Winter driving help with 07 Cayman S
 

It's a long story, but I finally had a chance to drive my 07 Cayman S manual with winter tires after 2 years and struggled with it and would greatly appreciate any tips. My tires are:

235/40R-18 Yokohama iceGUARD iG52c XL
255/40R-18 Yokohama iceGUARD iG52c XL

Where I have the Cayman it's somewhat steep and there are some areas with snow on top of ice. I ran into trouble when I stopped on a hill and then tried to start and keep the car straight in my lane since there was a car parked in the other lane. When I started to let off the clutch the back end started to swerve towards the mountain and I had to correct the skid, which was kind of scary. In other areas just going around 10 mph I still felt like the car was on the edge of grip and if I gave it too much throttle I'd lose traction. On the roads around the house I never break 15 mph. The is also pretty narrow 2 lane road that's the main road to get into town that has a very steep incline, but not a lot of curves that I'm afraid to try if there's ice.

One question I had is about shifting. Should I try to avoid shifting if the area looks icy because it may upset the balance of the car? On another post somewhat suggested staying in a higher gear so you don't have as much torque. What about with downhill? With the relatively tall gearing should I keep it in 1st and use more engine braking or try to ride downhill in 2nd or neutral?

As far as braking, often times I feel like I'm getting a foot massage as what I believe is the ABS comes in. Should I be pumping the brakes or just get on the brakes slowly and let the ABS do its job? What about throttle inputs? Just do everything slowly?

Overall I was a bit disappointed I had so much trouble even with the winter tires. I wasn't expecting it to be like I the summer, but I was hoping I'd feel comfortable enough to take the car down to the grocery store or maybe even drive it through the curvy mountain roads. Any other winter driving tips for this car? There's not a lot of info for driving a mid engine, rear wheel drive car in the snow. On the main road coming up to the house there's a sign somedays that says "Chains or 4x4 required" so I know this isn't the easiest area in the winter. There's a back way that's longer, but not as steep. I'd like to keep practicing with the car to see If I can get comfortable enough to drive it in the winter.

The extent of my experience driving in snow is on nearly perfectly paved roads with my 04 Range Rover with very good all season tires. I've never felt a car slipping until I took the Cayman out. Definitely a winter driving class would make sense

Eastern PA here, ran for 5 years an 07 with Winter SottoZeros (performance snows, not gumball snows) and our cayman was perfectly happy in the slush/snow/mush.

Smooth is the name of the game, inputs measured and yes ABS will be more active on hard breaking. I don't know your style, but hard stabs will tickle the ABS pump in any car.

The PSM programming was excellent IMHO, I could slip the car, counter and power on smooth without aggressive ECU intervention. If I behaved like a teenager, ECU was there.

I'm a big believer in snow tires, and have purchased and installed performance snows on all of our winter duty cars (WRX, 335d, X1 and the cayman) for the past 10 years.

This is snow btw, not ice. Ice is a different issue all together and rarely do people run true ice tires in the lower 48.

- b

Agree with above - smooth inputs is the key. I can't get going from a stop without wiggling around unless I'm very cautious with the throttle. I also find that if I want to take a turn at any speed higher than a crawl I have to do a sharp, early turn-in and flick the rear end around a little bit.
On a hill in slick conditions I don't have a good answer - that's always going to suck. Probably going to have to burn your clutch a little so that you don't roll too far back.

In slick conditions (snow/slush) you're always going to be on the edge of grip even with snow tires - the difference is that in the "loss of grip" scenario you recover much faster. It will always be loose in snow, but you'll be able to control the car even if the back-end steps out, whereas without the tires you'll just be spinning in circles.

What's the date code on your tires and the condition of the tread?

I ordered them 2 years ago from tire rack and just put them on a few days before posting. So they've never been used until now. I noticed the tire pressure on the back left is 33 and the right is 36 according to the TPMS. Should I go on the lower end for both?

Answer= Subaru AWD. Period. Driving a Cayman in the snow is nuts. Get the right vehicle for the job.

Just my two cents. Flame on.

Thanks. It seems like the worst conditions are around my neighborhood. I'm just afraid if I drive an hour away and get caught in a snowstorm I'd have trouble getting back at night if the roads get snowy/icy. I've been practicing whenever I can and am getting better at it. Definitely smooth is the way to go.

I may come back next month and would only have the Cayman here so I was hoping with the snow tires I'd be ok. Right now though it looks like I'd have to rent a car,

I also find that short-shifting so that I am low in the RPM range at all times helps a lot. Any time the torque builds too high the rear end just steps out

I haven't had any issues in two winters in the Maryland/DC area. I use Pirelli Sottozeros which have been good for a performance winter tire, but I would still rather have the Blizzaks I've used on other cars in the past. As many have said, the important things are smooth inputs, good situational awareness and anticipating where you might have problems. Even if you do everything correct, you may still have some issues on a steep grade, it's the nature of rear wheel drive in the snow and not specific to the Cayman (I grew up in New Hampshire with a rear wheel drive 1981 Dodge Ram pickup, I know).

As for shifting, outside of starting from a stop, I always find the car is more stable if I am in a gear higher than I normally would be. You don't want to bog the engine by being in too high a gear and low RPMs, but if I would normally stay in second and accelerate to 4 or 5K RPMs before I shift, in the snow I'll shift at 2 or 3K into third. This all varies based on the conditions, but in general I find being in a higher gear helps.

Based on the description of your experience running with the snow tires already I would say continuing to drive that car is setting yourself up for heartbreak and aggravation.

The conditions there are simply too bad for this kind of car.