(G) All hail the Mighty Barchetta!

hope you had loads of brandy inside to keep you warm, glad you didnt take the B

Another happy B driver in this weather. Plenty of snow packed uncleared roads earlier this week which B handled with aplomb. Usual problems with frozen handbrake (cured by leaving in gear), stuck handles (cured with an old library card) and now frozen shut doors (cured with a bit of effort!) easily worked around, and on the road she has been predictable and reliable.

Am constantly amazed at the lack of patience some people have though. I don't care if they feel "safe" at the speed they're driving at, nothing they can do will make me go any faster than I feel safe at.

Did park the B 1.5miles from home on Tuesday night when the hill near us had turned to ice. Other drivers were "going for it", and whilst I had no doubts that B would make it up, I wasn't so sure that a nutter wouldn't come the other way and slam into me. For a pleasant 1.5 mile walk in the snow I wasn't going to risk someone else bumping into me!

Matt

Anybody got a source of replacement handbrake cables that don't freeze? I had a pair on the coupe and they worked fine.

-8 here last night and no problem with LBB, she just goes and goes and the heater is the best one I've ever had in any car...

barch is in garage over winter...
not brandy, it was rum (a pirate in soul, arrrrrr) + coca cola.

My handbrake is now frozen in the off position. Car started immediately and I let her run for ten minutes. I agree with your comment about the heater and I also like the simplicity of the vents which makes them easy to direct onto the side windows. I'm impressed you're using LBB. I'm desperately regretting selling my A6 Allroad after four years of ownership and barely a heavy frost.

Steve

I'm waiting for some money to come through to buy a van for the business. More tax efficient, diesel etc and less vulnerable to knackers in West Dublin..not the same street cred for stealing a Focus van (I hope)..Then LBB can snooze happily in the shed til spring. I don't like abusing her in the snow and slush.

Be interesting to see how a modern wagon behaves in the snow.

Cleverest thing I ever did (apart from getting Mrs B to marry me) was the hard top..the thought of -8 blasting through the shot holes and tears in the plastic roof makes me goollies want to drop off...

I agree about the impatience Matt. I live on the A6105 and today the road is down to one lane. HGV's have been struggling badly on 6" hard packed snow and ice and have tried to operate a one way system, using CB radios to wait while a number of trucks came the opposite way. Car drivers simply refused to wait and squeezed past the line of trucks, only to meet the heavies coming the other way which had to stop and couldn't get moving again. This went on all day. Hope the car was ok when you got back to it.

Steve

Well, praise the B again. Mazda's gone and fuggered it's coil packs (you think Barchetta parts aren't cheap... )

Started first time out of the garage, running like a dream

You know, I was even starting to grab the Mazda door handles when I need to change gear I've had to rely on the B so much recently

Haha Pete. 'Er indoors', sitting in the passenger seat, has started pulling the handbrake on every time I come to a stop.

Had a strange experience in all the thick snow with a Honda Civic hybrid, fairly horrible thing in normal driving but pretty damn excellent on snow in electric mode..and silent, all I could hear was the wheels and the slush noises.

...and all the other drivers shouting, "smug hybrid owner". lol!