Winter Driving, Ice Skating, and other adventures.

[OneOwner75]

I am new to the forum but several people asked for stories from the 35 years that I have been driving my fiat. Here I am reposting my answer to a question about winter driving. See below:

Hi ProdikalSon,
I am sure there are many owners on the forum with solid advice about this question. My story is probably not typical.

In the 30+ years that I have driven the car, I have been in all types of terrain and weather. My car has never failed to start, which is pretty miraculous. One of the chief hazards of winter weather is low visibility, and by that I mean that people in big SUV's can't see you. But if you mean cold-starts, certainly Northwest Montana (5 years) was a challenge. The car was younger then, and the suspension had been rebuilt some years before that, so the handling was solid on dry ground. Sloppy handling, when you take it on ice, becomes no handling at all.

When the snow season rolled in, I put studded tires on all four wheels and a couple of sand bags in the boot, left and right. I put white grease in the locks to keep them from freezing, kept the radiator juiced up with antifreeze, changed the wiper blades and made sure the battery was new or new-ish. I added a fuel dryer from time to time.

It handled surprisingly well. The only difficulties were roads heavily travelled by timber haulers. The ice ruts could be deep and devilish, and obviously nowhere near my small wheelbase. Also the spider's low clearance required split second judgement at times.

Once I was caught in a sudden blizzard after nightfall on a curvy stretch east of Flathead Lake MT. The road was narrow, completely packed with ice and snow, with a drop to the lake on one side and a rocky embankment on the other, no guard rails. There was no where to get off the road, no shoulder, in that stretch, so I persevered. The little wiper blades kept chugging along through heavy wet snow that was blowing so hard and fast that visibility was near zero. It was a white-out, really, I keep trying to pick out the little reflectors on the posts for the snow plows, but I couldn't see them even. Snow was caking on the headlights and I knew that if I stopped, I'd be stuck in an instant, and be a sitting duck for the next truck to roll right over. They'd never see me in time.

I remembered a story I'd heard that a grizzly bear was hit by a truck there once and it's body rolled down into the lake and sank. I was on the Indian Reservation, and grizzly claws and teeth are very valuable if anyone could ever find them deep down in that cold clear water. I figured I was going down to join the grizzly. But as luck was on my side, I managed to navigate the next 15 miles to the nearest roadside tavern.

I walked in, stomping the snow off my boots. The parking lot was full of 4WD trucks and big rigs; the bar was full of their drivers, loggers, hunters, waiting out the storm. I was a bit bug-eyed, ordered my whiskey neat, while my little red italian car sat outside in the pool of light from a street lamp, slowly disappearing under a white blanket.

Beth

[124ADDHE]

Great story!

I too have driven mine in the winter and will this winter (wife has priority on rover and the Jag has too much power for the snow). My crazy story is about 8 years ago when I was dirt-poor, moving from Vancouver to Grand Prairie Alberta in January:

The trip was going great, all my stuff packed away, $250 to my name and $8,000 in debt, off to GP I went. Heading north from Kamloops, looking onto the beginning of the cold part of my trip I was blessed with plowed HWY and clear skys. I was making great time and travelling a good 120kmph (70mph?) until I was slowed by a Honda accord, no problem passing lane in 2km! So along comes the passing lane and I decide to do a brake check (black ice cannot be seen from all angles), feels good, so I press the 1.8l, 10.5-1 compression 1974 Spider engine to the max in 5th and easily begin a pass, after making it about 10-15ft ahead of the honda and as fast as you can say red wine, the back end of the fiat is now heading in the direction I was travelling and to make it even worse, I get a perfect view of the honda driver as we are now window to window! So, 130kmph in reverse, -25celsius, in the middle of deliverance country north (blue river, bc). Well, luck was shining on me that day becuase the shoulders were covered in freshly piled powder and when I did (luckily) hit the shoulder, the only result was a totaly whiteout of poweder going everywhere, only slightly denting my rear panel, below the trunk and placing the car gently on its side (gentle slope away from roadway), which I rectified by climbing out my passagner door and using my weight to right the car. $150 tow out of the ditch and that fiat fired right up!

The rest of the trip was totally a nightmare, going over the rockies in a blizzard that would have stopped me instantly as I was plowing for over 10km with my font end @ about 40kmph and also too knowing that a semi-truck would probably not notice a snow-covered fiat in the middle of the road, in a blizzard, in the middle of the night - but yes, the fiat kept going.

When I got to GP and tried using the fiat to get to work in -45C, I realised the top is not rated for such an endevour and it shattered as soon as I hit the washboard and I mean it totally Shattered into little shards!!! That said, she fired right up in -45 and the only problem is having to hold in the clutch till the engine was warm enough to hold idle with the clutch release becuase the oil is so thick, it just is like glue and the car actually will walk forward with the shifter in neutral!

[OneOwner75]

124ADDHE,
Wow. Luck plays a role, but then again, I've always thought these cars didn't get the respect they deserve.

HIlarious about the top shattering too. That must have been interesting. Thanks for sharing your story.

Beth

[narfire]

in the middle of deliverance country north (blue river, bc).

I know Blue Liver all to well, spent many months heli-logging in the area.

I drove my 70 in and around Vancouver in the mid-late 70's year round. I did'nt have studded tires but they are a must when it snows down there. That wet snow packs to ice with little traffic. Spent a few moments aiming in the wrong direction.

[Zippy]

Most cars go just fine in the snow, they just don't stop very well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMzeiMJQrvk%20%20%20