sasquatch2 sasquatch2:
I have only recently finally parked my '87 fire-chicken.
Interesting! My '87 fire-chicken has been parked for a few years. I should get around to selling it. I was great in summer, but slid badly in winter. I had to shovel the back lane behind my garage all the way down to pavement. Otherwise I would get stuck. It created a lip in the packed snow either side of my property until a front-end loader scraped the back lane; probably someone complained. But if I didn't shovel, my car would either dig in or get stuck in the ruts.
When I lived in Toronto, a couple times after a blizzard traffic was ridiculously sparse on highway 401. I lived in North York but worked in Markham, drove backwards to most traffic. In the morning after a blizzard I would see one car on the horizon in front of me, one on the horizon behind. I had 4 lanes to myself. Good thing since the car drove at a 30° angle in deep snow. Seriously; imagine driving with the front-right corner leading. I needed at least 2 lanes to myself, good thing I had all 4.
If I tried to start moving in a snow drift 4" or more deep the rear end would slide straight to the right until the vehicle was at a 30° angle, then start moving forward. One time in a parking lot I hit a dumpster when the rear end moved sideways into it. Luckily the dent came out without leaving a scratch in the paint.
During summer the fire-chicken drove great. I could drive highway 401 in summer at 140 km/h with no trouble. Necessary when traffic often cruised at 120 km/h. The 400 class highways are built for 120 km/h, I have no idea why the posted speed limit is only 100. I put the petal to the metal once soon after I bought it; on the perimeter highway in Winnipeg in the middle of the night when no one was on the highway. It pegged out the speedometer, but judging by the distance from the last graduation to the peg and how much it accelerated after it pegged out, I drove at 163 km/h. At that speed steering got insanely sensitive; a small movement of the steering wheel would throw you to one side. But up to 140 km/h it drove smooth. Obviously I didn't have either of the V8 engines, or the sport suspension package. The point is it's a summer car.
I have an Aztek now with all wheel drive. I got tired of getting stuck in winter, this vehicle may not accelerate like a sports car but it never gets stuck in snow. It's a small SUV; actually Pontiac class it a Sport Recreational Vehicle. It's based on a minivan rather than a pickup truck. But it also gets better fuel economy than my fire-chicken. And room to haul stuff. I was able to pack camping and sporting equipment (at once) in my fire-chicken, but the SUV has plenty of room.
So how would winter tires perform when some streets are plowed and salted down to pavement, and others aren't? When would I put them on? The first real snow came this weekend, unusually late for Winnipeg. It's better to have good all seasons and just leave them on all the time.
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