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
Hard toss-up between your mom’s car in high school (with a few friends onboard of course) or RWD and 4WD cars with manual transmissions and zero traction control or ABS.
Any rental car can rank highly, too.
Land Rover Discovery 1. Normal operation was always in 4WD Hi, with a limited-slip center diff. Would stay perfectly planted and claw its way through whatever winter road conditions were thrown at it. And if you stomped on it, the Rover/Buick V8 would make its glorious noise while the tires would chew up and fling great cascades of snow in all directions while the truck would move generally forward but with whatever elephantine ballet motions you wanted to add as a flourish. You could just fling it around gleefully, while creating torrents of snow in all directions.
Fiero 2M4 manual. By far. As long as the snow is under about 4 inches.
First off, it is a mountain goat in the snow, even on bad tires. All the weight is on the back and the engine doesn’t have enough power to spin the tires on a hockey rink. So, getting going isn’t a problem. It’s turning that is an adventure.
The problem/fun part of a Fiero is that it packs snow under the front wheels. So, it doesn’t take long before the steering wheel does nothing. UNLESS you follow this exact sequence.
100% great fun and 100% chance nobody will mooch a ride off of you.
PS. only works in 2M4s. I attempted this with a MR2 and turned myself into a top. It took about 30 minutes to stop being dizzy enough to puke.
Previa all trac. Minivan AWD donuts are rad.
Aircooled Vw beetle with new heater boxes back in the 70’s.
Oversized recap snow tires on the back made the backroads of Vermont our playground during storms
I never drove it myself, but my favorite car snow experience was my dad doing donuts in our 1990s Toyota Previa minivan in the empty ski area parking lot.
Back in the days when I worked for Chrysler Corp, I enjoyed driving the AWD minivans in the snow. My experience was with 1996-2000 and 2001-04 Caravan and T&C. The system was very heavily front biased, but you could easily drift it at low speeds by leaning into the throttle to get front wheel spin and then flooring it once the front wheels were spinning. The viscous coupling would react by sending a surge of torque to the rear wheels, making for a drift as long as you wanted. I slid those things across so many snow-covered parking lots, and even frozen lakes!
2003 WRX
Yes cheap crappy fwd with a pull handbrake is the answer!
Yes if only we had access to information that would tell us we will be getting snow. Frankly I think we have need of more information on drive 45 minutes to work, having fun is less important than NOT DIEING. However, if there is a fun drive experience I’ll take a 1978 Honda Civic DX manual transmission.
Audi quattros, any with a longitudinal engine, therefore front weight bias, ideally a lockable rear diff and switchable ABS. Even better I have an entire 200+ parking lot to myself as business is closed for the season over the winter 😉
Currently an Audi 90 quattro 20V has fun duty.
1983-1988 Toyota Tercel 4wd Wagon. Locked centre diff, 6 speed manual, Light weight, AWD, 50/50 weight distribution. 1.5litres of revvy powaaa. The feel of snow brushing the underside of the floor boards is pure ASMR goodness.
Anything with four real snow tires is great even a 2WD pickup.
My favorites my Renault 12 and Suzuki LJ80, long gone, both good for Winter club events, when I used to be good enough.
Present best fun, in fact Winter is the only time it is fun, my wife’s Subaru Impreza CVT with paddle shifters and traction control turned off. Get to play rally racer before the plows come out. (-;
My 1987 VW Jetta GL w/ the e-brake in the middle like god intended. Handbrake turns for days!
A rental car. Seriously, I couldn’t tell you the make or model but when I got sentenced to Cleveland one winter I had a silver-ish rental car that was an absolute hoot in the snow. Traction control off, pedal mashed to the carpet, and the front wheels just begging for any traction they could find on every onramp.
Top down, windows up, heater blasting in my 1963 Valiant convertible I bought at 16 in 1971. It almost made me enjoy winter. Now I live in Florida.
Weird I bought a 1974 Valiant in 1986 when I was 17 going to college when I lived in Florida and now I live in PA. ARE you my doppelganger?
Better yet, I was born and raised in PA, Scranton specifically. College in Carlisle, graduate work in Pittsburgh. Then off to Manhattan for 35 years.
Oh, and I owned a Fiat 128SL for a year.
Please tell us it was a six cylinder 225 slant six with a three on the tree…..
I’ve had some fun in my 5.9 ZJ. Barely hit the gas and all 4 are spinning on a slick surface. Honestly, the most fun I’ve had in all of my years have been in manual 4×4 Rangers, S-10’s, Tacoma’s, etc. Light Ass end and the extra grip of the front makes sliding around a breeze. Take it out of 4Hi and do 1 tire fryer donuts for days!
Love the Chevy SS with winter tires in the snow. It’ll drift/donut for days, but with winter tires it’s fairly controllable. It’s got more ground clearance than a corvette, probably more than a mustang, and it’s got enough power that if it’s a little short on clearance with fresh snow it can still plow through!
Everything RWD. I managed to drift a Mercedes-Benz 308d van in the snow.
Also, every small and light FWD car WITH mechanical handbrake on rear wheels, preferably with low horsepower. That way you can rev without gaining too much momentum, you can skid with your handbrake and you will stop -eventually- because you are not too heavy. After 30+ years I still like it way too much, i still scare my then girlfriend now wife.
I’ve mentioned this car before, but my ’91 Geo Metro 2-door, 5-speed was a blast to drive in the snow. The little pizza-cutter tires would cut right through the snow – zero flotation issues.
The only problem was once I plowed through a couple of drifts, the engine compartment would fill up with enough snow that there wouldn’t be enough airflow through the radiator and the temperature gauge would start to climb.
That car was fun to drive the whole year round, actually.
I have 2 to offer. First is my 1996 GMC K1500…with Falken Wildpeaks and the posi rear it’s an absolute beast. I won’t say unstoppable but it’s close, and I really have come to appreciate that sense of security. That truck has a pretty good record for pulling out stuck vehicles which comes in handy.
Second is a car I actually hated, my ‘03 Golf. I didn’t enjoy driving that turd anytime except when it snowed. When it snowed, it was surefooted and I felt like a rally driver.
1973, Brand new VW Thing with tires like military jeeps of the day. Driving around Alpine County, CA with the both the top and windshield down in -10F weather. Then came a Cadillac heading right towards us and out of control because no chains. Hit us smack dab in the middle of the front, where the spare tire was mounted to the bumper. Cadillac suffered a ruptured radiator. Us? A bend in spare tire mount.
In the early 80’s a friend’s mother had a 81 Tornado, did really fun donuts in reverse in a field. My first experience in a front drive car.
Fun as in handbrake snd donuts in the snow: E46. Fun in the snow in general: FIAT Panda 4×4, unstoppable
I think a Saab Sonnet or OG VW Beetle would be really fun in the snow.