Did Some Snow-Rallying!

[Stealth01]

But not in the MS6.

Since my teenage son is about a month from getting his license, I decided to take him out, find a parking lot, and get him practice recovering from skids in the Grand Cherokee (which will be his primary vehicle).

I have to say, several things impressed me about the GC.

1. It's a tough vehicle to get going sideways. We were on solid ice with snow cover and had to really gun it and turn the wheel to get into a good skid.

2. Recovering was easy. Not as good as the MS6, but still very good. The Goodyear Integritys that came on the Jeep were far better in this situation than I thought they would be. They're rated HORRIBLY on Tirerack.com, but no matter how hard I tried to toss it around, I was always able to recover the GC within a couple of seconds. And I tossed it HARD.

3. The ABS are noisy as hell in this thing. All kinds of rattling and scraping as we worked on skids and stopping and so on. Everything worked OK, but it sounded like it was falling apart. I'm sure part of that was the crappy tires, but it sounded like a brake heat shield was scraping, and things were creaking all over the place.

4. Even with the crappy all-seasons, starting on ice was flawless as long as we used a little caution and didn't gun it. The traction control works very well on startup. Not as well as the MS6 in turns, but very well on startup. No slippage that we could feel unless we got on it a little.

Overall, it gave me a good, warm-fuzzy feeling knowing the Jeep handles snow/ice so well, even on cow-dung tires like this. I can't imagine what it would be like if we put some Blizzaks on it.

[chickenwafer]

You're making me jealous of your snow capabilities, LOL. I spun my truck TWICE on the way to work today. Partly due to the fact I just moved here from Arizona and haven't driven in snow since I was 19 and lived in Pittsburgh, and the fact my F-350 wasn't in 4x4 and has 40% tread BFGs, LOL.

Now I have to go drop $1k on new tires, ugh, truck tires are so expensive.

[Stealth01]

Hee hee. Had a little fun in the MS6 this morning, but not much. The snow was bad in places, but I'd just start to get into a nice sideways slide when the snow would disappear and I'd be on dry pavement. That's rather...shocking. So I stopped and just drove.

[tbot]

yeah i tried having some fun driving to work today in the MS6, but the traction control aways kicked in and took over and "saved the day" plus the tires that were on it are AMAZING and was shocked at how well they have done in this weather.

[Stealth01]

You know, you can turn traction control off....

[tbot]

oh i do but then things get WAY outa hand haha

[Operator]

It'd be nice if I can get back from the field, in time to have some fun in the snow too. I've yet to really get to drive the whip in the snow. Though, I do still have summers on...

[Tyler [S5 FC]]

I drove an MS6 in a snowy parking lot, and as far as I was told, it has constant traction control that you can't turn off. So it wassn't very much fun at all. Can you turn it off? Haha, maybe she just didn't want me messin up her car. All I have to say is an Rx7 with studded tires has to be the most fun thing in the winter time! Almost more fun than snowboarding. I even took that thing around garden of the gods! Video....

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASGI8Eldn3U"]YouTube - FC Snowy Hairpin Drift[/ame]

And yes, I spun out
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJ5hozjAVSg&feature=related"]YouTube - FC Snow Drift Spinout[/ame]

Hard to tell I'm sliding, but hey, its not easy on this skinny road!

[Stealth01]

You can turn it off. DSC button, lower left of the dash.

[erod550]

I wish I had AWD. The only way I can do any snow "drifting" is by yanking the e-brake. I did take the wife's '08 Impreza 2.5i out though when the snow was here a few days ago and had some fun doing some drifting on side streets and in a parking lot on my way to chik-fil-a. It was a very small window in the Springs though because the roads didn't stay slick enough for drifting for very long. It ended up being more like what Stealth said, where just when you get it sliding you'd hit a dry patch and that's no fun. My wife's gutless Impreza is fun as hell on the slick stuff though. I can only imagine how fun it must be to have an awd car with balls in the snow.

The nice thing is that even on the stock all-seasons, if you don't turn traction control off, it's actually pretty hard to get that car upset, which is perfect for her because she hates driving on snow and is always scared. So it's nice to have that security for her. But for me when I like to play in the snow I can just turn off the traction control and have some fun.

[erod550]

I wish I had AWD. The only snow "drifting" I can do is by yanking the e-brake. I did take the wife's '08 Impreza 2.5i out though when the snow was here a few days ago and did some playing on empty side streets and in a parking lot on my way to Chik-Fil-A. It was a pretty small window in the Springs though as pretty quickly the roads cleared up enough that it was like Stealth said, slick enough to get it sliding and then boom a dry spot, so not worth even messing around in it. But even my wife's gutless car is fun as hell in the slick stuff. I can only imagine how fun an AWD car with balls would be to drive in the snow.

The nice thing about my wife's Impreza though is that even on the stock all-seasons it is a tank in the snow. It's very hard to get that car upset with the traction control on, which is great for her since she hates driving on the snow and always gets scared. For me though when I want to take it out and have some fun, I can just turn the traction off and slide around as much as I want while still feeling in full control of the car. Fun stuff.