Hint, even a quater of an inch on an uncleared, unsalted, or unsanded road is enough to cause cars to slide at even low speeds.
I know my car can slide at even 5mph if the roads have snow on them. Makes it really really hard to stop, and I've had to go into emergency lanes because of it in the past.
When you can't slow down going fast does not work.
1/4 inch of snow tends to be worse for driving than 5".
It's all about predictability of what the contact patch will look like, and thus, how grip will be impacted. With only a little snow, you're going to have a lot of moments of varying grip levels between the four tires, where one has mostly slush, one has mostly pavement, one has half pavement and a patch of snow, etc. If you have a well-packed 5" of snow on the ground, grip is pretty consistent, and maneuverability is both predictable and evenly-reduced, meaning if you know how to drive, you'll actually drive better with fewer momentary losses of grip.
It's very hard to avoid the vehicle stepping out on you, to any degree, when all tires are riding on what are essentially different surfaces.
Very few cars have an amazing differential that can react to such variable surfaces like that, especially ones with all wheels driving the car.
Plus, cars have a low center of gravity, so such a car will always have better grip when maneuvering at speed, when compared to trucks or other vehicles with similar features.
Which is why I want a WRX.
Though really, I just want to get the hell away from winter. And oppressive summers. I figure that leaves me little choices, as where the hell am I supposed to go then (besides Cali) ?
Facebook
Twitter