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Old 12-16-2008, 03:20 AM
JordaanDMC-12's Avatar
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
Posts: 767
Talking First time driving in snow!!!!!

It couldn't get any better! Another REALLY rare event happened in southern California today! It snowed in the high desert!!!!!

I appreciate the reply's to my previous thread and I didn't get a chance to reply yet, was so excited to tell you all about this, although as fun as those slides were I probably won't be doing anymore anytime soon because my brakes are starting to squeak haha . Jumping railroad tracks sounds like fun though
Anywho, the forecast for today was supposed to be rain all day in the low desert, where I'm at, and maybe some snow in the high desert about 20 miles up a mountain.

I forgot about this "snow warning" and got all excited about the rain this morning and jumped in the 240 again and drove to my buddys house. While I was driving to his house, there was a honda element with snow on it and I remembered the snow warning, as soon as I got to my buddys house he fired up his 98 Audi A6 quattro and off we were to Yucca Valley or "the high desert" thinking we'd see just a light dusting of snow.

There are two obstacles for my little Diesel, one is about 3 minutes of uphill turns and twists with a steep top, and then there is "big momma hill" which is a very very steep, long hill linking the low desert to the high. Nothing but rain around the first obstacle but once we got to the bigger hill, everything around us had snow. More rain until it starting turning into icy sludge. Pretty soon the road was covered with ice and dirt.

The sides of the roads were covered with snow and everyone was going very slow in a funeral line type way. This was my first time ever driving in snow, and driving up the hill we passed about 3-4 newer type cars stuck on the side of the hill. I started to worry because as we all know, the w123 does not have ABS or traction control, and if newer cars were getting stuck how was I going to last? Sure enough about midway the big hill, my rear wheels started slipping. This scared me at first because I was afraid I was going to slide backwards with the many cars behind me. But I let go of the pedal slowly and just went back on it real slow, the wheels spun a few times more but I never lost control and made it to the top to see the winter wonderland that awaited.

We drove around for a little bit and then I started to have trouble with snow, while my friend in his Audi was having a blast with his ESP/ABS and AWD. So we parked the 240 at a water district parking lot which we named "home base" and drove around in the Audi most of the time. I thought I give the 240 one last go, because I carfax'd it, and my car is originally from Massachusetts and came to Cali in '05 so it had to be decent in snow, right? It ended up being just fine, I went very slow and was VERY careful with my turns. I kept good distances between all cars and myself and was very very delicate with braking since in some areas if you touched the pedal you'd slide just a little bit more. I gave my parents periodic updates, because they heard the big hill was now closed due to the heavy snowfall and we were "snowed in". I was putting myself in my parents shoes and how worried I'd be if my 19 year old was driving for the first time in snow and roads were closed off and he couldn't come down, so I was extra careful and ended up coming home in one piece when at last they finally opened the road back up hours later.

But still had a blast without doing anything crazy with the car, I also got these awesome snap shots while up there with my friend. Hope this wasn't too long, it was just a cool experience and I was really excited lol Also, when I got home, I rinsed the under body/wheel wells and whole car pretty well with the hose and dried her off with a chamois in the garage, so she's all nice and dry
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Last edited by JordaanDMC-12; 12-16-2008 at 03:35 AM.
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