Northern Illinois got blasted with the first snow of the season over the weekend. I am a bit irked by this. It was only a few weeks ago when I last went swimming in Lake Michigan! I currently have one of my summer cars stored outside because I’m repairing something on it. I could have sworn I had more time! Ugh, well, winter is here, whether I want it to be or not. Which has me wondering: What’s the most fun car to drive in the snow?
For the purposes of this question, I’m not asking you about the best car for snow. No, I want you to give me the most entertaining car to drive in the snow, no matter how impractical it may be. Maybe you like drifting in a Ferrari? Or maybe you want to roll around in a Honda S2000 with the top down in the blizzard? You tell me.
While I am not a fan of winter, I do like using the time to do silly things with vehicles that are normally pretty tame.
My old 2005 Volkswagen Touareg VR6 didn’t have enough power for any shenanigans on pavement, and the permanent four-wheel-drive system killed fun when you weren’t off-road. But in the snow? Then it was a ton of fun. I used to wait until a fresh snow, go to an abandoned parking lot, crank the steering wheel over, and then let the throttle rip.
The result was usually that the Treg spun like a top. It was silly, it was stupid, and it was often nauseating, but it made me feel like a dollar store version of the late Ken Block. Sometimes, I’d chain spins together and dance all over the parking lot. But the beauty of it was that my Touareg had decent tires and didn’t have a ton of power, so it was easy to keep in control and easy to stop and regain traction. Once I got done, I just hit the brakes, steered straight, and left the lot.
My second favorite pick for snow fun would be a small, low-power car. Think something like a Dodge Caliber, Chrysler PT Cruiser, or Chevrolet Aveo. Honestly, the crappier the car, the more fun it is.
Back when I was a teenager, it was a total trip going into a snowy parking lot, ripping the parking brake, and then drifting. I was big into Top Gear when I was a teen, and I thought of myself as a bargain Jeremy Clarkson or Sabine Schmitz. The really glorious part is that these cars are so weak that all of these drifts would happen at 20 mph and were, most of the time, within the abilities of an unskilled teenage driver.
It also just felt awesome because these cars couldn’t even spin their drive tires on dry ground. But in the snow? They were epic! I think this is part of the reason why I have an appreciation for the crappy cars of my youth. If you tried hard enough, you could have fun with them! Sadly, I fear that future generations might miss out on this fun. I haven’t yet found out how to replicate the same experience with an electronic parking brake.
So, that’s my story. What about you? If given the chance to drive any car in the winter, ignoring road salt and other nightmares, what would be your winter fun car?
Top graphic image: Dodge
Air cooled Porsche on snow tires – preferably on a closed course or frozen lakebed.
The most capable vehicle I’ve driven in the snow is a 1996 Ford Explorer with 4×4 and AWD. Just point and go, it would drive through some really deep and steep snow.
The most fun was probably a ~1995 Subaru Legacy wagon, less ground clearance but you felt like a rally driver on snowy back roads and parking lots.
WRX without a doubt. I’m in Florida now so no snow and I don’t have deal with fixing broken Subarus anymore.
I mourn the loss of Sabine Schmitz. Her smiles going around corners brought me so much joy.
As far as snow shenanigans go, like the best camera you have, the car you are driving is the best.
I once did a 360-degree spin in my ’84 Tercel 4×4 wagon, with my 7-month-old son in a baby seat in the back. He didn’t even stir. Slept through the whole thing. I was pretty freaked out by the event. Didn’t tell his mother about it. He was far more annoyed on clear days when the low afternoon sun shone in his eyes.
The Tercel spun because I hit bare ice, and it was not a particularly sophisticated car. And I was not a particularly sophisticated driver.
But I was happy to push a stranded teenaged girl in a Mitsubishi down to a plowed road in our 2001 AWD CR-V.
The CR-V was awesome in snow. Around Seattle, we don’t get snow every year. But that day, there were at least eight inches of snow that didn’t get plowed and the CR-V was so much fun and capable (not hooning, but just getting to places that I thought I needed to get to) that it made me to want to move to Vermont or somewhere snowy. And well, I saw plenty of snow in western NY and Ohio, but I didn’t have it when I lived in those places.
Years later back in WA, I store enough stuff ahead of possible bad weather to not have to venture out in my Accord.
1991 BMW 318is with studded snow tires is my favorite, I think that is hard to beat.
The studs must make the difference. Because I had a friend from Minnesota who called BMWs “Saucer Sleds.”
Absolute favorite was my 1962 VW Beetle with an 1835 dual port/Weber carbed engine. The combination of power and weight distribution made for lots of fun during MN and MT winters.
Second best was my 2011 Juke. With torque vectoring AWD turned on and traction control turned off, it was super fun and easy to power slide around, but could generally be brought back into line before things got too crazy.
The 2014+ Lexus IS with RWD and snow tires on it is one of the absolute best cars in the snow without AWD. You point it in the direction and it goes there. You will feel like you’re The Stig or something. I hate to point to The Facility (the old site), but they did a write up on Feb 2, 2017 “The 2017 Lexus IS 200T is Way Better Than Just A ‘3 Series Fighter.”
That car will blow your socks off in the snow (with snow tires). Without snow tires, you can’t leave your driveway. Some friends of mine went snowboarding and brought back snow in their pickup bed and put it behind my IS I was driving. I could not leave the driveway.
Close runners up are my old Lexus LX 470 and 4Runner TRD Pro.
A cheap one you don’t care about.
Second-gen Chevrolet Corvair with snow tires and a manual transmission is the king of Snow Fun. Want to drift at all times? Easy as said and done! Want to drive with security and precision? Also possible! Just magic over the snow.
Most fun Twingo I on summer tyres, it was so light and had so narrow tyres it was like figure skating, with little throttle and the handbrake every move was possible.
Forgot that my mother was sitting next to me ( her car)
In very slippy conditions was great at Exploring limits and seeing what is possible.
Least fun every car with good (Michelin) winter tyres, the grip on snow is so good it takes the fun out of it.
Also on the Netherlands no snow for 4 years
Definitely the base-model ’92 Ford Ranger owned by the auto parts store for which I drove delivery while in college in Buffalo.
It had all the following attributes:
Snow days were a sliding, fishtailing blast.
Most fun I’ve driven had been my NB Miata when equipped with snow tires. It was tossable and effortless to slide. It was so controllable. It doesn’t see winter anymore since I’m planning on keeping that car forever. Hoping that my Evo will be fun in the snow in a different type of way once I get center differential working correctly.