General It's OK, I Survived!

[DavePanda100]

The massive snow fall here in Yorkshire today had me worried, was out in it at 6am this morning, first one on the roads where I live and after my last experience on slippy roads I was a bit on edge.

But, I survived and the 100hp is one piece.

And the F1 Eagles felt OK, no slippy sliding about.

 

[deeyup]

It's sunny here!

That's about right for us, sun in the winter, and **** down all summer

 

[ninehours]

Looks a bit like that here in Bristol, just took a drive to Tesco's no problems. Have only had my Panda 3 days so drove very carefully

 

[paulbfd]

Glad you made in one piece

I bottled it and got the GF to drive us in!

 

[drunknspike]

on and off all day had the day off sick

 

[izzy eckerslike]

I don't know how some of you would get on if we had some real snow like we used to get, I remember 1964 winter & it was 2 - 6ft deep & stayed around for weeks frozen solid.

We had a lightest sprinkle here today in Redditch & yet some of the local schools closed lol, serious danger for the kids in case they tripped over a snowball probably

 

[Gary]

Well went out at 5am this morning, first car in my road out

Down the slope to T junction at bottom and slid straight out onto road at bottom, good job no-one else around at that time of day

Still i got back and struggled a bit getting back up hill ( good old Eagle F1's)

But car is still in one piece :worship:

 

[trackdayqueen]

We had a similar amount of snow to you.

No problems in Manchester. Mind you some schoolkids launched a snowball at my car (which hit). Made me chuckle.

 

[ScoobyChris]

6" of snow (and still falling ) here and no real problems driving around on the ungritted stuff today on the F1's The 'V' tread also makes pretty tread prints too

Chris

 

[Little miss sunshine]

I picked up a friend to go play in the snow and I crashed into the curb and almost another car! I survived! Im not sure how the front passenger side wheel is though!!!

 

[DavePanda100]

I picked up a friend to go play in the snow and I crashed into the curb and almost another car! I survived! Im not sure how the front passenger side wheel is though!!!

I did that once, see what I did to mine here at this > Link

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Now, I'm sorry, but that's not snow...

Hertfordshire had quite a lot (between 5 and 8 inches across the county). I deliberately came home via the back lanes -- mainly snow covered and unsalted, no probs. I found myself 'rescuing' 4 lads and a Peugeot that had wedged itself between the banks at either side, blocking it. Tow rope, Panda 4x4 and the excellent Vredstein snow tyres and they were soon on their way -- surprised at being pulled out by 'just a Fiat Panda'. Couple of photos below taken in the same area

I have a great bit of video too but haven't yet signed up to YouTube -- bear with me

Pete the Hillhopper

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Here we go - few more photos taken this morning. These are an outlying car park where I work. The third one was taken on the way in -- I couldn't resit the irony of the slippery road sign obscured by snow! The BBC published this on the BBC London website earlier today - its about number 13 in the set here (but moves along each time a new one comes in at the front)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/image_galleries/snow_pictures_gallery_feb2009.shtml
These photos © Copyright Peter White 2009

 

[stephenbeetleman]

You've been waiting on that snow for a long time Pete! Good to hear you had some fun! Get registered to Youtube asap till we get a look at the vids too:worship:

 

[HP]

Now, I'm sorry, but that's not snow...

Hertfordshire had quite a lot (between 5 and 8 inches across the county). I deliberately came home via the back lanes -- mainly snow covered and unsalted, no probs. I found myself 'rescuing' 4 lads and a Peugeot that had wedged itself between the banks at either side, blocking it. Tow rope, Panda 4x4 and the excellent Vredstein snow tyres and they were soon on their way -- surprised at being pulled out by 'just a Fiat Panda'. Couple of photos below taken in the same area

I have a great bit of video too but haven't yet signed up to YouTube -- bear with me

Pete the Hillhopper

Proper Gentleman, good on you fella

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Thanks HP. See - there are still nice people out there. The lads all shook my hand and said thanks too -- in fact everyone seems to have been more friendly and polite today. Maybe it should snow more often.

And, now the video. I haven't worked out how to embed it here yet (I'll wait a clue from our Welsh viewers to guide me), so click the link below instead... [later - ah ha -- it did it for me!!]


(suggest turning the sound down a bit) First part is downhill but after crossing the river at 1min 18 sec, the rest is a long, steep uphill climb. But you wouldn't know it! No salt, and a road that probably only a dozen vehicles used during the day, I deliberately went this way home to test the little beast out. Don't think 4x4 really kicked in TBH, as the grip from those tyres is amazing anyway. Some is under trees so not much snow anyway, but when it opens up at the top there was more.... I have another bit too with impressive snow drift, but need to edit it to cut out the boring bits!

P

 

[Herts Hillhopper]

Here we go (the Hopper's on a roll today!) In this crudely edited second clip we're near a place called Sandridge, just north of St Albans, but today (2 Feb 09) it should be Snowridge. Check the snow drift on the left just a few seconds in (it's been snowploughed). The two mountain bikers seemed surprised to see me, and more surprised when I stopped for them! Note later the offroad excursion onto the grass to let the Toyota MR2 go by... the 4x4 certainly kicked in there.


Pete

 

[trackdayqueen]

Impressive Pete.

 

[EmmaM88]

wow I am amazed by how much grip you seem to have. I know the 4x4's are raved about and now I see why. The fact that you can drive at a decent speed and not be sliding anywhere. Thanks for the videos

 

[doctorchris]

Great videos, Pete, wish we had that much snow here in the "frozen" North.
You wonder whether, on the video in the dark, you were running in 4WD. Uphill and with that much snow you almost certainly were. It's just that the viscous coupling kicks 4WD in so quickly and with no fuss.
In 2WD you would have been fishtailing all the time and would not have been confident to drive at the speed you did.

Isn't it funny to watch the news and see all the high-performance, rear wheel drive cars with fat tyres fail to gain traction even on level roads, whilst some poor souls push them.

Even if you only have 2WD it makes sense for your car to be pulled rather than pushed, goes back to the days of horses, did a horse ever push a cart.
Rear wheel drive only arose because of longitudinally-aligned engines and the lack of engineering skill to transfer power to the front wheels. That those wheels also had to steer also made it difficult.
BMW and Merc continue to live in the engineering dark ages.