Who daily drives their Corvette; even in the winter?
#1
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Who daily drives their Corvette; even in the winter?
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/liv...kin-1513866963
Is this anyone here ?
'95 LT1 Corvette Coupe in Montreal, QC
Living with a Sports Car, Winter, Canada and No Parking Spot
Last winter, my beloved Mustang got rammed over by a Golf that did not see the bright red light that was in front of him. I had to replace it, but what would do the trick? What could be fun, reliable, fast, RWD and somewhat cheap? A Corvette seemed like a good solution but... I live in Quebec and I have to deal with roughly 7 or 8 feet of snow every winter. Would it be doable?
Just a couple days after the Georgia mess, I'll try to get over the few things that allowed me to live with what people consider as one of the worst cars for winter driving in snowy regions: A '95 LT1 Corvette.
I bought it soon after winter 2013 ended and played around with it all summer. 9500$. Manual gearbox (of course), rebuilt everything, new paint, targa top and lots of mileage for such a car (160.000miles). Perfect! But winter 2014 was on its way already and I had to get the car ready.
1: Remove the front spoiler that would transform the whole car into a snow-plow way too fast. Once it's done, I notice that the car is not much lower than a basic Kia. First sign of relief for me, as I now had at least 6 or 7 inches of clearance
2: Find the appropriate tires! The most important step! And finding some winter tires for car with 295s in the back and 265s in the front is NOT easy. I had the choice with two models: Nokian WR tires, that used to be fitted on Porsches and Pirellis Sottozeros that are now fitted on Porsches. Pirellis ended up being my choice and I'll probably try Nokian next winter. They are both "M/S" (Mud and Snow) tires, and therefore not as good as normal winter tires, but that's the only thing that fits so it will have to work! They are still rated as "winter tires" (with the little mountain and the snowflake) and therefore are legal in Québec where it's the law to have snow tires in winter.
3: The Lt1 C4 has a 50/50 weight distribution. Great in the dry, BAD in winter. It means you end up with a 4 wheels understeer when in the snow and you just don't want that. So let's go to Canadian Tire and pack the trunk with salt bags! 80kg or rougly 180lbs of them for you americans. That should do the trick
4: "Accessories" now. Shovel. The most important thing you can have in your trunk. To get out of a parking spot or at worse, getting unstucked from the pile of snow you crashed into. Traction aid. You know this plastic or metal thing you put in front of your motorized wheels to get some traction on ice? Get some.
There it was, I was ready for winter, keeping my fingers crossed as all my friends were laughing at me, seeing an awful winter arriving for me in their crystal *****.
Early december, the first snowstorm arrived. I had to film it and with the help of a friend that's what I did. 10 inches of snow during the night from saturday to sunday. Sunday morning would be awfully quiet in the streets of Montreal, it was the perfect time to try if I could acutally deal with winter in the Corvette. If I could drive in these conditions, all winter would be fine. Here are the results!
A few more things to conclude: Dealing with a sports car in some of the worst winters is doable if you live in a city that is somewhat good at dealing with the snow. If you have to deal with more than 5 inches of snow on the road, stay home. M/S tires are not as good as normal snow tires and you will struggle like crazy. If you live in the middle of nowhere, I would not recommend it either. Also choose your car wisely. Salt kills cars. I chose a Corvette because the body is made of fiberglass, but I still have to clean up the chassis regulary. I do it twice a month on average. So the car looks dirty as hell sometimes but I do my best ot avoid rust. Cars from the early 80s are not very well galvanized so I would not recommend these also. Porsches are great in winter too, but the first galvanized models appeared in 1976 and they were not very good at it until mid-80's, so avoid early Porsches too...
So please, come and join me in my crusade against boring grey and black japanese cars that are all over the road 5 months a years and give a little smile to people who see you driving off to work in the morning! Sports cars in winter do make people smile and just for that, you should drive yours all year long
Last winter, my beloved Mustang got rammed over by a Golf that did not see the bright red light that was in front of him. I had to replace it, but what would do the trick? What could be fun, reliable, fast, RWD and somewhat cheap? A Corvette seemed like a good solution but... I live in Quebec and I have to deal with roughly 7 or 8 feet of snow every winter. Would it be doable?
