Winter driving tips

[hoff]

I got my Supra in February. If you recall, there was a LOT of snow in February, and I had to drive it back down from Manchester in blizzard like conditions. The car aquaplaned so much...I'll admit I've never felt so nervous in my life.

 

Thats when I got mine. My first rear wheel drive car and it snowed like hell with in a couple of days. It took 1.5 hours to do a 10 minute drive. I was shitting myself. It turned out ok but I dont fancy it again TBH. I had 235/17 rear and 225/17 front tyres then. I now have 235/35/19 fronts and 265/30/19 rears. Im thinking off putting the old wheels back on and some suitable tyres just incase.

[Class One]

The key to getting the best from your car is being smooth and balanced.

 

You have to boss the car, not the other way round.

 

Your inputs, whether it be steering, accelerating or braking should be smooth, progressive and balanced including your gearchanges if you are driving a manual.

 

Drive to the conditions and to your abilities. The trap with this car, is that it can make you feel like a driving god, when you are infact a mere mortal, because it's so easy to drive fast.

 

Think of places on the road where there are likely to be areas of reduced grip. Roundabouts, exits to petrol stations, shaded areas on the road from trees (microclimates) manhole covers, overbraiding, expansion joints on bridges, concrete road surfaces,white lines etc.

 

If you see standing water at speed (like on a motorway) then there's a chance you may aquaplane. This is where the tyre can no longer disperse the amount of water its being asked to and a layer of water builds up between the tyre and the road surface, and you literally "plane" ontop. If this hapens then come off the gas and hold your wheel tight and try and keep you car in a straight line.

 

Take time to allow your tyres and brakes get up to operating temperatures. When on long runs on the motorways (especially in the rain) be aware that when leaving the motorway on the deceleration lane, your brakes might not be as efficient if you haven't used them in a while, so allow extra time for stopping. Brake progressively, ie apply a small amount of pressure to get them to start biting, then increase the pressure for good solid progressive braking and as you come to a stop, ease off.

 

Cornering. Always follow the rules that you should be able to stop in the distance you can see on your own side of the road. If you are on a narrow or single track road, then half that distance.

 

Make sure that you enter the corner at the correct speed, ie have all your braking done before entering the corner and

d r i v e through the corner, on a balanced throttle.

 

A good guide for speed is your limit point or vanishing point. This is the point in the distance where the two sides of the road meet and you can see any further. As you approach the bend, the limit point will usually be coming towards you, so you need to slow down until it is at a constant. As the bend opens up, so can your throttle, but do so progressivley and smoothly. Floor it (especially in an auto) and you could easily find yourself backwards in a ditch. If you taking a left hand bend, then position you car out towards the offside of your lane. If taking a right hand bend, position yourself towards the nearside of your lane. It helps give just that little bit of extra vision through the bend. Also think about looking laterally (to your sides). Look at telegraph poles, they usually follow the path of a road. Try and anticipate where the road is going, and plan and give yourself enough time to react to a hazard.

 

Try and have your wheels straight before giving it some proper beans.If you find yourself barreling into a corner too fast, try and get as much braking done before turn in, and then give the car some gas. This makes the back end sit down giving grip to the rear and steering to the front. If you brake, then you'll plough straight on as your front tyres will be having too much asked of them and understeer straight on into the only solid object you can see.

 

When overtaking, be aware that when moving out, you may lose traction going over the centre white lines in the road.

So instead of flooring it and then moving out, position yourself behind the car infront at a sufficient distance so that you can see infront,check your mirror, then move out into the oncoming lane to see clearly infront. Have a good look for junctions and other hazards ahead, check and see if there is a stop over gap infront of the car you're about to pass if it's safe to go, then go, if not come back in.

 

An auto will *not* suddenly kickdown. It will only kickdown if you ask the car to. Find a piece of flat road and experiment to find the kickdown point with your car, get a feel for it. In autos, MANU mode is good to use although it will (in a TT) still kickdown but you have to floor it to the kickdown switch to acheive this.

 

In a TT, be aware of your no1/no2 transition point. This is usually ~3600rpm-4000rpm and if you are mid bend then you may find yourself in trouble, especially if you are BPU. The transition from 0.7bar to 1.2 bar can be full on.

 

Skids are in 9 cases out of 10 caused by the driver, going too fast for the conditions, or asking too much of the tyres. Braking too hard, or cornering too hard will cause a skid, and so can fluid such as deisel or ice also cause a loss of traction. If you find yourself in a skid, steer into it and come off the gas slightly (not completely) otherwise you may suddenly find grip and go into a pendulum and swing your back end back and forth. Hard to get back under control if that happens.

 

The use of traction control can be debated for years and years, and many members seek to either drive with it off, or fit an aftermarket system such as RLTC. My opinion is, that TC is there for a reason, otherwise MR T wouldn't have spent the money that they did on developing the system. Yes it is crude and can (on occasions) be too intrusive, bit it's also a guide that perhaps you've overcooked it and need to slow down. I drive with mine ON except at a junction where I might need a bit of power to pull out. I have experienced, first hand the over intrusiveness of the stock TC at junctions, and IMO it can on occasion intervene to the point of being dangerous; for example at a junction on a hill turning right but at all other times, I drive with it on.

 

For those members with NA's that don't have ABS fitted, then you might find on occasion that you need to steer whilst braking heavily to avoid a hazard and you'll find your wheels lock up. Cadence braking may help, but it does take alot of practice to acheive. Cadence braking is the practice of releasng your brakes on and off during a front wheel lock up. You brake, your wheels lock and you skid. On a wet road this is the worst thing tht can happen to you especially if there is a hazard in front. By releasing your brakes for perhaps half a second and steering then braking again, then releasing etc etc might just help you avoid hitting that hazard. As I've said it takes lots of practice, and it's hard to convince your brain to release the brakes when you want to stop.

 

Mostly, it's down to common sense. You can't drive these cars flat stick everywhere, but there is no reason why you can't enjoy your car during the winter months, just respect the car and the conditions.

[stevie_b]

Excellent write-up Doug!

[Daston]

Good write up doug. For those who havent got a copy get "Road Craft" it explains all the stuff that Doug has said and is written by the bib class 1 drivers

[Guigsy]

great. exactly what i was looking for

 

i have a set of 16" stock jspec wheels. is it worth me swapping them over if it gets snowy? Or is it not going to make any difference? i have goodyear eagle F1's on my wheels atm. and the ones on the 16"s are just crappy tyres.

[RedM]

Can we sticky Doug's post or at least put it into the forum knowledge base?

[Class One]

I expect so.