Many of you probably can't even conceive of what it's like to drive a 500HP, rear-wheel drive car in blizzard conditions.....

Generally, winter driving is not much drama. I've got a fresh set of Bridgestone Blizzak LM-60s on the car, so traction is pretty decent. But yesterday we had a quick storm that dumped between 8 - 10" of snow while I was at work, so I knew it was going to be a fun drive up the long hill back to my home. I put the car into "raised mode" and set off to find out...

In the past, I've always just left the ESP on and with a decent bit of momentum, the car would modulate the throttle for me and although I would lose some speed on the hill climbs I'd still get to the top. That technique finally failed me yesterday... After a long steady climb uphill, I needed to make a dogleg right turn up the final 1/4 mile of the hill. An oncoming car was having a tough time of it, and drifted toward the center of the road (coming downhill) so I had no choice but to ease off the gas and pull to the right to give him some room.

Bad move.

My momentum dropped to basically zero, and while the ESP light was blinking wildly and doing it's best.... the car went from 20MPH.....to 10MPH......to 0 MPH...... even though I was stabbing the throttle trying to coax something more from the car. I was stuck!

I backed down the hill a bit, to center myself in the road and gave it another go...... same results. Just couldn't get the car to pick up any speed, or even get a "steady state" speed out of it. It was time to try a new technique.

Last summer I had a Quaife LSD installed, and I've never had much of a reason to really experiment with it. I switched the ESP off and lined myself up in the center of the road again and gave it the beans!....
Obviously, the immediate result was lots of wheelspin... but as I modulated the throttle down a bit, the car actually DID start to move forward.... quite well actually. I started to pick up speed and while there was some pronounced tail-wagging, it was completely manageable. I just kept dipping my foot into the throttle to find that optimum balance of wheelspin vs road speed. Too much throttle slowed me down, but with just the right amount of wheelspin the car just clawed it's way beautifully up the final stretch of the hill.....


It was a total success. I can't say for sure if the results would have been similar without an LSD installed, but I really enjoyed being able to wag the car around a bit without that "vague" feeling you get when you do the same thing in with an open diff (especially with ESP enabled)....


Turned out to be a pretty fun drive home.




-G

 

here is what happens when I drive in a blizzard...

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v...20536471640512

 

That's a fun way to clear the snow off the cul-de-sac!!!! Well played...


-G

 

the donuts were so perfect, with a light feathering of the throttle, I was able to stay inside the same tire lines

 

Had a similar storm here in NYC on Monday. Car wouldn't move w. ESP on. So I drove all day w. ESP off and it worked like a charm. You won't notice the LSD much in the snow, it really shines under hard braking into a corner or acceleration out of a corner. And it depends on the lock.

 

Greg - You sold me on the LSD -
I've been working on getting this taken care of this spring.

8" - 10" is a lot of snow to take the beast out - Whew your a brave man.

 

This has been the best rear wheel drive car I have ever driven in the snow. I had Blizzaks too and they were incredible! I am surprised traction control did not help you more. On our vehicles, even with traction control supposedly off, it is not completely off. I am sure the LSD helped though … good justification for those that need to justify it … it's a safety feature :p

Be safe

 

Not sure about our cars but an LSD would've helped in my 300D. It is very noticeable under acceleration as one side gets traction and the other side does not.

 

Interesting, I had my LSD installed this summer...i noticed in turns the car would lose the rear end more with the ESP on in the rain....so i actually stored it this year....i though the LSD made cornering worse for me....actually it may be the 190Hp over stock that was added...next year blizzaks go back on maybe....i found that when the car was stock with snow tires and ESP on, car was fine even in bad storms.

 

Do it. The car definitely feels more planted with the LSD. Hard to describe exactly, but because the wheelspeed is more consistent from side to side the ESP interferes less... for me at least, I feel like I'm driving the car more and not noticing "the computer" trying to always take over for me....


I'm sure it's something you need to adjust to.... without an LSD, the power is always going to take the path of least resistance. In a corner, the inside tire is going to unload and all your power is just going to spin that wheel (until ESP kicks in). The outside tire is still going to have traction for cornering, but it's not putting down any power either.


