Hi' We have only had 4CM of snow up here but only a little thawing.
'A' roads and most B Roads are not bad.
The mass of country roads, which dominate Rutland, are dangerous though,
with ice and compact snow.
Now many drivers are under 35 years old and have no experience of snow
down here. Many will therefore enter hedges/ditches/fences as a
consequence they may dent the car but they have mobile phones and will
generally come out physically unscathed - mentally scarred though which
is all to the good.
The older generation put their faith in expensive 4*4's (Chelsea
tractors) but driving these on snow/ice needs experience. Again the
hedge beckons.
I reckon a light Ford Fiesta (Manual) to be the best vehicle.
I still have not broken anything.
Cheers
Paul
--
'Wisest are they that know they do not know.' Socrates.
Paul Bartlett FRMetS
www.rutnet.co.uk Go to local weather

Hi Paul,

I agree 100%. Good experience. I personally re-learned to drive on snow
and ice when I moved up here to Dartmoor nearly 4 years ago. But I
learned the hard way by pranging my Fiesta, but only once. Now I treat
the conditions with respect and am dismayed when I see idiots racing
along on icy moorland roads. Always still a bit scared descending 1:6
snow covered roads though so try to avoid doing it if possible.

Will.
--

My 18 year old didn't need ice to prove how long it takes to stop - a
greasy road was enough for him on Christmas Eve to slide with all
wheels locked into the car in front.

What is particularly irksome is that as a Christmas present, we had
already booked a skid pan session for him early February. I suspect
that had he already done that training before last Saturday, the
incident might well have been avoided.

Jack

Paul Bartlett wrote:
Hi' We have only had 4CM of snow up here but only a little thawing. 'A'
roads and most B Roads are not bad.
The mass of country roads, which dominate Rutland, are dangerous though,
with ice and compact snow.
Now many drivers are under 35 years old and have no experience of snow
down here. Many will therefore enter hedges/ditches/fences as a
consequence they may dent the car but they have mobile phones and will
generally come out physically unscathed - mentally scarred though which
is all to the good.
The older generation put their faith in expensive 4*4's (Chelsea
tractors) but driving these on snow/ice needs experience. Again the
hedge beckons.
I reckon a light Ford Fiesta (Manual) to be the best vehicle.
I still have not broken anything.
Cheers
Paul

One of the more informative aspects of the Finnish road camera network
is how quiet/deserted their roads are when it's snowing. Perhaps a
lesson we need to learn is to stay at home when the weather is poor;
IMHO, modern hyper-mobility is optional 99% of the time.

--
Chris
http://www.ivy-house.net
Swaffham, Norfolk

wrote:
My 18 year old didn't need ice to prove how long it takes to stop - a
greasy road was enough for him on Christmas Eve to slide with all
wheels locked into the car in front.

What is particularly irksome is that as a Christmas present, we had
already booked a skid pan session for him early February. I suspect
that had he already done that training before last Saturday, the
incident might well have been avoided.

Jack


Hope he is OK; cars at least can be repaired/replaced.

I have two teens in the house in the early stages of driving. I find
some of the more subtle concepts of driving quite hard to get across;
such as "Drive at a speed at which you can stop in the space you see to
be clear". You need some experience of different driving conditions in
order to know how that "feels".

Good Luck!

--
Chris
http://www.ivy-house.net
Swaffham, Norfolk

Paul Bartlett wrote:

Hi' We have only had 4CM of snow up here but only a little thawing.
'A' roads and most B Roads are not bad.
The mass of country roads, which dominate Rutland, are dangerous though,
with ice and compact snow.
Now many drivers are under 35 years old and have no experience of snow
down here. Many will therefore enter hedges/ditches/fences as a
consequence they may dent the car but they have mobile phones and will
generally come out physically unscathed - mentally scarred though which
is all to the good.
The older generation put their faith in expensive 4*4's (Chelsea
tractors) but driving these on snow/ice needs experience. Again the
hedge beckons.
I reckon a light Ford Fiesta (Manual) to be the best vehicle.
I still have not broken anything.
Cheers


I hadn't driven my current car on snow before today. It's an Audi S3 Quattro
(4WD, traction control, ESP etc). I was able to accelerate on sheet
ice/snow faster than a ford fiesta could on dry tarmac.

The problem with this is it gives false confidence as cornering and braking
are only helped a little by electronic aids.



--
Brian Wakem
Email: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/b.wakem/myemail.png

Yes he's fine as is 15 year old brother who was with him. The younger
boy insisted that big brother had not been driving too close to the one
in front(!?) That brotherly support is touching. Most of the time is
spent squabbling.

Jack

Brian Wakem wrote:


I hadn't driven my current car on snow before today. It's an Audi S3 Quattro
(4WD, traction control, ESP etc). I was able to accelerate on sheet
ice/snow faster than a ford fiesta could on dry tarmac.

The problem with this is it gives false confidence as cornering and braking
are only helped a little by electronic aids.


I have the pleasure of driving the equivalent Volkswagen - The Passat
4Motion Turbo during my working nights in the Emergency Services. The
cars perform really well in the snow - but only experience tells you how
far you can "push" it.

Quite a good experiment is to turn OFF the ESP for a while and do "seat
of the pants" driving for a while!

I have no doubt that the foresight of my local NHS trust to provide the
4Motions has certainly helped save lives (patients and crews!) in these
rare but dangerous conditions.

Only drive if you HAVE to - is my advice.