Well my vRS wouldnt get me out of the yard at work, had to be towed out and now its stuck firmly at the bottom of the road, my trusty old focus 1.8tdci on the other hand is chugging about like the roads are snow free!

i've tried driving with the ESP on, ESP off, setting off in third, it just wont go. my guess is the wide 18" tyres aren't bitting to the tarmac where as the nice narrow tyres on my focus are cutting through it

anyone willing to suggest another theory?

Reduce the front tyre pressures a bit, and you should be able to get it up the hill.

Had loads of fun today and mines lowered and got rally flapz....technique I reckon:thumbup:

Size of the tyres don't help but also the make and type will make so much difference....used to have some michelin pilot sports and they were useless in snow

Think you hit the nail on the head mate! Most of the tyres fitted to UK vRS's are only rated as "summer" tyres. So of no use in snow at all! A spare set of cheap wheel/steels with "winter" tyres perhaps? Depending on the effect of your re-map, then this may also make things considerably worse!

I don't even bother with mine in this weather, if i did then on our street it would be like driving a 2 tonne 4 seat toboggan!!! if I have to go in a car I use the 13 year old Mondeo 1.8 I have as a "works" car!

Well my vRS wouldnt get me out of the yard at work, had to be towed out and now its stuck firmly at the bottom of the road, my trusty old focus 1.8tdci on the other hand is chugging about like the roads are snow free!

i've tried driving with the ESP on, ESP off, setting off in third, it just wont go. my guess is the wide 18" tyres aren't bitting to the tarmac where as the nice narrow tyres on my focus are cutting through it

anyone willing to suggest another theory?

you hit the nail on the head, it is due to the width of the tyres.

Reduce the front tyre pressures a bit, and you should be able to get it up the hill.

I'd run with this idea; say to 1.9bar/28psi (remember to put them back up afterwards; plus ESP off.

Mind you, I bottled out today, (would normally enjoy a spin in the snow) decided I couldn't be bother to risk getting stuck on the M'way - took the train to work.

To avoid retyping the whole thing about driving off the clutch in inclement weather see here.

Why the BBC can't run a brief article on winter driving technique amongst their news coverage I don't know.

Oh yes - because then they wouldn't be able to spend the entire day shouting, "SNOW CHAOS GRIPS BRITAIN" or some other sensationalist drivel because everyone would be slowly getting on with driving around the country.......

Niall

A Reliant Robin can outdrag a Porsche 911 in the snow. It's skinny tyres bite through the snow to the tarmac.

Must admit - mine felt useless today on 18's! Missing the old Passat 4motion for sure. I'll try lowering the tyre pressues tomorrow - good call! Thanks guys.

Niall, i tried driving it just at tick over, it just sat still an spun the wheels. Sitting the with the revs on isnt what id normally do anyway, low revs and let the torque carry you rather than the power, if you get what i mean

snow plough has just been down the road, all its done is compress the snow hard and make it even slippier, I can't get the car more than 6 foot away from the kerb now,

Glad i've got the focus :P

If it melts a bit tomorrow i'll let some air out of the tyres and try again, its only 100 yard down the road, yet it feels like its miles away,

Aye the 200 tonne crane we had at work didnt like the snow and ice too much and that has 8 wheel drive!!

Steve

High speed summertires are not made for temperatures below 6-7°C. They wont build up sufficient grip.

That is why there are wintertires.

Even 18" wintertires will do the trick. I prefer 16", as they will provide total wintercapabilities (incl the ability to mount snowchains).

My dad used to have a couple of different Benzes. The first one we took on ski holidays, was a car with normal SR (up to 180km/h) tires. Winterdriving was no problem, all I had to do was adjust my speed.

The year after, he had a faster Benz, shot with VR tires. The slightest hill was a huge obstacle and I couldnt get the car to climb that barely visible hill. Had to mount the snowchains.

Even if a car has ESP and all the other goodies it will not be able to handle well in the snow, if the main items (=tires) that have to build up the grip between car and road are stonehard.

I would have done the same as Bahnstormer under these conditions (summertires and snow), would have taken the train (or stayed at home )

The original poster is right, though. The Octavia vRS is useless in snow.

Up here in Finland we have a lot of snow, and we have a law on mandatory snow tyres.

Your traction problem is caused by the 18" tyres you have on; completely useless in slippery conditions. However, that is not the whole truth. Even with my 16" studded winter tyres, the Octavia is not nearly as good as a proper winter car for two reasons.

1) Weight+FWD=Understeer 2) Low ride=Snowplow

When we had 30 cm of snow back in December, the car was too low to drive, so I got stuck everywhere. The car was just dragging its bottom in the snow, breaking the plastic undertray of the engine in the process.

But when there isn't too much snow on the roads, it's still a fun car to ride in the winter. But I wouldn't mind a RWD or 4WD car.

Edited 2 February, 200917 yr by kirk

magic62, couldn't agree with you more, the only way to get any grip in the cold with my P-Zero's even when its dry is to spin the wheels a bit and get some heat into the tyres and unless you drive like a nutter you soon loose that heat

I'm glad it's not just me. Even with DSG and ESP off it still wasn't having any. Why Skoda upgraded us all to 18's as a freebie I'll never know but I bet they're great in summer when they're warm, sticky and travelling.....at the speed limit of course !

Just tow the thing with the Ford! hahaha! Sure it couldnt hurt to try, thats if someone else is willing to drive and providing the two car combined may help each other. A little like 4 wheel drive :P

I agree the title.

My Furby vRS is useless in snow. The Goodyear F1 GSD3 tires may be great on wet or dry roads, but useless on snow/slush.:thumbdwn:

I had a first today, the traction control light came on at 40-45mph/1500rpm in Top Gear :eek: whilst driving along Blakley Ridge (North York Moors). I wonder what Toyo's whould have been like. In contrast my mother has some Vredestein all season/winter tires on her Fabia (non vRS) which are alot better. I just wish Vredestein would make some of these in my size.

High speed summertires are not made for temperatures below 6-7°C. They wont build up sufficient grip.

That is why there are wintertires.

Even 18" wintertires will do the trick. I prefer 16", as they will provide total wintercapabilities (incl the ability to mount snowchains).

Even if a car has ESP and all the other goodies it will not be able to handle well in the snow, if the main items (=tires) that have to build up the grip between car and road are stonehard.

I would have done the same as Bahnstormer under these conditions (summertires and snow), would have taken the train (or stayed at home )

Total agreement here...

Although I've only got a Sport so my summer tyres are 17" whereas my winters are 15".

The difference in these conditions is fantastic.

Mine was absolutley fine. bit of wheelspin every now and then and the odd kick in of ABS but other than that had no problem setting off. My tyres are Vredestein Ultrac Sessantas

Carl

If people think Fwd is crap in the snow, Rwd is equally bad.

Many of the crash motors on the news were BMW's

Many of the crashed BMWs may have more to do with BMW owners than RWD:rofl:

Many of the crashed BMWs may have more to do with BMW owners than RWD:rofl:

Probably diving for a gap because no-one would let them out

'vRS is useless in the snow' or 'vRS TYRES are useless in the snow' ?

The width of the 17s is the same as the 18s so no problem there.

Considering we have 'proper' snow once in a blue moon it isn't worth having proper winter tyres lying around to be used 3 days every 3 or 4 years.

For the record, my Falken FK452s were crap today.

I lived in Germany for 6 years..this is just a light smattering of snow, no probs at all with my 18"ers..try and drive on the fresh snow, as opposed to following tyre tracks, and yes, it's possible to overtake those peeps travelling at 20 mph with their rear fog lights on