With an LSD, you've got both tires working equally hard to push the car forward, but once you break traction in a corner they are both going to slide. It becomes more of a driver's car, I suppose.... get your braking done early (in a straight line), turn in, roll into the throttle until you feel the tires start to scrabble for traction and then slowly unwind the wheel and feed-in throttle as the car starts to point itself straight again.....




-G

 

I've had 2 E55 cars. Both down here in Dallas, so granted not a lot of snow to deal with.

The sedan I had shod with Conti DWS, and snow driving was about as drama free as anything. Just leave the electronic nannies in place, point, and squeeze. We had a couple of 4-6" snows while I had the sedan, and it would just sedately motor on through.

It's snowing this morning, maybe an inch or two so far. Driving lanes are clear and dry, but intersections are pretty slick. I drove the E55 wagon into work. It's shod with Michelin PSS, with maybe 2mm left to the wear bars. Gotta take it real easy because traction is seriously limited. No drama though. Again, just let the traction control and ABS do their jobs. That said, I did have to alter my route to work, there is a short hill of perhaps 10% grade on my typical route - no way the car was going to make it up that.

 

few years ago, I had a 95 M3 with summer tires and we got a surprise snow storm.

I was going up a steep hill with the car moving at about 20mph but the indicated wheel speed at 120mph. I was in about 4th gear at 5000rpm. Not the most efficient way to do it, but the damn thing made it up the hill.

Sometimes wheel spin is the answer.

 

ITS BEAUTIFUL this morning in dallas bro! Loved the drive into work

 

Yup, it's all about the tires.

 

Haha lol --- I was in the exact same situation in December.

I came down hill to see the frozen lake 15 mins from my house. I didn't realize that the hill was very steep until I decided to go back up.

On my way back up the hill , the ESP kept cutting me off and I would just getting stuck right in the middle.

So what I did was, went back down, turned the ESP off , put it in first gear and feathering the pedal went up -this allowed me to

gain momentum and due to the lack of ESP cutting off me off I was able to drive back up.


Sometimes you need slight slip which moves the snow away and you get traction lol sounds counter productive but it works.

I have Hankooks 245 /40 / R18 all around I think winter icept.

I'll try blizzard if I keep the car until next winter lol

 

I am nh and drove in that snow too and have the same snow tires gregmb!

 

Here in Colorado we have had a couple weeks of below zero temperatures with really wet snow so a layer of ice underneath and more wet, slick snow on top of it. I have a 4-Matic but Tuesday night found myself behind the wheel of my friend's E55 taking it up a hill in Castle Pines with a layer of ice and a few inches of snow that was beginning to grow as snowfall began (again). I have to say even on all season tires, we were able to make it up the hill and all I had to do was turn ESP off and jab the throttle at the right times to get some momentum going. A brand new Mustang GT couldn't make it up the hill but a 2004 E55 did just fine.

When I had summer tires on last year on the same hill in the 4-Matic, I was able to make it up perfectly fine with ESP on and a little bit of patience whereas a WRX wagon (out of all cars lol) was not able to and had to pull off to the side, really a testament to the excellent drivetrains Mercedes builds and the smart electronics to go along with it. Granted it's hard to know what the other person is running as far as tires are concerned and their condition but I'm thoroughly impressed that in situations where even some SUVs with 4-wheel-drive and blocky tire patterns spun out or didn't make it up a hill the 4-Matic does just fine. If I do turn traction control off I can do some very fun all-wheel-drive donuts and kick the back end out quite well .

 

cool to hear an E55 made it up several tough spots/hills that other cars couldnt. I have a set of Michelin Alpinas and are ok. They are performance/winter tires, not dedicated snow tires. Did okay in the 2 inches that hit a week ago.

On my E500 4matic, 4 years ago, i drove through 10 inches of slush/snow with no problems at all, while SUVs, trucks, vans, all had trouble and shaking their heads as i passed them.

 

are you on facebook?

I think next year a set of studded snows will adorn my forgestars