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
My buddies and I rode around the snowy Upper Peninsula of Michigan on a Honda road bike (old CX500) fitted with studded dirt bike tires. That was a lot of fun and turned a lot of heads.
The most fun I ever had in the snow was in a 2005 Saab 9-2x Aero with a 5MT.
Since it was essentially a Subaru WRX wagon, it’s snow performance was already legendary. With a set of Nordman2 snow tires, it was basically invincible. I have done 60 mph in 8″ of snow on an uncleared interstate without batting an eye.
You could easily control the angle of any slide with the throttle and even ham-fisted driving was rewarded with giant snowy arcs straight out of Rally Sweden.
Air-cooled VWs…the next best thing to 4WD.
Something light with ability to turn off traction control (or no such gimmicks). Beyond that…FWD/RWD/AWD, manual/auto, even snow tires are just factors to adjust for. Mind you question was most fun, not safest or most predictable.
My Gen 1 Volt with winter tires/wheels was a blast in the snow. All that battery weight down low and electric instant torque made for a ton of fun if you turned off the traction control.
I have two answers, one being a conditionally qualified result:
1: The one my Dad was driving. There was a time when Dad’s idea of a fun time was to throw a couple of shovels, rope and a bucket of wood ashes in the back of the car and go bombing around, trying to get stuck. On the way we’d yoink people out of drifts and ditches. We very rarely got stuck and when it happened, we’d dig ourselves out and keep going. It was pretty funny actually, seeing a Chevy Citation or, funnier still, a 1967 Opel Kadett carefully tugging Jeeps and Suburbans out of ditches.
We also had a 1970 SAAB 96 that was drama-free in snow. It just went where it was pointed. Dad said it was almost a disappointment, seeing how it was so competent in snow that it took a lot of the challenge out. But Dad was a neat combination of nuts and cautious. Now he’s old enough that he doesn’t do that sort of thing anymore – no free labor in the form of caffeinated teenagers to do the bulk of the digging. So of the two of them, now it’s Mom that does most of the snow driving, because she loves having a practical excuse for the Wrangler.
2: Subaru Forester. I loved my Forester when things were going well, and hated it when they were not. Unfortunately its frequent trips to the gas pumps fell under the heading of “not.” But in the snow the Forester was gleefully carefree, handling anything shallower than approximately mid-bumper with aplomb. I miss it – but only on snow days.
Many , to many, years ago my Mercury capri with Hokki’s was an absolute riot in the snow. Carved right through it, but the absolute best was my Saab 99 GLi with winters. Effing unstoppable. As winter in WI begins I miss that car more than any I have ever owned.
And now I’m down the rabbit hole and thinking of going to Sweden and finding one to drive in Europe snd bring home. Thanks Mercedes.
99 Dodge Stratus. The rear wheels were so far out near the rear corners that they were not fully enclosed by the fender wells. In wet slushy snow, if I was being tail gated, a slight move to the left or the right out of the cleared tracks instantly created two rooster tails of snowy slush that landed on the hood of the offending follower. Most effective on pick ups and suv’s, although that may have been because they were the primary tailgaters.
So many good ways to answer this question, but I’ve come away with one clear favorite over my years driving. My favorite vehicle in the snow was my 2001 Silverado.
Hear me out… It had decent tires, decent ground clearance, plastic floors, crank windows, no traction control, and a huge lever in the floor to select 4WD. That lever essentially gave me two modes – 4WD made you feel unstoppable, while RWD (combined with no traction control) offered comically little grip. That meant it was easy to have an absolute blast sliding around parking lots despite moving remarkably slow. Paired with decent tires, 4WD offered incredible grip driving on snow covered roads or through deep snow. It also allowed for awesome, higher speed, sliding around. I personally found that the lack of traction control made the handling more predictable – without unexpected power cuts or brake applications, you always knew exactly what it was going to do and how to make corrections.
These days, I rock an AWD Mazda CX-5. It’s fantastic with snow tires, and it will slide around if you want it to… but it just isn’t that fun. You always worry you might break something and even with traction control off, stability control still straightens you out mid slide – even if that means pointing you in the wrong direction.
Honorable mention goes to any small 2WD car with good snow tires and a LSD. People thought I was nuts driving my MazdaSpeed3 around in the snow, but that amazement always came from folks who had never experienced a good snow tire. It’s an awesome feeling driving up steep grades past 4WD/AWD trucks and SUV’s that are struggling/stuck.
