xviper, freezing rain is still considered winter weather. don't know about canada but can you think of any other time freezing rain occurs other than winter? rain doesn't freeze automatically during freezing rain (it does freeze quickly though) so water does accumulate on the already frozen patch. jagerbud, no offense. maybe i'm using the wrong term. in writing vtecing from a complete stop, i mean starting from zero in 1st, reving beyond 6k (around 7k for me) while accelerating and shifting into 2nd. my point for the post is that the s is still a reasonable car for driving in slick conditions (icy in my case). i haven't driven it in snow so i can't pass judgement on that issue. of course, i find an all wheel drive or preferably 4wd auto a more ideal vehicle.

 

my bad, i just remembered that october is still fall. a better explanation is that freezing rain occurs when the temperature drops near 32 degrees farenheit thus producing icy and slick conditions.

 

jagerbud, i meant no offense taken. my bad again.

 

Tuesday night in Colorado it was very slick. A combination of wet roads and freezing temps along with snow made for a long icy drive home. I had my 2002 Civic and it took me 2 hours to get home, my wife in her Acura CL took 3 1/2 hours both of our commutes are aprox. 40 minutes. As I was getting close to home, on the side of the road I saw a Suzuka blue S2000 stopped with his emergency blinkers flashing. I thought that I recognized him as a member of the Rocky Mountain S2000 club and turned my car around to offer assistance. I pulled along side of him rolled down my window and asked if everything was o.k. He told me that he had been slip sliding all over the road and that he decided to pull over and wait for it to stop snowing. I told him that I too owned a Suzuka S2000 and it was just not him and that my civic felt like a sled. Feeling bad for him and also being a fellow S2000 owner, I offered to let him leave his S2000 at my house for the night or that I could give him a ride. As it turns out I did not know him. I think being cautious he declined. My point is that the S2000 was designed to be driven on dry roads and I firmly believe those roads should be in the mountains or at the track. Driving the S in snow I'm sure must be fun, but I prefer better directional stability with a FWD.

 

maybe it was what I call fish-tailing (not hydroplaining), it happened to me when I shifted to 2nd at 8000rpm in the rain. The car didn't spin, but the rear end got a little loose or sideways.

 

I haven't driven my S2000 in winter conditions yet. But last December I was driving my old Miata down a lonely back road and hit some black ice. Fortunately, I was going well below the speed limit and although I did spin around several times, there was no damage to me or the car. I was very thankful for that. Anyway, I now live very close to where I work, so I rarely drive during the winter. RWD cars are just not made for driving on ice and snow.

 

What do you suppose people did before FWD cars came along? The automotive world did NOT come to a stand still just because winter came.
What do you suppose the vast majority of police forces in the frozen north drive all winter? Do you think they go park and let the bad guys go nuts? And what about taxicabs? Most of them in this city are RWD.
Equip your car with the proper winter gear (ie. tires) and learn to drive the thing.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by xviper
[B]

What do you suppose the vast majority of police forces in the frozen north drive all winter?

 

I'm finding that the tire tread compound get really hard (glassy) and traction goes downhill, even without snow and ice. I have the feeling that much of the S's poor performance in winter is due to the summer-only tires. An all-season ultra-high performance tire may be the answer.

 

That's a bit further north than I was thinking, Tonky.
So that's how come the lead dog got to "sleep" with the master!