skivittlerjimb
Well-known member
Finally bust my ice driving cherry with the GVR4 last Saturday. Gotta say, even with too much roll stiffness, moderately worn studded snows, and too low a ride height and too high a spring rate, this car is a blast to drive on ice.
The winter up here hasn't been wickedly cold, but it has been consistently cold and snowy for over a month now. Lots of nights below zero and not too much in the way of wind mean a lot of the ponds and lakes up here have well over 18" of ice. One lake just 3-4 miles from my house has a perfect ramp access and tons of flat ice. Add a sturdy plow truck and lots of like minded folks and you have yourself a 3/4 mile, 8 or 9 turn ice course complete with 2' soft snow banks on either side.
It was easy to get overconfident quickly. There is so very little grip, even with studded snows, but I was quicker than just about everything that was there (mostly non-studded Subies). Power means nothing, and though I stayed in 2nd gear much of the time to squirt quickly down the short straits, third gear was easier to control. 2nd gear when boost comes one just spins one of the fronts. A front lsd would help quite a bit, though I'd be a bit worried about breaking it. Having the viscous rear LSD is a huge benefit for car rotation. It's light years better than driving on similarly slippery surfaces with similar tires in the last two GVR4s I owned with the stock open rear diff.
Left foot braking was a very useful technique for keeping the momentum going while still controlling the rotation of the car. Handbrake technique was much less useful than it might have been in a lighter or fwd car, but still somewhat useful. Long, smooth sideways drifts were pretty easy to induce and in turn induced broad smiles.
My buddy drove 280, too. He's a much better autox driver than I, but this was his first ice experience, too, and he has very limited seat time with an awd car. He stuffed her good, plowing about 25' into a 2' soft bank at about 40mph. No damage, just got stuck but good, high sided on the snow. Some shoveling a tug from a Suby and we were back underway in about ten minutes. I returned the favor to my tow buddy just two or three laps later.
Going back on Saturday morning to the same lake, will try to have a camera handy for stills and video. Unf. I can't compete in the Time Trial on Sunday, at least I don't think I can, due to family obligation, but it be interesting to see what this ice newbie and this old GVR4 could do against the clock.
-Jim B.
280/1000
The winter up here hasn't been wickedly cold, but it has been consistently cold and snowy for over a month now. Lots of nights below zero and not too much in the way of wind mean a lot of the ponds and lakes up here have well over 18" of ice. One lake just 3-4 miles from my house has a perfect ramp access and tons of flat ice. Add a sturdy plow truck and lots of like minded folks and you have yourself a 3/4 mile, 8 or 9 turn ice course complete with 2' soft snow banks on either side.
It was easy to get overconfident quickly. There is so very little grip, even with studded snows, but I was quicker than just about everything that was there (mostly non-studded Subies). Power means nothing, and though I stayed in 2nd gear much of the time to squirt quickly down the short straits, third gear was easier to control. 2nd gear when boost comes one just spins one of the fronts. A front lsd would help quite a bit, though I'd be a bit worried about breaking it. Having the viscous rear LSD is a huge benefit for car rotation. It's light years better than driving on similarly slippery surfaces with similar tires in the last two GVR4s I owned with the stock open rear diff.
Left foot braking was a very useful technique for keeping the momentum going while still controlling the rotation of the car. Handbrake technique was much less useful than it might have been in a lighter or fwd car, but still somewhat useful. Long, smooth sideways drifts were pretty easy to induce and in turn induced broad smiles.
My buddy drove 280, too. He's a much better autox driver than I, but this was his first ice experience, too, and he has very limited seat time with an awd car. He stuffed her good, plowing about 25' into a 2' soft bank at about 40mph. No damage, just got stuck but good, high sided on the snow. Some shoveling a tug from a Suby and we were back underway in about ten minutes. I returned the favor to my tow buddy just two or three laps later.
Going back on Saturday morning to the same lake, will try to have a camera handy for stills and video. Unf. I can't compete in the Time Trial on Sunday, at least I don't think I can, due to family obligation, but it be interesting to see what this ice newbie and this old GVR4 could do against the clock.
-Jim B.
280/1000
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