Just a couple days after the Georgia mess, I'll try to get over the few things that allowed me to live with what people consider as one of the worst cars for winter driving in snowy regions: A '95 LT1 Corvette.
I bought it soon after winter 2013 ended and played around with it all summer. 9500$. Manual gearbox (of course), rebuilt everything, new paint, targa top and lots of mileage for such a car (160.000miles). Perfect! But winter 2014 was on its way already and I had to get the car ready.
1: Remove the front spoiler that would transform the whole car into a snow-plow way too fast. Once it's done, I notice that the car is not much lower than a basic Kia. First sign of relief for me, as I now had at least 6 or 7 inches of clearance
2: Find the appropriate tires! The most important step! And finding some winter tires for car with 295s in the back and 265s in the front is NOT easy. I had the choice with two models: Nokian WR tires, that used to be fitted on Porsches and Pirellis Sottozeros that are now fitted on Porsches. Pirellis ended up being my choice and I'll probably try Nokian next winter. They are both "M/S" (Mud and Snow) tires, and therefore not as good as normal winter tires, but that's the only thing that fits so it will have to work! They are still rated as "winter tires" (with the little mountain and the snowflake) and therefore are legal in Québec where it's the law to have snow tires in winter.
3: The Lt1 C4 has a 50/50 weight distribution. Great in the dry, BAD in winter. It means you end up with a 4 wheels understeer when in the snow and you just don't want that. So let's go to Canadian Tire and pack the trunk with salt bags! 80kg or rougly 180lbs of them for you americans. That should do the trick
4: "Accessories" now. Shovel. The most important thing you can have in your trunk. To get out of a parking spot or at worse, getting unstucked from the pile of snow you crashed into. Traction aid. You know this plastic or metal thing you put in front of your motorized wheels to get some traction on ice? Get some.
There it was, I was ready for winter, keeping my fingers crossed as all my friends were laughing at me, seeing an awful winter arriving for me in their crystal *****.
Early december, the first snowstorm arrived. I had to film it and with the help of a friend that's what I did. 10 inches of snow during the night from saturday to sunday. Sunday morning would be awfully quiet in the streets of Montreal, it was the perfect time to try if I could acutally deal with winter in the Corvette. If I could drive in these conditions, all winter would be fine. Here are the results!
A few more things to conclude: Dealing with a sports car in some of the worst winters is doable if you live in a city that is somewhat good at dealing with the snow. If you have to deal with more than 5 inches of snow on the road, stay home. M/S tires are not as good as normal snow tires and you will struggle like crazy. If you live in the middle of nowhere, I would not recommend it either. Also choose your car wisely. Salt kills cars. I chose a Corvette because the body is made of fiberglass, but I still have to clean up the chassis regulary. I do it twice a month on average. So the car looks dirty as hell sometimes but I do my best ot avoid rust. Cars from the early 80s are not very well galvanized so I would not recommend these also. Porsches are great in winter too, but the first galvanized models appeared in 1976 and they were not very good at it until mid-80's, so avoid early Porsches too...
So please, come and join me in my crusade against boring grey and black japanese cars that are all over the road 5 months a years and give a little smile to people who see you driving off to work in the morning! Sports cars in winter do make people smile and just for that, you should drive yours all year long
'95 LT1 Corvette Coupe in Montreal, QC
#2
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Someone as crazy or stupid as me!
'09 Pontiac G8 GT with 18"×8" rims & Bridgestone Blizzak LM-60 winter performance tires- RIP
'14 Chevy Camaro SS RS with 19"×8" rims & Pirelli Scorpion Winter, winter performance tires.
(It doesn't even have a block heater, because GM doesn't expect you to drive it in the winter time )
But this is a CORVETTE though !!!
'09 Pontiac G8 GT with 18"×8" rims & Bridgestone Blizzak LM-60 winter performance tires- RIP
'14 Chevy Camaro SS RS with 19"×8" rims & Pirelli Scorpion Winter, winter performance tires.
(It doesn't even have a block heater, because GM doesn't expect you to drive it in the winter time )
But this is a CORVETTE though !!!
Last edited by Mike Jung; 02-04-2014 at 03:26 PM.
