I am laughing out loud all afternoon!

Yes, I bought my '01 eight days ago on a sunny warm Saturday and by Sunday evening it was snowing and cold and for the whole week it has been below freezing (often down below zero) and it snowed until Friday. The main roads are kind of dry. All the side streets have about an inch of white packed powder.

But it was a perfect Sunday afternoon with blue sky, thermometer peaking at 20 deg F, and only 101 miles on the S2K, so I took off the cover, drove it out of the garage and went visiting my friend in the next town 10 miles away.

First, I'm glad to report NO DAMAGE DONE! That is thanks to Greg. I had a pic of Scarlet I taped to the dash for reminders.

Second, I got really stuck a couple of times and stuck enough to need my wife and my son to push me out once.

Third, I had LOTS OF THRILLS even driving cautiously. It was all too easy to donut around. A bit too much gas and the back end was loose. I had to engine brake lots because any touch of the brakes and the car went ice skating. ABS helped but even that couldn't give me a quick straight stop.

So I put fifty miles on the car today on roads varying from two lane dry to two lane packed snow. If I didn't have a winter driver, I couldn't keep this car. Even with snow tires or chains all around, this car is no match for front wheel drive on slippery snowy roads. Thank goodness I have years of experience driving bad roads in rear wheel drive cars.

Having said that, I HAD A BLAST. I drove all day, top down! I wore sunglasses, ski cap, winter jacket and gloves. The car's heat helped lots.

I took my best friend's girlfriend for a ride and she loved it, and screamed and grabbed my arm every time the rear broke loose.

My wife had her first ride in the car too and she was amazed.

I thought my '93 Prelude was a pretty tight car, but this S2K feels much more rigid, much more solid. This is going to be fun long term.

Oh yes, that 20 deg air feeding into the air intake sure does help the throttle response !

Barry
'01 #52









[This message has been edited by Barry WY Silver/Black '01 (edited November 12, 2000).]

 

Nice to see it was all FUN! good to hear!

 

Welcome to the club; watch out for snow banks and pneumonia!

 

I'm confused now. Last year it snowed here (see pic below). Shortly after that picture was taken, I tried to drive home. It started snowing while I was there, complete surprise.

When I got onto the road, the car would go NOWHERE! Everytime I tried to go, the back end would just walk around. Light throttle, heavy throttle, starting in 1st gear, starting in 2nd gear, it didn't matter.

What gives? Now I read Barry's post about driving around all day in the snow with limited problems, but everytime I tried to start off, it was like one tire was spinning and it just wouldn't go!

Paul

 

Well, Barry, I tried to convince Sondra otherwise, but we started out this weekend in sunny Florida and somehow we ended up in the Great White North. We didn't hit anything either, but man, that tail of hers sure shakes loose!

Next time we'll pack warmer clothes... hehe The cow seat covers and that dang Honda heater sure kept us warm on our 3 day journey. Sorry Shelley, we'll ring you next time we're up there...

 

Well, ther's snow and then ther's SNOW! I think Eskimos have 20+ different names for different types of snow. Barry may have been blessed with nice dry Wyoming snow and Paul, you probably experienced the dreaded wet/icy Eastern Seaboard snow in SC. I know that type of snow because I grew up in Baltimore.

Of course the only time I see snow now is when I visit relatives . The weather down here has finally cooled off enough to turn off the A/C and open the windows!

Glad you had fun Barry, keep it safe.

 

Paul I had the SAME problems you did. The only difference was that I only had 101 miles on the odometer at the beginning of the day and I absolutely COULD NOT RESIST driving the car. I searched for dry patches of straight two lane. The truth is I got stuck on the street in front of our house just 100 feet from home on a little hill so gentle I hadn't noticed it was a hill. Then I had to back down to a driveway to turn around and escape down hill, but when I backed into the driveway there was a little dip at curbside and I couldn't go forward or back. At my friend's house where the pics were taken (he has a Nikon Coolpix 990) his driveway has a hill, so, the ritual was, Tom stands in the roadway and makes sure no traffic is coming, and I start WAY BACK near his garage to build up enough momentum to get up the hill and hope I can control the direction of the momentum with subtle use of the steering wheel.

It was like driving on slippery ice with slicks. I have been driving my Prelude all week with it's Michelin summer tires (stock something MVX V4 or something) and only switched it to my winter tires/wheels two days ago. On the winter tires the Prelude goes like a 4x4, but even on the summer tires it was a thousand times better than the S2K.

On the other hand, as you call can see, I had a blast. Yes, I will hardly drive the S2K in winter. Yes, I will still drive it some, when the roads dry a bit, and the temps are above 0 F. I can't see storage as an option.

If I had to depend on this car for winter transportation I would put the best darn snow tires I could find on it. I'd probably go for something thin, tall, tready and studded, and put a little sign on the steering hub saying "WARNING: Winter Tires: Stay 10 mph BELOW speed limit."

I think Rick Hesel's plan to put Michelin Alpins on his car is great for the Baltimore area, but remember, Baltimore is in the south (below the Mason-Dixon line).

On the other hand, if I were in Greg's position, (i.e. with Sondra to keep me warm I'd try anything!

Barry
'01 #52

 

ROTFLMAO!!! I got into a little snow the first weekend I had my car but got lucky enough to not get into like you did. By the look on your face I'd say the snow definitely didn't temper your enthusiam any And you've gotta love Greg's picture with the snow deeper than the car is tall hehe.

 

Glad you are okay and you had fun.

Don't forget though that the S02s are absolutely the worst kind of tires for snow driving. Winter tires should help tremendously.

 

Great story Barry, great pic's also(I am guessing that that is your wife and child), we had ice last year in texas and I was not brave enough to brink out my S2K... something to do with the possiblity of not making it back up my driveway.

Greg, great picture of a REd (my fav color) in the snow.