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Make sure you keep distance as well and look out for other fools, many times you have no control.

 

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Blizzaks are Japanese tyres.
I bet that means they are better suited to "Japanese snow". ;\)
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...are they just a bit noisier than usual, or do they handle poorly?
I saw a study of how uneffective snow tyres are when used out of season. Braking distance w/snow tyres was considerably extended as well as reduced handling in corners (quite surprising at how bad they handled). I have experianced the 'cornering' ability of snow tyres in the off season and it is a bit nasty and found the car tended to understeer.
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Just part of owning a car I guess

 

 

Mine are in my storage shed along with a dirty stained matress, huge broken kero heater, broken rice cooker, wierd meatal racks, stacks of newspapapers, empty beer cans and my bike

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The first winter I was driving I spent a few nights on car parks when I could. Though its not easy finding places, at the right time, especially when you don't live in the snow. I get better all the time though, getting more confidence now.

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Originally posted by Toque:
That's actually a really good idea.
Not only is it really fun doing donuts but it's really good practice
Just make sure there arn't any hidden objects under the snow
Like the one you did at Nozawa? Or was that some other crazy driver? I was buzzin too hard to know what was goin on lol.gif
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Oh yessss, these french people are really weird!!! Stay clear if you see one. ;\)

 

As for snow driving:

 

If you can't get through with 4 snow tires, chains will not be of extra help. If you have no snow tires then chains will evidently help.

 

Lower gear means more engine break and therefore more control, esp downhill.

 

You can control a slide while going uphill, but not when going downhill =>be super cautious.

 

Anticipate and break smoothly and progressively if possible. Hitting the breaks suddenly is the best way to go, esp. in a turn.

 

Beware of shaded places with extra condensation/moisture such as bridges and tunnels which are frequent accident spots when people break on invisible ice.

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Yes indeed, bridges are a good place to lose it. Because they aren't 'heated' by the surrounding soil as roads are, they are often frozen even when the approach road is clear of ice. They're also conveniently positioned to maximize your chances of skids as you go over them.

 

Also mind your number plates when you park in places with snow piled up. My neighbours were muttering about even foreigners being bosozoku, because my number plates were always bent in out of sight, from hitting piles of cleared snow in car parks.

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Be careful not to over-estimate your skills, that's what lead to my crash. I wasn't going that fast, but I took a curve into a bridge and noticed another car coming the other way. What happened next - me bumping into their car - almost seem to happen in slow-motion. I really wasn't going fast, it was a combination of the icy snow and that curve into the narrow bridge.

 

Ended up costing me as well coz I wasn't insured.

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We had a bit of an accident this winter in Matsumoto on the way home once. Entirely the other persons fault (honest). It had only been snowing a short while but conditions were getting pretty bad - probably worse than some people thought. I was stopped at the lights and this guy behind obviously didn't slow down enough and bumped into me. There was a fair bit of damage but happily the insurance covered it. Mrs Plum was a bit shocked.

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Ok, this is more of a mechanical question, but it relates to driving downhill in a lower gear – whenever I do this the engine makes this sort of pinging noise like it can’t compress properly. As soon as I shift into a higher gear the car seems happier and the noise stops. So if I’m driving down a steep but relatively tame hill I tend to coast along in a higher gear, but if the road is sketchy and its raining etc I drive in a lower gear and freak out about the noise.

I’ve got a 1985 renault traffic with a petrol engine. If anyone is a car buff I’d appreciate the advice

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My car shouts at me if I do that, though maybe not quite as much as you are saying. If you take it to a car dealer, I'm sure they'll happily take 100,000 yen off you to "check it".

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  • 4 weeks later...

When I moved into Hakuba, I really didn't know how scary it is if my car got spinned. You never understand which part of the road you are going freeze or not. Once your car gets slipped, it's totally no control even if it's a 4WD. I did a nice 360 or more turn on a frozen road when I made my brake work. Fortunately no one, no cars were around then.

 

#1. Keep distance from the car infront of you.

 

#2. Control your speed, never be so fast.

 

#3. Concentrate on driving, never think of anything else. Others should make the driver concentrate on driving. Sometimes I found all people in a car playing more than concentrating on driving which is really scary.

 

#4. Lower gear works better especially you need to go slower e.g. on a downhill.

 

#5. Judge where the border between the road and waterworks, rice fields etc is especially if it's countryside. Don't fall in a rice field with your car :-)

 

Montoya - if you wear snow /stadless tires in other season, you need more distance to stop than normal tires.

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The braking effect of an engine is due to internal friction and pumping losses. The higher the revs for a given speed, the greater the braking effect. Hence changing down.

 

The changing down wisdom stems from a time when cars had drum brakes. If you were lucky, you could lose about 40-50 mph before they overheated and faded, sometimes to nothing. Yes, I've done it, in a 32 tonne truck, and if I hadn't been able to keep it on the road it would have been very messy. On long descents it was easy to cook the brakes, so the rule was to use one gear higher than you'd need to climb it. Modern disc brakes dissipate heat much more effectively, but can still be cooked.

 

The trick is to manage most of your braking with the engine, and use light intermittent brake applications to control speed. If you are serious about mountain driving and safety, then only buy cars with *ALL DISC* setup. Not front disc/rear drum.

 

Unless your car is AWD, then engine braking will only work on one end of the car. In slippery conditions, an unsympathetic change down or too much engine braking can unstick the driven end, which is usually not what we are trying to achieve. What you should be trying to do is to distribute the forces across all tyres, which the brakes do better than the engine. AWD is much more stable, of course, which is why I never drive anything else.

 

So, the rules are: keep your speed under control. at all times. Do all your braking gently and early in a straight line to get your entry speed right, and leave enough margin to correct any instability before turning in.

 

Spook. I've no clear idea what it is you are describing. If you are pulling a lot of revs (not supposed to go much over about 6000 remember) you may be pumping unburnt gas into the exhaust where it intermittently ignites (backfires). An 85 Renault Trafic is likely to have a carburettor rather than EFI, and by the mid eighties these had evolved into truly horrible devices. Take the Doctors advice, my son, buy a Subaru ;\)

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