I absolutely agree that a 4×4 truck without traction control is the single most fun vehicle in the snow you can have. Mine is a 2001 F250 diesel but the principle is the same. Throw the lever (or switch in my case) in 2WD and you have a drifting MACHINE. Long wheelbase, lots of torque, not much weight over the rear wheels, limited slip differential (if equipped), this makes for the easiest and most controllable drifts of any vehicle I’ve ever experienced. But if you get too crazy and bury yourself in a snowbank, slap it in 4×4 and crawl out.
I don’t think there is more of a dichotomy between performance, having one of the absolute worst vehicles in the snow to one of the best with the flip of a switch or lever.
My first front-drive car. (1975 VW Rabbit.) From a standstill, crank the wheel all the way in one direction, rev it up, shift into reverse and dump the clutch. Reverse donuts until I and my easily entertained high school friends were ready to puke.
I don’t think I’ve ever driven anything with snow tires.
I always assumed people in snow country drove 4wd or front biased fwd stuff, but a friend with a big engined bike in Denver had a large rear drive car, without even a limited slip.
He said he just counterweighted the car for traction.
I’ve been to Denver after a big snow, but in a front drive Fiat, so it wasn’t even stressful.
In the southeast, most people buy groceries then don’t go out again until roads are clear.
I typically wait until traffic clears, then go out and drive where I want for fun.
My favorite car in snow has been obviously rear drive light cars, like the original fiat spiders.
Finding little traction, I counterweighted the trunk and instant traction.
In fact I had to lessen it to get decent balance of steering grip.
Balanced, it was ultra reliable, but not especially grippy.
I especially loved racing front wheel drive cars uphill, to their aggravation.
I have found most modern front wheel drive cars suck for traction, unless they use traction control.
I don’t find my Camry especially agile.
I’m now in a large rural town with dense traffic, so no idea how a hard snow will go.
Got snowed in for a short time last year because the driveway is long, and no one wants to plow it, plus I’m not sure even a 4wd would have an easy time on the steep hill in snow.
I’m guessing there will still be lots of 4wds on the road here after a snow, and Jeepers are everywhere here.
In the city, I took my track car out in the snow.
It was agile, but even with a good limited slip, no amount of braking kept the rear wheels from spinning and rooster tailing snow until I got to a certain speed.
Ice is a different experience.
I’ve seen a lot of glaze ice in Texas, but it’s rare here.
Once it happened here, and I had to deliver newspaper flats to the printer out of town.
Still driving my fwd Fiat, I wasn’t concerned but it was bad.
I had never had any real difficulty before, but I couldn’t even stand up on this ice.
I was fine until I turned any corner, then the car just drifted against the curb.
It was so slippery, I could leverage against the curb and push the car sideways back into the road.
Ultimately had to give up and go home.
Someone else’s.
My ’79 Duster Volaré has been my favorite car to drive in the snow to date. Rear-wheel drive with broke-high-schooler tires, a slant-six, and no weight in the rear, that car taught me how to throttle-steer like none other. I got so that on fresh snow or ice I could come into one end of the (empty) school parking lot crank the wheel, feather the gas just right, and do a complete 720 with enough forward momentum to end up exiting the other side just after completion.
That felt so cool… right up until someone in a nearby neighborhood tracked down whose car it was and placed a call to my parents. Oh well, having them threaten to take my keys was still better than having the cops show up.
We lived in the Bay Area of California. Took the kids skiing in our Country Squire wagon (there may have been a couple of extra friends along). The ski resort had a large unplowed parking lot. As we were there nearl an hour before the lift lines opened, we went to said unplowed lot and had the kids find out what happens w/ big throttle openings and the steering wheel pointed anywhere but straight. An easy, low risk lesson in car control.
For me nothing has ever been better than an early 2000’s Subaru Impreza. Any variety turbo or not. As long as it has a stick and snow tires. So predictable and easy to drive on the edge. Makes me smile just thinking about it.
My Impreza outback was a hoot in the snow.
Drive it like a thoughtful sane person and if you could open the doors you could drive in a foot of fresh snow. You could part on top of the piles of snow the sanitation department plowed in Brooklyn. And that was with all season tires
On the other hand:
Mucking around with the throttle and
hand brake you could go sideways at will, and pivot around any of the four tires. J turns were easy.
