Festivas and snow

[mckabe]

got 6 or so inches on saturday with a layer of ice underneath. got stuck to many times.

[bravekozak]

project

I have my rare gem inside the semi heated garage every winter. There is no point in destroying history with salt. Besides, it's a great time to do projects.
I finally won a red stripe kit on eBay. I want to see what the direct complementary color looks like on a green Festiva.
Also, I can't go to Port Huron anyway. The 402 highway is closed. The drifts are 2 meters deep (over 5 feet) and 300 vehicles have been stranded for over a day now. If snow plows and Jeeps can't get through, I know for sure a Festiva can't make it either. When I did drive my blue 89 Festiva, it was great up to about a foot of snow and going uphill in the white stuff.

[Safety Guy]

While Festivas are generally good in snow, often deep snow, they won't go everywhere. Bkozak makes a fine point about salt, too. If you have a really nice low or no rust Festiva, it's best to save it for non salted roads.

One day I'd like to build a "Winterstiva." It'll have tall studded snow tires (probably 155/80-13s), uncut Aspire springs, and attention to smoothing the underside to prevent hangups, a nice new(er) heater core and whatever else makes winter driving a bit easier to live with.

It'll also probably have quite a bit of fixed up rust!

Karl

[lessersivad]

One day I'd like to build a "Winterstiva." It'll have tall studded snow tires (probably 155/80-13s), uncut Aspire springs, and attention to smoothing the underside to prevent hangups, a nice new(er) heater core and whatever else makes winter driving a bit easier to live with.

It'll also probably have quite a bit of fixed up rust!

Karl

Not exactly as you descibed but...





At least I got the first 2 items

Sorry the pics aren't the best, old camera.

[Safety Guy]

but...Looks nice!

Karl

[freshtiva]

One day I'd like to build a "Winterstiva." It'll have tall studded snow tires (probably 155/80-13s), uncut Aspire springs, and attention to smoothing the underside to prevent hangups, a nice new(er) heater core and whatever else makes winter driving a bit easier to live with.

It'll also probably have quite a bit of fixed up rust!

Karl

And a rear window wiper/defrost plus cloth seats.

[Darlo]

And a rear window wiper/defrost plus cloth seats.

Cloth seats....no.......HEATED seats......YES :reindeer:

[Evil D]

Man i had heated Recaros in my Merkur...they were soooooo nice.

I think my biggest gripe so far is the windows in back fogging up. No amount of heat seems to make a difference. My rear defrost doesn't work either

[Bert]

All front wheel drives are good in snow since the motor weight is over the drive wheels. Vintage Beetles were really good for the same reason. Festivas are particularly good in snow because they sit high and don't have a troublesome lo-slung spoiler (snow plow) on the front. There is a remarkable difference between no-season tires (that's what I call them) and real snow tires (in Canada they sport a 'snowflake emblem on them). Canadian Tire officially discontinued selling 12 inch snows last year so I don't know where you'd get them anymore (I bought all the available tires (10 of them at half price, even) in Eastern Ontario last spring).

[neanderpaul]

My festivas go in the snow way better than my beetle. Weight on the drive wheels is great but being able to cut those weighted drive wheels back and forth seals the deal. If you are going up a snowy hill in a beetle and you run out of traction you're pretty much done. In a festiva when you run out of traction you put in in reverse and back up. When that runs out of traction you cut it left to right. It takes little bites out of the hill and goes up!

[stainless1911]

They will understeer too much, but if you know what you are doing, they will amaze you in the snow. I have driven through pushing snow with the bumper.

[neanderpaul]

I drove through the blizzard of the century. From Athens Georgia to Roanoke virginia. Bumper deep ftw!

[neanderpaul]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1993_Storm_of_the_Century

[Evil D]

Has anyone ever tried putting more weight over the front wheels? I thought about getting some weight lifting plate weights and somehow mount one on each strut tower under the hood. Then i thought, that'd just make under steer worse but it might get you more traction.

[iceracerdude]

Has anyone ever tried putting more weight over the front wheels? I thought about getting some weight lifting plate weights and somehow mount one on each strut tower under the hood. Then i thought, that'd just make under steer worse but it might get you more traction.

Shhhhhhhhhhh! That's my single biggest secret!
I won't tell you how much, but I will tell you this, yes you want to break "the first rule of air planes and race cars".