Camaro Winter Driving

[chevyridinghigh]

Okay, for those of you that plan to drive the hell out of this car and put on more miles than a 100 mile per year weekend car, what do you plan on doing during the winter when it snows? I've never had a rear wheel drive car, being that I'm 24 and have driven a honda civic for about 9 years. Chains on the tires???

[dirkmalone]

You can't go around with chains on your tires. They will rip up your tires and the roads. You can only use tire chains in certain places (up steep hills, etc.) and then they generally are required to be removed. You should get a good set of dedicated winter tires (and rims). It makes a big difference. Easy on the throttle, take your time and the rear-wheel drive will be fine. I'm from Edmonton, Canada and my first car was a rear-wheel drive Cutlass...no problem if you know how to handle it. You can't use tire-chains on the roads here, or studs.

[Vash]

Hum just remember it's not FWD it's RWD. Do some google action on it and look at the various RWD forums for winter tips. There are probably threads on it buried in this forum.

[Epitaph]

I'm going to install something in the garage in a few years that will rinse off the entire car (during the winter) every time it snows & after.

I don't know what happened to the rest of my post?

& Chains only when necessary...Winter Tires & Rims as said before

[rays]

I'll be driving my 4x4 pickup truck. I'm not watching this one rust out from road salt. Whatever they are using on Highways around here these days is much worse than it was in the past.

[theholycow]

The big difference in the snow between RWD and FWD is that if you start spinning RWD's tires while moving (or sometimes from a stop), it will get sideways on you. If you get the V6 auto then you'll have a little bit of leeway with the open differential, but with the limited slip you'll get sideways very easily. Secondarily, if it starts understeering there's nothing you can do; with FWD you could apply some power and maybe do what I call a FWD powerslide.

The rest is pretty much the same. FWD does NOT avoid getting stuck any better (given appropriate weight distribution, which the Camaro definitely has). You may want narrower tires, you'll definitely want winter tires, and you may want sand-embedded (do they still make those?) or studded tires.

[surferbarney]

I won't be driving my camaro in either the rain or snow but I do currently have a mustang and that will be my daily driver which I will have to drive in bad weather. The mustang is horrible in the snow, and likes to fishtail if you aren't careful, but as long as you know what you are doing and don't try to floor it you'll be alright. The best thing to do is get some good winter tires and just take it easy on the gas in the bad weather. Might be a good idea to go to a big empty parking lot in the snow to just drive around, make it fishtail, and learn how to handle it. I did that when I first got my license and it helped a lot.

[gtjacket]

I am parking my camaro in a storage facility in Jan and Feb and driving my GMC Sonoma. I put about 100 lbs on weight in my truck bed next to the wheel wells.

[Vash]

Make sure you get uninsured / underinsured too.

The Stabilitrak system has 3 components and 4 modes.
Mode one is what you want in ice. This is ABS on traction control on and roll control on.

[ckaram]

When my car comes in, I'm gonna have the dealer test fit some stock wheels from an impala or other Chevy vehicle to see what will go on the hub (LT with RS 20" wheels).

Hopefully, something will fit and I'll buy these wheels too. Then shop for snow tires in November. So I'm delaying gratification for CAI and catback exhaust for the practical snow tires/wheels.

Plus, the price for the mods will come down after more vendors get in the game.

[bossbunny]

i live in texas. it never snows and hardly rains. so i get to drive it year round. lucky me. but for spring rains when it floods i will be driving my jacked up 84 chevy. =]]

[Miketebo22]

Chains are only for heavy, accumulated snow. Get a seperate set of wheels and tires that have winter tires on them. get some that are studded, they help a lot too. Or, just go buy a truck too! im keeping my truck and buying the camaro just because the winters we have here in South Dakota are a bit too nasty for a RWD car.

[Buckbo]

The reason I didn't order the RS package is the 20" tires are summer only. I'm getting the 19" all season rubber so I can drive in bad weather too. No auto trans for me either. I've had both an auto and a 5-speed Camaro clone (Trans Am) and the auto was terrible in winter but with the manual I never had a problem in ice or snow and that was with 50 series tires.

[Camaro2010ss]

When it snows in Texas I just stay home and play in it since it's rare, and if I had to go somewhere I'd probably just use my truck instead of my Camaro.