CroOrange

Hi guys,

Well, after having spent nearly two days on snow - actually I should say ice - with the Corvette I realize that I have learnt a lot, in general and specifically about my car, and that I really have a lot to learn.

Regarding the weather conditions, it appears to have gone to -20F at night and during the day we were around 16F.
Setting aside the difficulties of opening a frozen door, I have no particular issues to report regarding the vette in these rather harsh conditions for now - doesn't mean the car won't die in a week or two ...
On a side note, I think it is important to point out that I consider myself to be part of those who take good care of their vehicule.

As you can see from the hotel room, it is white and cool outside (stalactits measuring about 5 feet):



Main roads are clear, however secondary roads aren't. It is also the first time in my life that I have filled the gas tank of my car (not to mention a vette) and have half a dozen snow mobiles drive up to fill up.




For the story, on the first photo the brownish stuff is ice not dirt, taking the photo was tough because slippery.

The track on which we drove was very interesting with different exercices, varying in difficulty:

• Skid pad made out of real ice, guaranteed 100% natural, no additives. In fact we had clean out our vehicles before getting onto the compound in order to not bring salt onto the pad.
• Uphill climb, nice and straight, rather long and nicely frozen with a bit of snow.
• 3/4 circle on an uphill inclined plan. Too slow and you fall inside, to fast and you fall outside. You want to avoid both cases as vehicule damage may be incurred. So slippery that if you stop in the curb and don't have studded tires, expect the car to slide down.
• Small short rather steep uphill climb in an L shape (you turn up into the hill). Too fast and the car goes straight, too slow and you don't get to the top.
• Classical slalom exercises, braking, acceleration and accident avoidance ...

The skid pad was nice and icey, very slippery - some people actually had studded shoes to walk around which wasn't such a bad idea after all:



The black, instructor owned, Ford Flex used as a tow truck for a little off-course cars. Seriously off-course required a more serious truck, if I counted correctly there were 5 cars really out in the ditch over the weekend.

The vette waiting for the next exercise:



The predominant vehicle being the Audi Quattro with real snow tires, the more serious having studded Hakka 5 tires, one size smaller. I don't consider mine to be real snow tires when I saw the snow tires these guys have.

Upon arrival I learnt that I was the first vette to attend such an event and that one of the chief instructors was a vette owner. He was upfront with me: "Dude, I would never come here with my vette."
Well that made it off to a good start for my day

Quite a bit of difficulties with the vette but the others were also struggling. Setting aside the hardship, I managed to perform all the exercises. On day one there was one exercise I failed at (50% success rate), my fault not the vette. On day two I managed a 100% succes rate on that same exercise, so I did improve my handling capabilities of the car.

Let's be clear, the vette, with high performance winter tires is no match to an all wheel drive having studded snow tires such as the A4.
That being said at the timed event, where everyone had two runs, including the instructors, my times were 1 min 32 sec and 43/100 and 1 min 32 sec and 24/100.
The best time, studded Hakka 5, a Subbaru STi I think, did 1 min and 13 seconds. I believe it was an instructor.
The better students, who in general appeared to have studded tires were working in the 1 min 25 seconds range.

Although consistent, I'm pretty sure that a better driver would have taken the vette around in 1 min 30 seconds. As, although I did not get time penalities (e.g. cone touching), I did goof on the slalom and the skid pad.

I did not pay special attention to the slower times as I was interested in comparing to fastest on the block, but I think that they were running in the 1 min 50 seconds range.

As a general summary I would say that I am very happy. I learned a lot about my car and improved my driving skills a bit. I'm convinced that the Corvette is an excellent car, now it's driver just has to get an acceptable level.

Also, the fellows from the Audi club were also very friendly and it is a class that I would recommend, even if you don't have a vette

I am most probably going to attend it again if I can manage.

a++ Cedric

johnodrake

Bet it was fun - but I will stick to Spring Mountain

BringOnSpring

Sounds like fun! Where did you do this?

CroOrange

The Audi club organised this:

http://www.naaclub.org/article/80/wi...ration-is-open

It was at the Team O'Neil rally school near Dalton, NH.

I found it extremely educational.

a++ Cedric

BringOnSpring

Cool!....was gonna say, I'm in Morris County and it doesnt look like that out my window!

IndyMikeC6

Sounds like you had a great time. Thanks for sharing. I would not have expected a Vette in that environment.

CroOrange

Which is why I'm sharing. Hopefully next time, I won't be the only one.

laconiajack

Good for you! I'n sure many of the lessons learned are applicable to everyday driving in icy condtions in any car. It would be great if every driver, especially those "up North", could take such a course. Their are certain times when going too slow, such as when approaching a long step incline or ngotiating a banked curve, is just as dangerous as going too fast.

dvilin

I am sure it was both fun and a good skill building experience as well.

BrooklynC6

Very cool - takes ***** to do that . I had snows on my CTS-V and it was terrible , I can only imagine what the C6 is like .

CroOrange

Actually, I'm hoping some members would care to join me next time

I remember asking for snow tires that everyone made fun of me, now I see quite a few people have Pirelli sottozero ...



a++ Cedric

Mad*Max

Thanks for sharing this story in such detail, sounds like fun!

RIRaven

That sounds fun!
I also have the Pirellis for my C6 DD this time of year.

G00SEiv

fluffy did you do this with your snow chains on the tires?

CroOrange

No, snow chains are not allowed on the track.

I keep the snow chains for the "Oh Darn" situations; never had to use them yet

a++ Cedric

akriggm

Looks like you had fun!! I took my 1960 MGA to an SCCA-organized ice race at a lake here in Michigan when I was in college (1975). The best TOTD was from an MBG-GT w/ studded snow tires at all 4 corners. The guy that had the most fun was in a 1967 BB Vette. I don't think he ever made a complete lap of the track w/o going off course, but he seemed to enjoy his off track excursions (it was on a fairly large lake with lots of "run off" area......). If I end up with a C6 Coupe as a DD, I might consider doing one of those events again.
Enjoy,
akriggm

RadarP3C

Wow, what a great way to really get to know the C6. Now, you'll really be set if you attend one of the driving schools during the summer.

inthehunt2

When I saw the title, I was gonna get out the torch for a flame job. After reading your post, I thought that was WAY COOL! Great exercise to do with a car that produces so much power. I bet with it being that cold that the HP would have been great! Too bad you didn't have traction with the low temps and snow!

Thanks for sharing!

CroOrange

It's already in the pipe, been going to summer and winter driving schools on a regular basis. First time with the vette, but not the last

Next stop is the track in April @ Gingerman.

a++ Cedric

Licit

Good to see people using their vettes in ways that are supposedly unheard of. I used to go out in snow in my GTO with just all season tires and some bags of salt in the trunk. 400hp rear wheel drive isn't near as bad as people make it out to be. Usually it is the people who haven't grown up in environments that get snow that can't believe others actually can handle driving performance cars in it. Growing up in Pittsburgh I had to drive in heavy snow with large hills every winter. They actually know how to treat the roads when it snows there, which helps a lot. Here in Bloomington they seem mystified as to the fact you treat the roads when it starts snowing not after a few inches are already down. Big reason why there are many accidents soon after snow starts.