The Safety Cult wants you to be afraid of driving in the snow. It wants you to rely on “technology” rather than skill to get through the snow. It’s why so many people can’t deal with driving in the snow.
A counter-intuitive way to make the point is to point out one of the most capable-in-snow vehicles ever made, which had no “technology” to speak of beyond an engine and a transmission. It didn’t even have snow tires. What made it so adept at fording through the frozen effluvia were two attributes that are not found in almost any new car and no new car, together.
The first was a rear-mounted engine, driving the rear wheels.
People are told by “experts” that rear-wheel-drive means not being able to drive in the snow. These “experts” have convinced millions of people they must have at least front-wheel-drive and (ideally) all-wheel-drive and the proposition appears sound. After all, having all four wheels pulling for you–and being pulled rather than pushed–seems advantageous vs. just two wheels pushing.
Unless, of course, something is pushing down on those wheels.
The Mystery Car that forms the subject of this example was not just rear-drive. It was rear-engined. The weight of that engine pushed down on the wheels that were pushing the car forward — and they were able to cut down through the snow to the pavement below because they were tall and skinny, like pizza pie plates. This latter being the second attribute — and one unavailable with any vehicle built in the past couple of decades.
Perhaps you know the Mystery Car’s name.
It was the original VW Beetle. Designed decades before there was “technology” to “assist” in snow driving.
It had no traction or stability control; no “modes” for snow.
Instead, effective design for dealing with snow. Something the Germans who designed it knew a lot about. If you knew how to drive it in the snow, an old Beetle could and would get you through it.
Today’s cars are designed at cross-purposes for dealing with it.
The one rear-engined car you can still buy new–the Porsche 911–rides low on wide wheels and steamroller tires that negate the snow-day traction advantage of having the engine sitting on top of the drive wheels. Porsche 911s handle superbly, but they’re not really made for the snow ironically.
Front-drive/all-wheel-drive cars have the functional advantage of pulling rather than pushing and all four wheels pulling. But they often have the disadvantage of wheels (and tires) that diminish these advantages. “Sport” tires designed for dry and wet weather grip but not for traction in snow. They also often ride so low to the ground that they ride over the snow, compounding the problem. Most also have “technology” (traction/stability control) that can reduce it in certain situations where a driver in control would do a better job of maintaining the vehicle’s momentum.
When the “technology” senses wheel-slip (loss of traction) the electronic reaction is to reduce engine power and (sometimes) to apply braking power. This does stabilize the vehicle’s “line” or rather its direction of travel. But it can also reduce its momentum at precisely the moment when that is the last thing you want assuming you want to make it up that snow-and-ice-slicked incline.
A driver who knows how to control his vehicle can do so even when the vehicle isn’t tracking straight. A good example of this being the professional drifters who go through the corners sideways, but under control.
Of course, this takes skill–something no longer expected of drivers.
Instead, “technology.”
Many new vehicles have traction/stability control that either cannot be fully disabled (as in entirely turned off by the driver) or which peremptorily comes back on after the vehicle reaches a certain speed. This takes control over from the driver, who is presumed to need it even in situations where a skilled driver doesn’t.
No modern cars have ABS (anti-lock brakes) that can be even partially disabled. This means you cannot lock the wheels up, which can give you more control in certain driving situations. Note that race cars do not have ABS. And high-performance driving schools have cars fitted with ABS off switches.
With ABS, which usually works with the traction/stability control system, the wheels will continue to rotate as the system applies braking pressure and then releases it. This can increase stopping distances on ice, for instance, vs. a driver who knows how to apply the brakes on ice.
The classic Beetle gave the driver full control over everything, down to the shifting. Most old Beetles had manual rather than automatic transmissions. It gave the driver the necessary equipment for dealing with snow, in other words rather than “technology.” If the driver had the skills to use that equipment, snow was not a problem just as a framing square is all you need to build a square wall or straight set of stairs assuming you know how to use a framing square.
If you don’t, all the “technology” in the world isn’t going to make up for its lack.
Eric Peters lives in Virginia and enjoys driving cars and motorcycles. In the past, Eric worked as a car journalist for many prominent mainstream media outlets. Currently, he focuses his time writing auto history books, reviewing cars, and blogging about cars+ for his website EricPetersAutos.com.
Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.
As a resident of Ottawa Ontario, I do have a bit of experience with driving in snow. And I believe that you article is missing a few points.
Yes, I remember the BUG, I even remember the ad with “how the snow plow driver gets to the snow plow”. The bug was not all that bad in snow, and the weight over the drive wheels did help. The current rransit buses used here also use that system, BIG heavy engine over the rear wheels. They sometimes get stuck, JUST BECAUSE rear wheel drive means that the snow can build up on the front of the front wheels if they have too much snow to roll over.
The next improvement was FWD. The back wheels can drag if they don’t roll over the snow. But since the front is pulling the car, experienced drivers can do more with FWD.
Radial tires also were an improvement.
BUT in bad snow, you need snow tires. In the RWD days folks used only two snow tires at the back. These days it is normal to use a set of 4. My car has nice ones made by Goodyear in the USA. They are asymmetrical and really dig in, they look nothing like the lug tread snow tires of the 1960s.
While I personally felt insulted when ABS came along, it “pumps the brakes” far faster than any human. I quickly learned that the computer knew there was slip before I could tell traction was bad, and I have driven in snow for 40 winters.
AWD is even better. I have effortlessly got the car out after the snow came and buried it up to the top of the wheels.
Traction control, a sometimes good/sometimes bad feature, BUT that can be turned off