[Shotimes] (OT) Snow & Ice Driving, was: Pontiac unveils SHO successor?

[bjshov8]

I think we're talking about 2 different cases.  Around here its relatively
flat so crowned roads really aren't a problem.  We tend to have either
relatively good road conditions, or "greased owl poop" roads.  In the latter
case I have seen places where most RWD cars are basically dead in the water
but a FWD car actually has a chance of going somewhere, although very
slowly.  We occasionally have these comical videos on the evening news of
cars moving every which way on the roads as if they are hovercraft and not
on wheels which to me basically means no traction.  Sort of like a slow
motion car ballet.  But in those same conditions I have been able to make
the SHO basically go where I wanted it to, just real slowly.

As for your case of driving down a slippery road at an angle with spinning
wheels, I haven't experienced that down here.  We pretty much go from pure
ice to wet streets in a short period of time with nothing in between.  If
you can drive down the road and steer the car then you have enough traction
for the RWD to work like its supposed to.


> There is a fallacy in your description, mainly with the sentences:
>
> "So if you are PUSHING the car there are forces that are acting to
> make it want to go sideways slightly, all it takes is to overcome the much
> reduced friction and the car goes sideways.  If you PULL the car then
there
> are no forces acting to make it go sideways, in fact there are forces
acting
> to make it return to its straight-ahead path.
>
> These are not true. In a perfect world, either pulling the car, or pushing
> the car (FWD or RWD) will have the car move ahead perfectly straight. In
the
> real world, with torque forces, rubber bushings, uneven roads, etc,
neither
> FWD or RWD will pull or push the car straight.
>
> And this gets to the core of the REAL problem with FWD. For years, I had
> driven RWD cars on slippery, crowned roads with the rear end at a
> 20-30-degree angle to the front, and I merrily drove down the road. Not,
on
> the same road with FWD, with the tires start spinning.....YOU HAVE NO
> STEERING!! When the front tires spin, no only do they start to slide
> sideways due to (1) torque forces, (2) crown in the road, or (3) both of
the
> above. When this happens, you can sit there and crank the wheel around all
> you want, it will have no effect.