Miata Mailing List: January 1994, Message #96
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   From: "Jyri J. Virkki" 
Subject: Winter Miatas (was Re: Test Message)
   Date: Fri, 14 Jan 1994 18:10:12 -0500

Once upon a time Alex M. Postpischil said:
> 
> 	It came through the mailer, so it's just plain boring out there in 
> Miata land!

So maybe we should talk about Miatas in the snow (or has everyone
packed their cars away??)

With the heavy snows of the past week or so, I've had the chance to
actually do some snow driving with the Miata.  I can't compare with
anything else, since this is the first time I've ever driven in snow.
In fact, I was quite worried about it given all I had heard about
Miatas being horrible in snow. The fact that I live in a very hilly
area doesn't help much either...

My experience, so far at least, is that the Miata has been very good
in snow. While it is true that it is extremely easy to get oversteer
(which I guess would be true of any RWD car), I found that it is
extremely easy to catch it with a bit of countersteering. So easy, in
fact, that I'm having lots of fun in every corner... ;-) I've spent
countless hours in empty parking lots, and I've found that even a
drastic oversteer (say, more that 45 degrees "from the line") can be
recovered.

I do have the LSD, and I think it has made a considerable difference,
although I can't be sure, having no base for comparison.  But I've
noticed that when trying to accelerate relatively hard on a snowy
road, the tail of the car enters a very low frequency fishtailing,
with only about a foot of amplitude side-to-side. This has been
especially useful because the only entrance to my apt. complex is a
relatively steep hill. Going up, I notice this VLF fishtailing, but
apart from that it climbs very well.

I should note too that this is with the stock tires. I wanted to get
some Blizzaks, but _nobody_ stocks them around here (NJ). Finally I
found one place, but they wanted $130/tire. Yeah right. They're $70 by
mail! But it would be such a pain to get them by mail that I've stuck
with the stocks so far.

Happy (Winter) Miatareeing!

-- 
Jyri J. Virkki - Linux: Choice of GNU Generation - DoD#0561