Out & About Winter 2019

Out&About lifestyle

MOTORS

Take care when driving in winter. Slow and steady will get you there says MAURICE HARDY

L ike most years, pundits are predicting there’s a hard winter ahead. Maybe they’ve seen more berries on the bushes, a sure sign that birds will be feasting ahead of hard times, or it could be that the Beast from the East will be returning with a ferocity and determination not inflicted upon us since the great freeze of December 1962, which ended in March 1963. Or perhaps that should be the even bigger freeze of 1947, when the Land Rover hadn’t even been created to get us out of trouble. How will we all manage? Much the same as before when there were no winter tyres or mass market 4x4s to save us. Not that everything that looks like a 4x4 can be relied upon to be one these days. Many of the SUVs that have arrived since the Range Rover first blessed our roads in 1970 are no more than clones with only front wheel drive. Heavens, even some Land Rovers only have two wheel drive. There are some of us who need a 4x4 these days because there’s precious little public transport and what there is has become affected by the wrong sort of leaves, signal failures or not enough grit (too much in the case of a Range Rover Sport we once tested, where some grit got into a valve in the air suspension and caused it to fail). Buying a 4x4 gets more expensive at this time of year, with values climbing exponentially as temperatures plummet. If you want to join the 4x4 set it’s better to do it sooner rather than wait. Having given you that sage piece of advice, I should ’fess up that we bought our Land Rover Freelander 2 last January and watched values plummet as temperatures rose.

If all you need is ensured mobility, cars like the Fiat Panda have been offered with 4x4 over the years. They were made by Steyr in Austria, the creators of the renowned Haflinger who have also made Jeeps, Minis and other cars for different makers including Mercedes Benz. The likes of Suzuki also make some very good compact 4x4s and the latest Jimny is probably all you need. If you demand comfort, then many examples of the now- cheap-as-chips Jaguar X-Type from the Noughties had four wheel drive. Don’t let on to your neighbours and you can amaze them with your mobility from a seemingly performance-oriented car.

Jaguar X-Type

What’s probably most important is technique if you want to keep mobile. Tackling poor conditions in a steady fashion will get you further than rushing at things. Taking it slowly is the best way and if others want to speed past then let them. You’ll meet them again pretty soon. Good tyres operating at the correct pressures are key, whether or not they are winter compound or the usual type. The legal minimum for tread depth is 1.6mm but even 2mm is not sufficient for good grip in wet weather. My personal preference is to bin tyres when they get to 3mm because so much depends on their grip, particularly emergency braking. When travelling in poor conditions, don’t be in a rush to pass trucks, especially when the roads are freezing or there’s lying snow. Truck tyres generate more heat than car tyres and will help melt ice or cut through snow. Lorry spray also masks what’s ahead and the last thing you want to find as you cut through the cloud is a line of stationary traffic that had been invisible. When driving on snow, avoid high revs and keep to the highest gear possible. If your car will pull away in second gear then do so as you avoid wheelspin, which equates to lost grip. And if your car won’t get up a slippery slope because it’s front wheel drive then trying travelling in reverse gear because the weight of the car will be pushing down on the driven wheels, giving them more traction. Remember, slow and steady is the way to arrive safely.

Fiat Panda Cross

You don’t have to go large to get a 4x4 unless you really need to and bear in mind that a Freelander is the same size as an original Range Rover – Range Rovers have just got bigger over the years. Not for nothing have they earned the name Chelsea Tractor.

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O&A WINTER 2019