My daughter was the first one to work this morning and there was a little bit of fresh snow on the ground. She sent me this pic. It's nice to see the little parental wins now and then.
My daughter was the first one to work this morning and there was a little bit of fresh snow on the ground. She sent me this pic. It's nice to see the little parental wins now and then.
Best thing I've seen on the web today!
I'm a believer in young people doing donuts in snowy parking lots. It teaches them car control and the feeling of sliding.
It's better in a $500 beater Oldsmobile Delta 88 though.....
glueguy (Forum Supporter) said:Best thing I've seen on the web today!
It just warms the heart, doesn't it? :)
Adding "doing donuts in a snowy parking lot" to my list of drawbacks of living in Florida.
Nice! We used to do Donuts with Dad when my kids were younger and learning to drive, but I dont think my daughter has gone out and spontaneously done donuts on her own yet.
Buddy Dave's mom's early 80's Buick wagon was fun also, but doughnuts had to be done in reverse.
In reply to OHSCrifle :
Only other redeeming fun trick to FWD in the snow is perfecting your reverse bootleg and e-brake action.
Although I suspect jfryjfry could pitch in here with some superior moves to perfect
I've been known to pitch my car sideways into a parking space on occasion at work. Then I remember the school has cameras everywhere!
Fun with my 4 year old.
Any time we went to a closed store lot after dark to ..."practice," the cops would be on us like flies on E36 M3. No fun in this town.
I spent a lot of time in snowy parking lots as a youth. We had a RWD Olds. Then it was a FWD Passat that you could left foot brake. Then we got a Subaru and I spent a lot of time learning how to do big sideways drifts - figure 8s around light poles. And a Golf that had overboosted brakes so you couldn't left foot brake smoothly, so it was all about the handbrake. But all of it was about car control and sliding, disguised as low-consequence hooning.
It's served me well. I'm no drifter, but I can steer my way out of a power slide comfortably and I've been able to use handbrake turns without pre-planning when necessary. Everyone should spend some time in a big empty snowy parking lot.
Keith Tanner said:Everyone should spend some time in a big empty snowy parking lot.
It should be a requirement wherever possible, IMO.
Motojunky said:Keith Tanner said:Everyone should spend some time in a big empty snowy parking lot.
It should be a requirement wherever possible, IMO.
Seconded.
rslifkin said:Motojunky said:Keith Tanner said:Everyone should spend some time in a big empty snowy parking lot.
It should be a requirement wherever possible, IMO.
Seconded.
Chuck, the guy that taught me wrenching, told me about the time he flew into some city in the middle of a snow storm.
He got his rental car, then slowly and carefully drove to the first sufficiently large empty lot he could find, then spent some time figuring out how the car handled and where it lost grip in the slush.
About 10 minutes in a cop shows up, asks him what the hell he is doing and he explains that its a rental he isn't familiar with and wants to not end up in a ditch.
Cop lets him do his thing, about 20 minutes more and he felt confident in the car and waved at the cop and left.
Doubt you could do that today.
In reply to Mr_Asa :
I'll bet you could. Just like then, it's all a matter of finding the right lot and the right cop.
I used to do a program during high school that had me at a shopping mall past closing time every Tuesday night. If it snowed while we were in there, we'd spend a good half hour hooning around before heading home - they wouldn't clear the snow until early in the morning. We stopped after news reports that someone had left a grenade in a box in the parking lot one night, and we figured we probably would have used it as a pylon. I also spent a lot of time at the parking lot for the local sports stadium which was always empty in the winter. Never met a single police officer whilst "practicing".
Now, the one time my girlfriend and I tried to find a peaceful place to park, that's a different story...
Good stuff! My son is in the Philippines right now. It hasn't been easy. I had to talk him down from bailing on the trip yesterday. What gives me a chuckle is that besides his mom and I, what he says that he misses most is his car. Personally I'd think that roaming around the tropics on a motor scooter would be a blast, but I guess that he misses that 450 HP!
