I drive year round on all seasons, as the car is my DD. This includes last winter in Southern NY and PA.

Brief story: In PA i was coming home from PT one morning, before the town had cleaned the roads, everything was going fine until I reached the long moderately steep hill right infront of my house at the time. As I went down this hill, I saw 2 people rear ended on my side,2 on the opposite, one slide into a tree and one spin out and almost hit me. I made it unscathed, albeit very slowly.

The other cars were much more "winter worthy" Small SUV's, large sedans, i remember on VW Passat or Jetta too, all crashed...

anyways it depends on how ou drive/driving exp. sounds liek you'll be fine

 

With the right tires and some suspension tweeks my 951 is fine.

 

Get true snow tires, not the "All Seaon" or "All Weather" ones. The other trick that can make things easy is a sand bag or two in the back. As with any snow driving, the REAL issues are people around you. I have Nokian tires on my car, the only mistake I made was going 235 or 245 on the rears. Narrower tires are better for the snow, so my rear is a little skittish.

 

Don't do it Charlie!

Kidding aside, I'd use the 15 inch phone dials, with stock sizes and make sure they are all Blizzaks or dedicated snow tires. You will not have any issues as such.

I'd make sure you get her undercoated too...the dripless stuff....get them to drill holes in the rockers and plug after...a real thorough job.

I have a 1992 Mercury Sable for the winter myself, as in the Owen Sound area we tend to get waaaay more snow than you "southerners".

 

So, the message I'm getting is that I should take the 255/40 summer tires off for winter use, huh?

I had the car rustproofed when I got it in order to stall a bit of rear quarter panel rust, but if I do keep it on the road this winter, I may do it again.

I'm surprised at how many winter-driven porsches there are!

 

Mine is awesome, im thinking of getting studded snows, but i had a blast on studless snows last winter. You do need to be paying attention when driving (thinking ahead) and you'll be fine. I need some sandbags....

 

Get some skinny rims, mount 4 true snow tires and you can make it through 8"-drove my old 85.5 944 and my 94 968 coupe that way. Don't even think of using only rears.

Just remember your dry grip is going to fall off about 30%, so keep that in mind if you have a clear spell-no heroics with snow tires-wait till the thaw when you change back.

 

Yeah - summer tires aren't going to cut it. I still had my S-03s on my car about 6 or 8 years ago when we got about 1/2" of snow (in October). I couldn't get up my driveway. Had to leave the car in the street until the snow melted.

Drop me a note if you want information about Hakkapeliitta (Nokian) tires. You are planning to mount them on a dedicated set of winter wheels. right?

 

or a chubby girlfriend


btw a great way to learn car control is in the winter and open parking lot. Im not talking about just running circles but more on how to counter steer, throttle control, etc..

 

My 944, on summer tires, is useless in the snow.

My Miata (with similar characteristics to the 944, just lighter), with winter tires, is awesome in the snow... at least until ground clearance is an issue. It's also useless with summer tires...

BB.

 

Rick,

Where can you get dripless undercoating in Ontario? Thanks!

 

Absolutely. I'm definitely no stranger to winter driving: my "first car" at age 5 was a retired army jeep we had at the farm, for skidding logs down the roads in the woods. It wasn't synchronized into first gear, so you had to keep it moving in the winter, or come to a complete stop and risk getting bogged down in the snow. It was so light in the rear that there was practically no way to keep it from drifting, and its throttle was so unresponsive that you had to make your inputs a second or two before you actually needed them, even at low speeds.

Like a lot of rural Canadians, I have a deeply-ingrained sense of slip angle, and even now that I live in a city, I take part in the seasonal ritual migration to empty parking lots with new snow.

While I hadn't intended it, this thread is proving to be a delightful collection of 944 winter driving stories! Keep them coming!