The fact that it had already been hit by two deer, a range rover, and a UPS truck meant that flinging it sideways into snowbanks was a low stakes exercise. Well my daughter complained when I did that driving her to school on Coney Island Avenue once.
The most fun I’ve had driving in the snow was in my Jeep TJ 4.0 5 speed on the Mojave Road after a big storm. We spent hours driving sliding through the snow. The only thing to worry about crashing into was snow covered Joshua trees. No ABS and no traction control made it extra fun.
A 992 Porsche 911 GT3. 100% bragging here because I’m a regular schlub and I was a lucky SOB to experience this.
I am a Product Manager for a well known German aftermarket and OEM auto part manufacturer and last year our Sales team had a sales contest where the prize was an overseas trip. They also invited Product Management to participate.
Long story short, my team won and the prize was a trip to northern Sweden to drift a variety of Porsches on a frozen lake for 3 days. Prior to that I had only driven along snow covered dirt roads in a Ford Escape, so it was a mind blowing experience to be standing on the ice next to a bunch of 911s and Boxsters 30 minutes after landing and being told to hop in the car with basically zero instruction.
By the end of the experience I was regularly sliding a friggin’ GT3 sideways at 70+ MPH, looking out the side window to see where I’m going. Totally nuts. After that we visited my company’s racing development center at the Nurburgring. Sadly it wasn’t open for the season, but we may have sneaked onto the track for some centerfold poses laying in the middle of the road 🙂
Sounds awesome. Was that in Arjeplog?
Arvidsjaur, which apparently exists mainly to support automotive winter testing. The tiny airport there was full of ads for OE parts suppliers.
Sounds very similar to Arjeplog then. I work for a tier 1 that has testing there. Pretty interesting economic model for the little towns.
Most BMW all wheel drives sedans and wagons. I’ve had three and currently have a f31 diesel wagon (that I wish they sold in the US as a manual) and that thing drifts like a champion when you want it to. That is one of the only times I really notice the slight rear axle bias of the xDrive system and man is it fun. The great thing about it is it also has fantastic traction when you want it to. It may not have the clearance to take on deep snow but I would pick that car with good snow tires over pretty much anything else.
Friend had the Ford minivan with the Mercedes all wheel drive traction control system, and it proved extraordinary on ice.
He ended up making a lot of emergency runs when it got icy here.
It had an on/off switch and the difference was remarkable.
He found it could start on ice he couldn’t walk on.
Sadly the delicate cvt failed and repair was not affordable.
My 6MT xDrive E91 approves this message. Swapped in the winter wheels this weekend in time for the first snowflake chime of the season this morning. Now to just wait for it to actually snow!
Me too! Got my winter wheels on a couple weeks ago and haven’t seen a single snowflake yet. Hopefully next week.
A *rented* car. With the damage waiver, of course.
First year VW Rabbit after deciding to trade it in on something else! Didn’t particularly care about the car, at all. Trading the POS in was the goal, and as long as it still drove, it would be taken in as trade. It was a blast to drive around in the snow.
Jeep Renegade with a decent set of tires. Traction control off, 4wd lock on and have fun drifting.
I feel like the small “non” Jeeps are underrated for fun in the snow. My Compass, with traction control turned off, is a hoot to slide in the white stuff. Very easy and predictable!
Most fun to drive in the snow:
A Honda Z50 mini bike. 49cc of giant grin on the face fun. Bonus fun was pulling other kids on a sled.
Technically it was ice, not snow. Back in the days when I traveled a ridiculous amount and Hertz absolutely loved me there was a trip where they decided they were going to be nice and upgrade me to a rear wheel drive Mustang convertible. Except… it was in the middle of a massive ice storm in Dallas that basically shut down the entire city. This may bother a bunch of wussy snowflake Texans but I grew up driving on ice so no big deal. When I showed up at the customer site the very few people who were there because they HAD to be were questioning my sanity (which, fair) and wondering why I was there (I had work to do).
Well, I made lemons out of lemonade and drove that car around with the top down to the consternation of the very few people crazy enough to be out on the street at the same time, and I was greatly entertained by doing donuts in empty shopping mall parking lots. Good times.
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