We did get stopped with my son once in the fairgrounds parking lot. He's always been a great BS'er and just deadpan said 'My dad is teaching me skid control so I'll be safe this winter' . Cop looks in at me, says 'OK be safe' gets back in his cruiser and does a donut on his way out.
Joke's on him, as Nick's motto has always been 'safety fourth'. Case in point, last night he comes around the corner and into the driveway sideways kicking up nice rooster tails as a realtor and possible new neighbors are walking into the house...(could be a positive as the couple had a Mach E GT).
Motojunky said:Keith Tanner said:Everyone should spend some time in a big empty snowy parking lot.
It should be a requirement wherever possible, IMO.
Many years ago the nearby mill pond froze over and I took the kids and their field car over and let them drive around for a couple hours. A cop stopped by, asked what we were doing and said, have fun, be careful. I'm not sure what the legalities are of driving a car on a pond, but he didn't seem to think there was anything wrong with it.
I did it for fun, but in hindsight it was great training for them
Best time we had was in like 2000 KC iced over. I had some friends with me in my FWD Olds 88. Caravaning with an '84 GT that could get absolutely nowhere so he parked it and climbed in and we went happily e-braking all over Overland Park. We went to the Town Center parking lot to play as described above.
They would point out a parking spot and I would aim to slip and spin my way to just like slowly slide my way into it.
It eventually got so, SO slippery that these dudes got out and held onto my rear wheel arches and I would flick them away across the lot - ice skating on their shoes. Dude, so much fun.
My daughter is accruing hours to get her license this coming August. Her school has a nice long winding driveway, I took the whole thing very sideways and in control which prompted a question about parking lot donuts. This is the year to teach. Armada in 2WD, traction control off, shifted manually (just left it in second), plenty of engine control.
akylekoz said:My daughter is accruing hours to get her license this coming August. Her school has a nice long winding driveway, I took the whole thing very sideways and in control which prompted a question about parking lot donuts. This is the year to teach. Armada in 2WD, traction control off, shifted manually (just left it in second), plenty of engine control.
Traction control... that's a whole different conversation and necessary lesson. My neighbor has a long, uphill, gravel driveway. It has been cold, so the snow we got earlier in the week hasn't melted off like it usually does. When I came home from work the other night, he was struggling to get the family car up the hill. I could hear the traction control shutting down any progress he was making. After a quick discussion about traction control and wheel speed, he was able to get it done. He's not a car guy and the idea that traction control was hindering his progress just didn't compute for him.
Motojunky said:Traction control... that's a whole different conversation and necessary lesson. My neighbor has a long, uphill, gravel driveway. It has been cold, so the snow we got earlier in the week hasn't melted off like it usually does. When I came home from work the other night, he was struggling to get the family car up the hill. I could hear the traction control shutting down any progress he was making. After a quick discussion about traction control and wheel speed, he was able to get it done. He's not a car guy and the idea that traction control was hindering his progress just didn't compute for him.
That's a big one. Stuff like traction control can help in some situations, but it's important to be able to feel what it's doing and determine when it's not helping.
I've found in a straight line, the E38 traction control is great in snow in most situations. It'll allow a controlled amount of wheel slip (about 5% IIRC) and just gently reduces power as needed to maintain that, no big power cuts that kill momentum. It gets far too aggressive about cutting power if you spin the wheels while turning though, as they really don't want the tail coming out. So there are definitely some "quick, turn it off" moments at times.
Back to the original thread, I'll never forget the first time it snowed shortly after I bought the Jeep (~15 years ago). My dad just looked at me and said "grab your keys, we're going drifting".
I should get some video of my kiddos doing donuts in their quads in the snow... My 5 year old has learned how to shift his weight forward, give the bars a flick and apply generous throttle to drift around turns. Really a sight to behold. Little dude rips on a 50cc.
My daughter is infinitely more responsible.
My fiance was actually excited to go to her doc appointment yesterday as she wanted to drive the CX-5 (since it's AWD) in the snow just to see how it would do. The doc called her a little bit ago and canceled her appt.
Oklahoman's are becoming soft. They canceled school yesterday, because the temperature was slightly below freezing.
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