BLUEMOMENT

I have just driven from Inverness to Aberdeen (via Elgin ) there is about an inch of snow on the road at one of the long crawler lane uphill sections- cars all over the place, drivers slowing to a crawl at the bottom of the hill, hazard lights on.... Have these people never heard of momentum? Who teaches them to drive like this? The car in front of me, a corsa, climbed the hill no problem, as did the one behind me so why are there about a dozen cars sitting spinning wheels? Is it all these wide and low profile tyres?
Rant over, thanks for reading!

Yep, possibly the 'fat tyre' fashion comes to grief in a light covering. Maybe instead of fitting the chains (which are still in the garage - or worse Halfords) why not fit the skinny spare to one of the driving wheels and keep an eye on the traction control system? I think this is when diesels come into their own -low rev grunt with no stall.. Anyone who's science teacher told them how ice-skates work will know about the anomalous expansion of water and why ice is sometimes slippy and other times sticky. And still they revvvvvvvvvv.

I seem to remember that Saabs were so successful in snowy rallies because of their narrow wheels. That and drivers like Eric Carlsson.

I moved to Scotland from Iceland where we had snow a little more of the year than here in Scotland.
Winter tyres were compulsory. On a certain date all change! But more important is technique. Driving ultra slow is suicide. So is revving the engine and spinning the tyres. And we used to say that the safe distance to follow another is to allow enough space to spin a 360 degree turn between you and them, and that's about right. Yet we see people driving on ice a car's length from the one in front. Those two severe snow winters we had back a few years, I didn't have winter tyres, drove to work every day along back roads often unploughed, and hardly had a problem. The two occasions I did get stuck (car bottomed out), the shovel in my boot was the answer. Supporting rant also over.

My winter tyres were ordered for Saturday. They didn't arrive. My sets of snow chains from previous vehicles don't fit the new tank..On Sunday I drove over the Rest in a blizzard in a rear wheel car notorious for being less than stellar in snow.
I kept a hundred meters distance from the FWD car crawling along in front, if that choob had slowed any more I'd have had to pass him or get out and push.( Vauxhall heap)

Winter driving should be part of the driving test instead of those stupid hazard ID pictures..

We leave snowflake-marked winter tyres on one car all year round as we have a steep unadopted track to climb to reach the lanes. A diesel Renault Clio on snow tyres has proved to be a far more capable winter vehicle than all our neighbours 4x4s on their over-wide tyres - it'll pull through pretty much anything as long as it doesn't get beached.

When I lived in the Alps the best car for winter was a 2CV....

The Hoorays in Range Rovers were all over the place while Pierre chugged on by, especially down hill when the hoorays learned four wheel drive skids just as much as two.

Best fun I have had in the snow a motorcycle cx 500 with a side car. Standing on the back pegs bouncing up and down to increase traction. Fab fun