#3
Le Mans Master
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Toronto Events Coordinator
you French guys are crazy
Cool little video, post it over in C4 Gen, the masses will get a real kick of it there
For the record, I'm NEVER doing that to my Vette
PS: Nice Z06 rims
Cool little video, post it over in C4 Gen, the masses will get a real kick of it there
For the record, I'm NEVER doing that to my Vette
PS: Nice Z06 rims
#4
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
#5
Melting Slicks
http://oppositelock.jalopnik.com/liv...kin-1513866963
Is this anyone here ?
'95 LT1 Corvette Coupe in Montreal, QC
Is this anyone here ?
'95 LT1 Corvette Coupe in Montreal, QC
#6
(Side rant: people spend thousands on rims because it means something to them for their car to look good ... only to put on steelies for 5 months of the year ... what, you suddenly don't care how your car looks for those months? Spend the extra $30/corner for at least a cheap set of alloys.)
#7
Burning Brakes
Thread Starter
Yes, I do think it is ridiculous
But he does have a nice car to drive the other 6 months of the year though
That's my 'winter beater' too ... 2009 G8 GT ... similar in appearance too, black with 17" winter tires on aftermarket aluminum rims.
(Side rant: people spend thousands on rims because it means something to them for their car to look good ... only to put on steelies for 5 months of the year ... what, you suddenly don't care how your car looks for those months? Spend the extra $30/corner for at least a cheap set of alloys.)
How does the G8 handle the heavy snow fall you guys received this winter?
Yeah, these were one of the cheapest option for me back in Sept '09 from Tire Rack.
As no one knew what 17" rims would clear the front brakes at the time.
Plus the MSW (designed by OZ) rims were on clearance too
I would get made fun of all the time...because my winter rims looked better than the stock 18" rims during the summer time
But he does have a nice car to drive the other 6 months of the year though
(Side rant: people spend thousands on rims because it means something to them for their car to look good ... only to put on steelies for 5 months of the year ... what, you suddenly don't care how your car looks for those months? Spend the extra $30/corner for at least a cheap set of alloys.)
Yeah, these were one of the cheapest option for me back in Sept '09 from Tire Rack.
As no one knew what 17" rims would clear the front brakes at the time.
Plus the MSW (designed by OZ) rims were on clearance too
I would get made fun of all the time...because my winter rims looked better than the stock 18" rims during the summer time
Last edited by Mike Jung; 02-04-2014 at 06:37 PM.
#8
edit: a pic from today
Last edited by 1500cc; 02-05-2014 at 04:14 PM.
#9
Le Mans Master
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Good post mike jung, i have one yet to see any vette, but i see mustangs all the time and very times saw new camaro and occasionally i do see old camaros too, but never saw any vette in real time.
I want patman to come over and add additional advise as he used his C5 for 2-3 years continuous.
Driving my Asian import and missed the vette bad real bad....
I want patman to come over and add additional advise as he used his C5 for 2-3 years continuous.
Driving my Asian import and missed the vette bad real bad....
#12
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Madmax: dont worry about how dirty it looks, some times dirty and bad is better...hahah.
Details chief, what tires? drive ability story, issues?
I am strongly thinking making vette a year round next year, right now with Nitto NT01 tires it dont even wanna get out of garage, tires just spin even with trac OFF and gas modulation.....tires have 5/32" tread but took me one hr just to back off garage and park again.
Details chief, what tires? drive ability story, issues?
I am strongly thinking making vette a year round next year, right now with Nitto NT01 tires it dont even wanna get out of garage, tires just spin even with trac OFF and gas modulation.....tires have 5/32" tread but took me one hr just to back off garage and park again.
#13
Instructor
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I used to have a 350z that I drove year round, it honestly wasn't that bad to drive. I contemplated driving the z06 year round, but I have it way too low right now to really attempt it and I didn't want to go through the hassle of sorting out the right ride height again raising it up.
#14
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Sami, this is an old picture, I don't subject my car to this weather anymore...I never tried putting snow tires or all-seasons in the car but if you did I think that you could drive her 350 days of the year in Toronto weather. I would not recommend on heavy snow days as the clearance is very low and you will just be "sitting" on the snow.
