tee hee hee

 

Haha, rwd's absolutely worthless in snow...funny pic.

 

Not when its *rear engine* rear wheel drive. Porsche 911 is surprisingly capable in the snow. All that weight of huge motor & gearbox over the rear axle gives tremendous grip.

Front engine & rear wheel drive, well, not so much LOL!

 

It comes down to tires in the snow....

The M Roadster was awesome in the snow, with snow tires. On performance tires it was down right scary.

The S4 always went in the snow but steering or stopping was impossible on stock performance.

 

+1...tires make a world of difference

 

The M Roadster was "awesome" in the snow?? I guess we can have different definitions of "awesome". Don't get me wrong - I love BMWs too, had a couple - unfortunately never an Ms (yet). With great tires and traction control they can get by and do fine - but "awesome" to me means being able to really use the throttle (uninhibited by a computer or electronics on the brakes) - in other words be able to drive aggressively and sportingly in the snow (obviously assuming proper/safe conditions). I argue that take away the driver aids and the M car will not be good at all - heck our old E36 325 with much less power than your M - and no traction control at all - with studded snow was horrible in the snow - one good blip on the throttle and it was doing a 180 - add the driver aids and you can certainly drive better - but you have traction control clamping on the individual brakes to keep the car straight and the ECU pulling back power. Just because you can get from here to there does not make it "awesome". To me awesome is breaking out of a foot of snow from a standstill while going up a hill - being able to accelerate on straight and curvy roads and really use some power. Being able to really use the boost and feel the car hook up in the snow and really accelerate. Being able to come around a corner and hang the tail out a little (or a lot :-) while you're really on the gas - all four wheels clawing for traction and pulling you through. That is awesome to me.

definitely NOT a dig at you (or your M car) - just fun banter....

But yes regardless of driveline - tires make a huge difference.

Brandon
'01 S4
'84 ur-quattro 20Vt
E30 325is (former car)
E36 325i (former car)

 

we had a BMW E28 635csi 5 spd - even with new tires it would not go in the snow at all, not forward at least.. big, heavy, low body car. We also had a BMW E28 535is 5spd it did so, so in the snow. Same suspension, floor pan, and motor as the 635, only differnce is the body, strange they actually had the same Falkens on them both and both had LSDs in them?

best snow car for me so far; 88 saab 900 and/or '69 VW bug = both unstopable

 

I still love those old 635s - such cool cars. Yeah my friend's mom in high school had one -they were from TX and when we'd get a fall snow here in Denver before they put it in storage she'd be trying to drive it home - she would say the speedo would get to like 80 while she was actually doing about 5. Um yeah she didn't know how to drive in the snow either. Love those old 535s too.

Brandon
'84 ur-quattro 20Vt
'01 S4

 

Most people don't know how to drive in the snow, much less when there is a bit of ice here and there. We get the occassional flurry around here and it always, always, paralyzes the whole area for at least a day.

Too many people go out in their AWD SUV's and think they are invincible. They fly around on icy roads at their normal speeds and generally manage to break every rule in the "safe snow-driving" handbook. i.e. slam on the brakes in curves or whenever they are about to hit a patch of ice.

Sigh, many a good car has ended up in a ditch after an inch high dusting around here.