Cold weather safety reminder

Lud

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Remember (particularly new owners, of whom we seem to have many):

High performance summer tires, which most of us use on our NSXs, have very little grip when it's cold outside. I felt ABS kick in today under only moderately hard braking. I was on a dry highway, but because the temperature was around 27F (-3C) grip was drastically reduced.

So don't go flying into that corner you loved all summer at your usual 8/10ths speed or you may find out the hard way that on summer performance tires below freezing that speed becomes 11/10ths!

I don't really drive my car much when it's really cold so I don't buy winter tires, but if you are using it at a daily driver and live where you get real winter weather, I'd strongly suggest looking into it. In addition to the generally reduced grip in cold weather, summer performance tires are flat out dangerous in the snow.

The supercharger loves the cold air though!
 
thank you for the reminder, Lud!!

However, I'm wondering if the tire compound gets warm up after driving, say 5 miles?? I believed even we drive on the highway speed the tires will get warmer, thus despite the cold weather, the tires could still reach its working temp. if not optimum, please correct me if I'm wrong.....
 
The key for winter driving in any car is: "slow down.”

I have yet to buy a single snow tire for any vehicle I have owned and have only had one winter accident. It was after an ice storm that left ¾" of ice on the road. With that much ice, even a Sherman tank would have problems with traction. In the slippery conditions, all rear-wheel-drive cars have a tendency to get a bit squirrelly if one applies too much power.

I must repeat; the key to safe winter driving is to SLOW DOWN, SLOW DOWN, and SLOW DOWN.
 
Ya, or you will be looking to do a 360, or at least 180 spin to your car. This has happened to me in the MR2 twice already.
 
In addition to all the good advice that has been posted above, here's one more reminder: Check your tire pressure. Remember that tire pressure goes down with temperature, by roughly 1 psi for each 10 degrees F of temperature. So this time of year, you may need to add air to your tires just to maintain the same pressure, measured cold (when the car has been sitting for a while, so the tires are the same temperature as the ambient conditions).
 


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