unless you grew up driving rear-wheel-drive cars on the frozen tundra of Saskatchewan.)[/B]
Sounds like you're baiting me for a response, so here goes.
Since snow/ice conditions last for months up here, I invested in a second set of rims and Michelin Arctic Alpin winter tires and I can safely report that I have had none of the sudden sideways motions mentioned in this topic (and my alignment was checked about 12mos ago).
In fact, in Dec I was driving through a blizzard with some freezing rain and patchy ice conditions so about every hour I would check the traction by gently touching the brakes (at 60 MPH) and the ABS would instantly come on and I'd be in a four wheel drift for a few seconds, so it was definitely slippery. Needless to say, I pretty much had the road to myself as the police were telling people to stay off the roads. Anyway, I drove like this for about 350 miles at 60 and the car was very stable. It does do a very, very mild 'wiggle' ever now and again (even around town at low speeds) which I haven't figured out but nothing that really gets your attention or requires a steering correction.
As far as torque steer on patchy or slippery conditions, it's almost never an issue if you're accelerating in a straight line. Most roads are slightly crowned in the middle so if you're starting on sheer ice sometimes it will slip sideways but I don't think I've had anything greater than 8". Accelerating around a corner on ice is more tricky but manageable.
The new winter tires definitely stick better on ice than all seasons but they're also a softer compound and will wear out more quickly. The difference is so dramatic that the rear end on my wife's front wheel drive car often comes around on me because I only put winter tires on the front .. the fronts dig in on corners and the backs can't keep up. It's like oversteer but it's FWD .. but oddly enough, you can control the slip angle with a combination of throttle and steering.
Really the only annoying thing about driving the NSX on slippery surfaces is that quite often the TCS will significantly override the throttles and then decide to release them again and you get a very jerky takeoff .. almost like you've had a serious fuel starvation problem.
But hey.. it's worth it to me to be able to enjoy the car 365.
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- Ian
91 Blk/Blk daily driver; 100K+ miles & still going strong
