winter tires and never drove rwd.

chiblk370z

RWD is not a huge issue in snow. If it was, cops wouldn't drive Crown Vics.

Just drive smart and get some decent snow tires.

crash1369

Well this is a rude awakening, never drove a rear wheel drive car... For SHAME!

As long as you are confident in your driving ability you will be fine, you are on the right track in getting snow tires. Common sense will be your saving grace and if you think the weather is to bad or your not comfortable just stay home and wait it out. realistically the weather isn't really ever that bad out there, the bigger issue is just the tight spaces in NY more then anything. Personally I absolutely hate front wheel drive, Especially in the snow. Most people will tell you you're a fool becuase they don't know any better they just regurgitate the same misinformation other uninformed people tell them. Up until very recently everyone drove rear wheel drive cars all the time, and the majority of people still do. Some don't even realize it Most people don't ever turn their four wheel drive on, so their driving rear wheel drive and trucks are generally worse since they don't usually have much weight over the back wheels.

I would suggest the "Performance" snow tire category, since most of the time there won't be any snow anyway and then you can at least retain most of the Z's superior handling characteristics and enjoy your car a bit more.
As mentioned find an open area and practice! Turn off the VDC and just slide that bitch around for awhile so you know what to expect and can learn to control it. With the VDC on you won't have much to worry about but where FWD will just slide off the road a RWD car will want to spind around if you were to loose traction, but again that is what VDC is there to help prevent.

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im89

I know it's a damn shame...hopefully that will change. I thought about all of this and thought to myself there has to be a way. But it's kind of discouraging when you speak to people you know personally an they tell you they wouldn't do it.

crash1369

yeah I've been driving for 12 years now, the first time I ever drove was in the dead of winter, in a rear wheel drive car, that had absolutely no weight in the rear. And many sports cars since then, so I am not new to driving in inclement conditions or cars like this but still every person who has seen it tells me the same thing like I just can't possibly know what I am talking about.

Again common sense will be your biggest advantage, just be easy on the throttle. If you feel the back starting to slide that's your indication that you need to back off a little. Try and maintain momentum whenever you can it will help getting up hills and slippery stuff. The snow tires will help allot there though since they get much better traction then all terrains and especially the summer tires that come on these cars.

Another thing allot of people do and will suggest is adding weight in the rear of the car to help gain traction. You could probably put some of the flat type gym weights in the back where the spare tire would be or something of the sort. I don't ever put any weight in my cars though, something about loading up my tiny sports car like a mini truck and driving around like a low rider all winter...
Besides I like to swing my cars out sometimes

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c41006

I drove my old g35c in snow and ice with summer tires once... not fun but can be done

im89

So crash what do you feel safer driving a fwd with all season tires or rwd with snow tires?

crash1369

It really depends on the person and their driving ability. I hate fwd. Regardless of road conditions or tires.

Where fwd has an advantage, the reason that just about every car was changed to or designs as fwd lately is that the majority of the weight is over the drive wheels so there is some traction to be gained as well as the fact that the front of the car pulls the back so it is less likely to come around on you. There are also some economical benefits but that doesn't matter here. A fwd car will usually allow you to accelerate faster in the snow or bad weather as well as generally enable you to go much faster... faster then you should be going anyway. A good driver with common sense will drive to the conditions regardless, but I'm sure I don't need to tell you the majority of the people on the road are not good drivers so they just keep going faster until they slide off the road, or into something.

In a rwd car if you floor it from a stop in the snow or something you won't go anywhere, probably just spin around. Same deal if you try and take a turn to fast or otherwise may loose traction going up a hill or something. Either car will start to slide when you loose traction, with fwd that means you loose steering as well as traction, and usually slide off the road. In a rwd car the back will usually start to slide out before the front looses traction. As long as you understand what is going on and are capable of controlling your car that is your warning that you are at the limits of traction and should probably slow down and or ease off the gas.

For the most part your general snow driving practices are all the same, just be smooth and patient, no abrupt throttle, or brakes and just be alert and ready. Always watch for those ******** sitting there waiting to pull out in front of you
Snow tires will give you better traction in cold/ slippery conditions, more traction means the car is less likely to slip. The VDC will also help greatly in preventing the car from spinning out.

If your doubting your driving abilities it's likely you will hate it, but I doubt it. Once you make the switch you will never want to go back

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