip".

Some people just seem to prefer the techniques of "tree braking" and "ditch braking", which seem to be the most popular techniques with large SUV drivers.

 

[spjmorris]

ditch braking

My Brother destroyed his X-Type in this fashion, one Boxing day many years ago.
slid it backwards into a ditch, had the wife and kid in the car too, not nice.
got the family home and came back to the car to find it had been narrowly missed by an X5 and something else

Personally I am constantly amazed at peoples ineptitude when there's a sprinkling of snow on the ground, if you can't do it just stay at home and let the rest of us crack the F on!

 

[Dan1991]

It's more driver than car, but they aint bad.