Snow driving

Maniac said:
...I only work 4 miles from where I live.
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Yeah I wouldn't bother TBH if that is all you have to do to get to work.

I saw the downside to having winter tyres this week, I was in the NE and it was chaos on Wednesday, winters do no good when you are just stuck in mile after mile of queuing traffic.
 
LewisZMR said:
Thanks for all the advise its helped lots, it's my only car so I have no choice but to drive it. What would be a good set of winter tyres to buy ? :)
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I'm on the second set of Pirelli Sottozero Serie II Winter 240 tyres at the moment in 225/45-18 size all around. The best winter tyre for a performance car that I have ever used (compared with Pirelli SnowSport, Michelin PA2, Bridgestone LM22 & LM25, Dunlop M3, Hankook W300). They also perform well when the temperature stays significantly above zero on wet or dry roads, so you don't have to keep swapping between winter and summer tyres in the autumn or spring.
 
LewisZMR said:
Thanks for all the advise its helped lots, it's my only car so I have no choice but to drive it. What would be a good set of winter tyres to buy ? :)
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I've got a set of Yoko W Drive and finding them excellent in the recent snow and ice here in the NE. Also find them very good in the wet and find it hard to get them to lose any grip going round roundabouts! Highly recommend them!

Sent from my Phablet
 
Drove my Focus through snow on the mountain road to Tregaron a few years back the further I went there was no way to turn around,the snow got deeper and the grip got less,skidded to a halt on a corner whilst trying to negotiate an abandoned car with the right front wheel hovering in the air over a ditch Italian job style,4pm on a Sunday afternoon in Feb.No houses for miles,no phone signal and no way of a tow truck getting there anyhow,managed to get going,frightened the life out of me and I swore NEVER AGAIN.
 
-6 last night, non gritted roads Z handled it with ease! Its more being used to it than anything, but winters do help but £1000 for tyres then if you have some nice alloys to buy another set for winter. Waste if the winter isnt bad but if it is a life saver. I would use a second car... skinny tyres. But treat it nice keep it in a high gear dont be stupid or blip the throttle, keep the speed down and it behaves itself.

But it can also be a little b*tch so just be careful last thing you want to do is write it off.
 
tomscott said:
-6 last night, non gritted roads Z handled it with ease! Its more being used to it than anything, but winters do help but £1000 for tyres then if you have some nice alloys to buy another set for winter. Waste if the winter isnt bad but if it is a life saver. I would use a second car... skinny tyres. But treat it nice keep it in a high gear dont be stupid or blip the throttle, keep the speed down and it behaves itself.

But it can also be a little b*tch so just be careful last thing you want to do is write it off.
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Just had my wheels refurbished got the car back today and it looks awesome and have decided to not risk driving it in the snow, so it's getting garaged and covered when the snow comes back! Dads off sick for a few months and gets his new bmw in January so he said he will take me to work when it snows, but saying that it will still be bad in a 3 series haha!
 
Winter tyres are not just for snow.

This is my first yr on winters and even in cold weather its quite amazing how well they grip compared to my vreds.

My vreds (rears covered under 500miles) were slipping and sliding all over the place in cold wet morning.

My winter falkens seem to trip the tc light, but no sliding at all.


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Ye winters work best in temps below 8deg, normal/performance tyres perform better in higher temps I have 19" and vreds but swapping back over to my 18" OEM with MPS just to protect the CSL from chips from salt etc only just got really cold the last 2 weeks. But I have the mini which is great in the bad weather, dont really like taking the Z out caus it gets covered in salt and get caught near a gritter with the low front end thats a repray in the spring :cry: especially with the Z being very susceptible to it.

Depends what your budget is and how many miles you do if I was doing a commute would be an absolute no brainer. Safety is paramount. Depends on your situ, also how used to driving in bad conditions you are, gets crap up here a lot so you learn faster I suppose, had many spirited drives on closed roads, ice, snow never really had a problem and never had winter tyres.

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BMW 320D Kirkston Pass, Cumbria by tom_scott88, on Flickr

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BMW Z4Mc Kirkston Pass by tom_scott88, on Flickr

Used to have a 3 series before my Z found that much worse tbh
 
Also had a 320D and I found it very good on snow or icy conditions. There is a "snow" mode by pressing the DTC button once (its in the instructions manual.

I can't belive anyone thinks the Z4 M is ay good. Front end grip is attrocious and the back steps out very easily with that short wheel base.
 
Winter tyres make a big difference but I find the biggest problem is lack of ground clearance especially if rutted ice which can damage the front spoiler very easily. For that reason I have decided not to get winters for the z4 I now have as I have a 4x4 which I use with winters.
 
When commuting in snow in my M3 a couple of years ago, I found that the biggest problem is the width of the trenches you have to dig behind the rear tyres to get out. Myself (and the security guard) had to dig 2 x 30 metre trenches to allow me to get out of the work car park. :(

Once the snow has settled and frozen hard again, it makes cars like the Z impossible to use on summer tyres. I was able to get out of my M3 and watch as it spun the rear wheels at tickover without it going anywhere.
 
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