IT’S TIME TO BUST YOUR BAD WINTER DRIVING HABITS FOR A BETTER RIDE
Lessons learned from a frozen lake provide five tips essential for safe commuting
EAGLE RIVER, WIS. Whether it’s snow, sleet, freezing rain or flurries, every winter storm has the same result: everyone else on the road seems to forget how to drive.
Come on. We can do better. And there’s no better way to learn how to do better than on a frozen lake. It’s the perfect place to break your bad winter-driving habits. Subaru seems to agree. The Winter Experience program, hosted by the automaker’s U.S. division, along with Flatout Sweden and DirtFish Motorsports, is a crash course on the fundamentals of, well, not crashing.
Running from mid-February to the beginning of March, the program puts you behind the wheel of Subaru’s crop of sporty cars, including the WRX, STI and BRZ, and equips you with skills that could keep you out of snowbanks, ditches and guard rails, and even save your life.
Here are a few lessons we learned that you can apply on your next wintry commute. You don’t need to be a professional rally driver or a Subaru owner. You just need a warm jacket, a Thermos full of common sense, and your snow brush.
It’s all in the tires: Subaru supplies all the equipment for the Winter Experience, including the cars. They’re wildly different beasts, but the common denominator here is the tires. All cars were dressed with proper winter rubber.
Proper winter tires play a crucial role in safe winter driving. The harder temperatures fall, the harder “all-season” rubber becomes. This reduces traction and, more importantly, increases braking distances. All-weather tires are a viable alternative to true winter tires, but all-season tires are not.
Be gentle and keep your distance: In most winter driving conditions, sudden inputs and reactions — whether it’s flooring it from a stoplight in a snowstorm, jerking the steering wheel or slamming on the brakes — will upset the balance of your car. In controlled situations this can be fun. Jamming the BRZ’s throttle with stability and traction control fully disabled resulted in a pretty sweet snow burnout at Subaru’s Winter Experience. But when you’re driving home from the grocery store and the snow is flying, it can be scary. The last thing you need is to slam on the brakes and slide into the car ahead of you, or have your back-end kicking out because you got on the throttle a bit too quickly while making a left turn. So be gentle with inputs and leave some distance from the car ahead. The key to not upsetting your car in nasty weather is looking ahead and going easy on the pedals.
All-wheel drive: “I don’t need winter tires because I’ve got all-wheel drive.” This is a common myth that deserves its own lesson. Subaru engineers one of the best all-wheel-drive systems in the business. On snow and ice, its cars deliver grip in spades. But no matter how advanced your car’s all-wheel-drive system may be, it’s only as good as the tires you are using. If you thumb your nose at two-wheel drive cars with proper winter tires while you’re running all-seasons on your AWD crossover, you’re fooling yourself.
Reduce your speed: On top of all this, none of this matters if your speed isn’t in check. One exercise from Subaru’s Winter Experience is an emergency lane change, designed to mimic an obstacle suddenly appearing up front.
Taken at about 60 km/ h, the idea is to hit the brakes until the ABS kicks in, maintain braking pressure, and steer away from the obstacle before letting off on the brakes and getting back on the throttle. The Swedish call this the Moose Test, and it’s a straightforward exercise on dry pavement. Add a fresh blanket of snow, and it becomes almost impossible to complete the test at 60 km/ h. Moral of the story: Slow down. See and be seen: Vision is crucial, whether it’s seeing out of your car or others seeing you. It’s foolish to drive at night with just your daytime running lights; it’s downright stupid to do so in a snowstorm. Other cars need to see you, so flip your car’s headlight switch and light up those tail lights. Oh, and for Pete’s sake, clear all that snow off your car before you hit the road. It’s not rocket science: others need to see your lights, and you need to see out all of your windows.
Know how your car behaves: Believe it or not, your car communicates with you, and not just through dashboard warning lights and error messages. When you’re on the verge of losing control of your car, it’ll let you know through the steering wheel or particular sounds. It’s also up to you to know how much pedal action your car takes before it slides, or what to listen (and feel) for when the tires begin to lose grip. You should know how the pedals feel when ABS and other assists kick in.
Most advanced driver training courses — including Subaru’s Winter Experience — teach you how to identify these idiosyncrasies and how to regain control using the proper techniques and corrections.
A solid rule of thumb is that unless you’re stuck, keep the vehicle’s stability and traction control activated.