Madmax: dont worry about how dirty it looks, some times dirty and bad is better...hahah.
Details chief, what tires? drive ability story, issues?
I am strongly thinking making vette a year round next year, right now with Nitto NT01 tires it dont even wanna get out of garage, tires just spin even with trac OFF and gas modulation.....tires have 5/32" tread but took me one hr just to back off garage and park again.
Details chief, what tires? drive ability story, issues?
I am strongly thinking making vette a year round next year, right now with Nitto NT01 tires it dont even wanna get out of garage, tires just spin even with trac OFF and gas modulation.....tires have 5/32" tread but took me one hr just to back off garage and park again.
#15
Drifting
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Drive my Carrera all winter long....rear wheel drive......just praying the snow does not get too deep.
Just call me nuts .....
Worth it though ..... 95% of the winter season.
Cheers Mike...hope all is well.
Just call me nuts .....
Worth it though ..... 95% of the winter season.
Cheers Mike...hope all is well.
#16
Race Director
This is the first winter, in I don't know how many winters, that I haven't taken my car out at least once a week for a drive. Since I had my Camaro from 97 to '06,
my C5 from '06 to '09 and my '05 from '12 thru to now. Mind you, I only drove the cars when the roads were dry and free of snow and slush.
My last drive in the Vette was back at New Years. Haven't sat in her since.
With the right tires and being properly prepared, like that guy in Montreal, there's no reason why you can't drive these cars all year round if you wanted too.
my C5 from '06 to '09 and my '05 from '12 thru to now. Mind you, I only drove the cars when the roads were dry and free of snow and slush.
My last drive in the Vette was back at New Years. Haven't sat in her since.
With the right tires and being properly prepared, like that guy in Montreal, there's no reason why you can't drive these cars all year round if you wanted too.
#17
Safety Car
#18
Race Director
Days like today are the reason you can't. These cars sit too low and on unplowed roads they themselves become the snow plow! The best tires in the world can't make up for the fact that the undercarriage is a few short inches off the ground.
I drove my old C5 for 7 winters, and honestly, it was one of the most foolish things I've ever done. I am seriously lucky that I didn't kill myself. These cars are simply not meant for being driven in the winter up here. I did it because I had no choice, I didn't have a parking space for a third car back then (or the money for one) so my choice was either to daily drive the C5 or not own a C5 at all. But for those of you that aren't in that situation, the choice is simple, get a car that is properly suited to a Toronto winter. You can get away with daily driving a Corvette in cities that only receive minor snowfalls, but if there is any chance at all that you'll be driving after a 10cm+ snowfall with lackluster snowplowing, good luck, because you're gonna need it as you WILL get stuck, or worse.
#19
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#20
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Days like today are the reason you can't. These cars sit too low and on unplowed roads they themselves become the snow plow! The best tires in the world can't make up for the fact that the undercarriage is a few short inches off the ground.
I drove my old C5 for 7 winters, and honestly, it was one of the most foolish things I've ever done. I am seriously lucky that I didn't kill myself. These cars are simply not meant for being driven in the winter up here. I did it because I had no choice, I didn't have a parking space for a third car back then (or the money for one) so my choice was either to daily drive the C5 or not own a C5 at all. But for those of you that aren't in that situation, the choice is simple, get a car that is properly suited to a Toronto winter. You can get away with daily driving a Corvette in cities that only receive minor snowfalls, but if there is any chance at all that you'll be driving after a 10cm+ snowfall with lackluster snowplowing, good luck, because you're gonna need it as you WILL get stuck, or worse.
I drove my old C5 for 7 winters, and honestly, it was one of the most foolish things I've ever done. I am seriously lucky that I didn't kill myself. These cars are simply not meant for being driven in the winter up here. I did it because I had no choice, I didn't have a parking space for a third car back then (or the money for one) so my choice was either to daily drive the C5 or not own a C5 at all. But for those of you that aren't in that situation, the choice is simple, get a car that is properly suited to a Toronto winter. You can get away with daily driving a Corvette in cities that only receive minor snowfalls, but if there is any chance at all that you'll be driving after a 10cm+ snowfall with lackluster snowplowing, good luck, because you're gonna need it as you WILL get stuck, or worse.