Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rootes75]

Something for this time of year!!

https://youtu.be/Ho4QGBUAABA?si=fmgPlAPwpzJUYQfy
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[Keith D]

Fabulous video. That weather reminded me of why I left England sixty years ago!

Keith
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1926 Chrysler 60 tourer
1932 Austin Seven RN long wheelbase box sedan
1950 Austin A40 tourer
1999 BMW Z3
Its weird being the same age as old people.
You are either part of the problem or part of the solution

[Vintage Fly Guy]

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the 'sport' of drifting was invented... and, some may say, it hasn't got any more interesting, or less annoying, ever since!

Joking aside, I 'winterised' my daily driver yesterday, replacing a headlight bulb that had blown the night before, tested and topped up the antifreeze and added winter grade screenwash, so I'm all set for the two or three flakes of sleet that have apparently merited the latest yellow weather warning from the met office!

As for that weather in England, I think the last time we had anything approaching that was a good ten or more years ago, and the last 'bad' winter I remember was the winter of 1981/2, when a minimum temp of -26.1C was recorded in Newport, Shropshire, which still stands as a record to this day.

I was driving a Mini 1000 at the time and went Christmas shopping with some friends one Saturday afternoon in December, where the daytime temp had never got much above -10c all day. It started to go dark and we could feel the temperature dropping, so we decided to head home from Wilmslow to Bramhall (where I lived at the time).

I had the heater on full blast aimed at the windscreen, which kept two 12" arched 'port holes' clear on the screen, so I had to recline the driver's seat to get low enough to see through them and we had to pass an ice scraper round the inside of the car to clear the constantly freezing condensation from the side windows, and when we arrived home my two back seat passengers were covered in frost down their sides from the scrapings. It looked like it had snowed on them! We did find that funny as they dusted themselves off. Now that was cold! Fair play to that Mini though, it never missed a beat.

[bjacko]

In the 1950's I had a Morris 8 Tourer and it did not have a heater and the only extra I had was a gadget stuck on the inside of the windscreen like a miniature electric fire which cleared a small arc of about 3"at about 20MPH but if you went faster it reduced the arc. I always found black ice worse than the snow and ice you could easily see.
One morning with snow/icy roads, after picking up a girl from work I had to make a right 90 degree turn into another road and with no other traffic around and a large area at the intersection I did a 360 and gave her a scare! - mad young days!! Also in Wilmslow.
It was also very difficult driving in fog on icy roads with the fog freezing on the windscreen all the time, difficult to see where we were going. It was pretty cold in a Morris 8 Tourer too.
One evening after work we got to our cars and it was a real pea souper and we had to travel from the Woodford flight sheds along the perimeter road across the main runway and up to the Assembly factory with no lights. A motor cyclist said he would guide us and we all followed in a line at about 10mph and then we found ourselves traveling down the main runway which of course was not active.
All of the above was in the dark because we started work during darkness and went home in the dark. Car's lights were nothing like today's cars and no heaters.
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1938 Morris 8 Ser II Coupe Utility (Pickup)
1985 Rover SD1 VDP

[Ray White]

I have to concur with bjacko about freezing fog on the windscreen. That...and black ice have to be the most hazardous driving conditions I have ever encountered. Years ago I used to drive a long wheelbase Transit van (delivering computer stationery and security print). One cold foggy morning I found myself on the M4 just outside Bracknell when the fog started to freeze on the screen. I pulled over but other drivers carried on at speed. They couldn't see any better than I could and the result was one of the biggest multiple "pile ups" in our history. There were numerous deaths and serious injuries.

With the agreement of the Police, I used my van to tow wreckage out of the carriageway to allow ambulances through.

I now don't drive if the weather is that bad.

[Vintage Fly Guy]

[badhuis]

We had a bit of snow this week and immediately it was hell on the streets. They even shut off a motorway because it was too slippery. Amazing - nobody is used to snow anymore. The last time we had snow was four years ago and then only a few days.

The old days! I remember having to go to the first day of my military training, a Monday morning in January 1985. I lived about 150 kms away. A friend offered his car, he also had to start training.
Overnight it had snowed heavily and because of the deep frost (minus 15 degrees C) all roads, including motorways were covered.
We removed the snow from the windows of the car and started the journey. There was just one lane driveable on the motorway. It snowed hard, the wipers barely could keep up. The worst thing about the journey was that the heater did not work! As poor students, we had old almost scrapyard ready cars. His was an Opel Kadett B from about 14 years old. Normal then, it had big rust spots everywhere.
No heater meant I as co-driver had to clear the windscreen from the inside every 10 minutes or so or ice would set from the inside. I am not sure how we made it but we did. We arrived 2 hours late at the appointment but this was accepted because of the bad weather.
This experience did not help any appreciating for the Opel Kadett. It was horrible in every aspect.
We had a few weeks then of snow and deep frost. I remember standing 15 minutes outside on a roll call as a soldier, when it was freezing minus 20 C.

I did go home every weekend in my Sunbeam Chamois, often in heavy snow and on snow-packed motorways. You just did what you had to do. At least my heater worked!
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a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[Rootes75]

It was -6 driving into work this morning...a very busy road between the big towns but still very much the countryside, no dual carriageway or to that extent many real overtaking spots.

Well, I was in a queue at 7.30 stuck behind this old chap in a brand new 4x4 type hybrid, he didn't go above 20mph in the 8 or so miles I was in the queue...and I didn't get out of third either!!!

Talk about dangerous driving fast in these conditions...driving so slow can cause just as much damage in people doing something silly trying to overtake someone like this!!
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Various Rootes Vehicles.

[alastairq]

[Ray White]

Winter tyres are common place on the Continent. I understand they are mandatory in some countries.

[Keith D]

[mikeC]

[quote="alastairq"]