Miata Mailing List: October 1995, Message #7
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   From: Michael Garozzo 
Subject: Re: Winter driving
   Date: Sun, 1 Oct 1995 12:24:40 -0400


Rich,
  The practice of adding trunk weight has been around for several years 
and has been recommended in Miata Mag. letters.  I do not recall ever 
seeing a negative regarding this on the net.  Actually just the opposite 
has been said.  With such a light rear end additional weight assists 
traction.  Adding weight in front of the rear axel would mean either 
carrying a passenger or sand in the passenger seat.  A possiblity. 
I would add that reducing tire pressure has also been mentioned as
increasing traction in snow conditions.

Mike G.
Del Val Miata Club
91 Red B



On Sat, 30 Sep 1995, Richard Dekker wrote:

> On Fri, 29 Sep 1995, Michael Garozzo wrote:
> 
> >    I have the D60 A2's and no winter tires.  Got stuck once on an incline 
> > and was able to back up to go down (make sense?).  The D60's worked fine 
> > but we did not have significant snow.  In addition I put 2 bags of sand 
> > in the trunk, about 40 lbs each.  That is what made the difference even 
> > more than the tires.
> > 
> > Mike G.
> 
> Do not put sand bags in your trunk!  This is a very dangerous habit to 
> get into.  Adding weight to the car outside of the wheelbase can cause 
> major problems.  It lulls one into a confidence that your car, on 
> any type of tires won't spin and have better traction.  If your car does 
> at some point begin to oversteer, with the added 40-100lbs in the trunk, 
> it'll be that much harder to regain control.  This is why Porsche 911's 
> are hard to drive in the best of times, let alone in snow.  VW Bugs were 
> ok, as they never had the power to oversteer, put in a skid, they go into 
> the ditch backwards just as easily.
> 
> Having some ice-racing experience, the only safe place to add weight to a 
> car in winter is infront of the rear axle if you wish to improve RWD 
> traction.  Since the Miata is already a well balanced car, the only thing 
> you can really do is keep the gas tank as full as possible during winter, 
> which also prevents a frozen fuel line.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Richard Dekker        email: dekker@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca     o o
> Edmonton, Alberta     President, Wild Rose Chapter, MCofA       >
> CANADA                1990 Mariner Blue `R' package wannabe    \_/
>