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MerrilGordon
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Post by MerrilGordon »

I think you guys in Australia, South Africa, Georgia, and Florida are missing some fun. Yea you can optimize suspensions and tires to get the grip up there, but what about nearly no grip at all? Then mess it up more with tire chains. You can go from plowing understeer to snap oversteer with just a touch of throttle. And brake balance? What brakes? Just figure on nearly no brakes. Sure is fun practicing sideways driving winter rally style :-) Mats and Seb probably know all about this kind of driving.

Actually, these cars are pretty bad in the snow. I was playing around with no traffic in sight. I’ll stick to my 4x4 pickup or A6 for serious winter driving, but I sure don’t mind Alfa’s for playing.

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Mats
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Post by Mats »

:)

I grew up in Karlstad (the base for the Swedish Rally) and have driven my share on snowy/icy roads...
For playing the 116 cars work pretty well but for any type of driving where you actually have a goal and drive faster then 70Km/h the 116 series cars are lethal, especially if you have one with LSD.

One thing snow allows you to do is to practice weight transfers at low speed and how it affects the handling. Very good for learning to drive fast on dry roads as everything is slowed down, no grip equals slow motion. :)
I have a "cicane" up where my parents live that is perfect for practicing the scandinavian flick, great feeling when I nailed it the first time. Now I try to go faster each time, there is this pole though, amazing it's still there.. :D
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Micke
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Post by Micke »

"for any type of driving where you actually have a goal and drive faster then 70Km/h the 116 series cars are lethal, especially if you have one with LSD. "

Strongly sisagree! As will any Alfisti in Finland. You do, however, need proper winter tires, preferably studded.

PS! had my Berlina 2000 as daily driver when I was living in Ivalo 300 km Nort from the Arctic Circle - Beat that!
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Post by Seb »

Unfortunately my winter car is FWD, the Alfa 164QV. But there´s fun to be had with the handbrake too :-)

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Mats
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Post by Mats »

Micke wrote:"for any type of driving where you actually have a goal and drive faster then 70Km/h the 116 series cars are lethal, especially if you have one with LSD. "

Strongly sisagree! As will any Alfisti in Finland. You do, however, need proper winter tires, preferably studded.

PS! had my Berlina 2000 as daily driver when I was living in Ivalo 300 km Nort from the Arctic Circle - Beat that!
I guess you have winter all winter up there, here we have cold-warm-cold-warm and som on, perfect ice... add salt and you will have interesting roads.
But when I had to "rock" my 75 to get rolling in 5cm of fresh snow I promised myself not to drive it another winter. Or when you need to overtake another car and there is a little "wall" in the middle of the road, not funny. This is something you never even have to worry about in a regular car but in the 75 it can be very traumatic.
going sideways as soon as you even breathe on the throttle going 50Km/h in fifth gear. :roll:

It can be a fun play car but as soon as you hit major roads and traffic it's 100% focus and no relaxation. not the way to spend a 3 hour drive IMO.
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Post by Micke »

Time to visit your friendly tire shop - eh.....

After reading your post I guess you cannot even imagine how good the 75/GTV is in winter with TIRES on.
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Post by Mats »

Gislaved Nordfrost 3 isn't good enough? ;)
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Post by Micke »

Do you have studded tires and still find it dangerous???
Jeeezzz - you're worse than my mom!

BTW, the unstudded Gislaved to use is the Soft Frost 2.
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Post by MerrilGordon »

I thought this would be a fun diversionary topic. My tires are 205/55-15 Dunlop SP 8000. In other words NOT winter tires. Still fun in a parking lot though. A friend of mine got rid of his worn out Subaru and is using his Milano/75 through the winter and seems to be getting along fine with it. Of course he has qood snow tires on all four wheels. I think the front airdam/splitter might not last if it has to shovel too much snow.

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Micke
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Post by Micke »

BTW, just checked my old data.

Mue values on compacted snow for some tire types (all 205/55R16):
Summer tire 0.22
Winter tire (Central Europe) 0.39
Winter tire (Nordic / studdless) 0.48

Easy to see the importance of good tires!
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tyres

Post by MD »

Oh wow !! All this talk about snow ,shovels, and snow boots on wheels. Obviuosly all you poor bastards need to come to God's own country where the only snow comes on a cone and tires are spelt correctly, tyres.

You get sick of the tropical swaying palms and the gentle breese of hot chicks strolling by in bikin tops. MMM.MMM.

Now let me see where did I put my sand bucket,spade and surfboard ....?

Ah, to be in the land of Oz !

OK I am bragging a little, yesterday was our national holiday. Gotta give the joint a plug.


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