Cue.... was the car run in, what's your starsign, what had you had for breakfast etc etc comments. People just don't get that other people might have driven better cars so are not as impressed by the Abarth and that for other people's purposes the 1.2 can be a better car.
First we have a million and one tyre threads, now even the tyre threads are turning into slagging off opportunities of the Abarth 500? I'm not going to comment on the 500 Vs the A500, because you all know i had a 1.4 Pop for a month which was garbage, and if you tried to corner at similar speeds to the Abarth, the engine cut out!
Anyway, maybe yesterday i found the reason to all this winter tyre talk. I live at the top of a long steep hill. After taking 10 minutes to get out my ungritted drive, i drove onto the what looked like gritted hill. However the snow/ice had frozen over the grit! As i approached the top of the hill, i was obviously only doing 10 MPH, but even then i gently braked which instantly turned the A500 into a sledge which started to gather momentum down the hill! I came off the brakes and put it into 1st gear, still no good, the wheels were just spinning on the ice, i was now going down the hill (which is around a 3rd of a mile long!) with no control over the car at all! I couldn't brake, or accelerate or turn at all, i just had to ride it out. And to make things worse, it's a single track road with stone walls either side and at the bottom, a small railing followed by a 30 ft drop onto a busy bypass! So i started looking for things to crash into, at the bottom of the hill i spotted my old teachers car "that'll have to do" i told myself, desperate to stop the runaway car! But as i came to the bottom of the hill, it gradually lost momentum and came to a gentle stop. Phew! Instantly rang the house and told my parents not to venture onto the main road!
I think the TTC helped a bit here, although i was completely helpless in my Abarth sledge, the front wheels were still barking individually, and the engine was revving a little too on it's own. It's funny, because crashes happen very quick, but this took forever to reach the bottom, i was 100% convinced i was going to crash, hence why i was looking for things to bring the car to a halt!
Yeah ABS is just crap on snow. What you want is for the wheels to lock and cause a buildup of snow against the front of the tyre because the snow on snow friction helps you to stop.
No you don't understand, this was a mixture of snow but mostly ice, using engine braking is pointless as it require the wheels, which just spun. We spent most of last night drifting around the car park/ice rink last night, you're suggesting i don't know how to pull out of a skid because I've never been on a track/skid pan?! Trust me mate, my roads offer plenty more experience than a poxy restricted track! And you don't need snow or ice to drift either!use engine braking to slow the car and only use the brakes to come to a complete stop, if you plan your moves you can get away without braking very much at all
be very gentle on all control inputs
if you had done a skid pan course or any track driving you would already be familiar with these driving techniques - hint
and fit winter tyres
There's not much you can do really, if the whole road is icy and your in a skid, you just follow the shape of the road whether you like it or not, and ride it out! Never brake though, you end up going faster, ski effect. Going down a steep hill on a narrow road with nothing to slow you down is not a nice feeling either, at one point i felt a little sick
Winter tyres....
Yes but they'd give better grip. They're not going to be perfect but they will help
And you can guarantee that DraigFlag will come and whinge about anyone talking about winter tyres and will use any opportunity to post a photo of his carBasically, whatever your question on the Fiat Forum, the answer is guarenteed to always be "winter tyres" at the moment it seems
