[LarryM]

The weather here in Chicagoland is just starting to get nasty. I have so far been pretty impressed with the GTOs good traction. Between the TCS - and much more importantly, the tires themselves, I think this car is going to do very well for itself.

Back in the days - I had a 69 Mustang Mach1 with Ford's version of limited slip differential. I was in the Air Force at the time, coming home one weekend thru Indiana and there's a little stretch where there are a series of these little hills. There wasn't much snow on the ground, but the Mustang was doing a hoola dance up each of these hills as the differential would try to find traction, first on one side and spin that tire, then the other and spin that tire. OMG! The whole car would rotate maybe 10 degrees each way, and other cars a WHIZZING passed me. I had to stop and clean my drawers out more than once!

---Larry

 

[djdub]

Larry, are you gonna drive your GTO in the snow? I live in Amherst, NY ("the safest city in America"), outside of Buffalo. I will be driving the "goat" in the snow and I was wondering about it's traction. I was planning on getting 2 rear snow tires. I tend to think, with the snow tires, the TCS, and the limited slip, this car should be a tank in the snow.

Now, I only have to drive about 5 miles to and from work. On the weekends, I will be driving my 2005 Ford Escape (which my wife drives on a daily basis). So i don't have to drive the GTO in the snow that much.

 

[LarryM]

My GTO is my daily car. I do have a 4x4 Blazer, which I *share* with my step-daughter. The plan (as agreed by wife & I) was that on snow days step daughter would take the bus to school and I would use the Blazer. So it'll see a little bit of nasty weather, at least according to the plan, but no major stuff (you gotta also worry about other cars smacking into you!)

Of course, it remains to be seen whether this plan will actually work! Step-daughter is a major snotty little brat.

---Larry

 

[Whiteshadow]

hehe Larry, you crack me up!

Good luck getting the Blazer, I can already tell that it's gonna be a struggle for you.

 

[gsmith]

The dealer told me if I wanted to get around in the snow, call a flat bed. Given the way it slides on the slippery wet road now....I believe him!

 

[LarryM]

Now this doesn't add up. The motor can certainly force the tires to lose traction, but with TCS on I've found that the tires stick pretty good on wet pavement. Ice/Snow can certainly be a whole other story, but so far I am impressed.

---Larry

 

[jerhofer]

Larry, are you gonna drive your GTO in the snow? I live in Amherst, NY ("the safest city in America"), outside of Buffalo. I will be driving the "goat" in the snow and I was wondering about it's traction. I was planning on getting 2 rear snow tires. I tend to think, with the snow tires, the TCS, and the limited slip, this car should be a tank in the snow.

Now, I only have to drive about 5 miles to and from work. On the weekends, I will be driving my 2005 Ford Escape (which my wife drives on a daily basis). So i don't have to drive the GTO in the snow that much.

You may want to consider getting four snow tires. You still have to stop and turn in the snow and it will be much better with snows at all four corners. At least that has been my experience when I used to live in northern Indiana.

 

[bsmcall]

Definitely get 4 snow tires all the way around for the ultimate in traction. Make sure you get the new style winter tires, not the old lug type. The new generation snow tires have a porous compound the remains soft in cold weather. Think of it as suction cups for your tires.
I had 4 Blizzak (Bridgestones) ws-15 tires on my '98 Z-28 and we went everywhere. My place of employment is at the bottom of an unmaintained 6% grade, one mile long driveway and my car went up every time uneventfully. Only once did I ever have to turn off the traction control, and that was on a sheet of ice on the steepest hill on the way to work. Imagine holding the throttle wide open only to have the Traction control limit you to IDLE speed and feeling each tire alternate spinning and just sitting there. I got 18,000 miles out of them( 2 Winters and a spring full of burnouts.) Just remember, once the tread is worn so far, the compound of these tires changes (the blizzaks changed around 60% worn.)
The only drawback is that the handling becomes much more sloppy than on all-seasons(predictable but different nonetheless.)

P.S. The tires were so soft that an aggressive launch (without any wheelspin) will leave powder stripes on the road because the compound of rubber is so different (SOFT).

 

[2004 GTO]

I got my GTO last January and had to drive it for the remainder of the winter here in New England. I had no problem with it even in a few over 6" storms. The T/C does its job very well,All you have to do is use a little common sense and you will be fine. You do have to watch out for "the other guy" though.

 

[djdub]

I had 4 Blizzaks on my 2000 BMW 328Ci and I always felt that the front 2 were a waste of money. I'm gonna by 2 rear and see how it goes and then if I need them, I'll get 2 more. But I can't see spending $600 ($175 per tire) for tires I might not need.

As for needing fronts for stopping, I don't see how it will make that much of a difference, I mean our stock tires are all-season. Most people don't buy snow tires that have lower hp and torque cars because they have all-season tires.

The problem with the goat is the "going" not the stopping.

 

[philpio]

According to the TireRack, the stock gForce tires are rated a 6.5 for snow.
Blizzak's are rated a 9.5 !
I am still looking for less expensive rims, and then plan on getting a set of 4 Blizzak's.

 

[Toebee]

I got my GTO last January and had to drive it for the remainder of the winter here in New England. I had no problem with it even in a few over 6" storms. The T/C does its job very well,All you have to do is use a little common sense and you will be fine. You do have to watch out for "the other guy" though.

Hi 2004 GTO,

I hope you're right... My 2001 T/A with 6spd did not handle very well in the snow... I even changed to Toyo's and that was a horrible experience.. Although, I did drive it for a few years and made it through, it was definitely a challenge.! So... if the GTO handles better, that will be a big plus...! Thanks for the insight...

 

[GumbyGoat]

Not too bad in the snow/slush

Had the opportunity yesterday to drive the Goat in the snow between IL and WI. About 25 miles total. It did better than I thought it would. It wasn't a huge amount of snow, but there was an accumulation on the road. I was on and off the highway and it performed awesome on both. There was no wheel spin, at least none that wasn't done on purpose. Gotta have a little fun, right? Anyway, I think the Goat will be a fine all year round driver. Anyone else get to drive it in the snow yesterday? How about you Larry M? You are in the Chicagoland area. Happy Thanksgiving all!!! :cheers

 

[philpio]

I drove from Oakbrook to Schaumburg (Illinois) from about 4:50 pm to 6:10 pm in about 3-4" of accumulated snow. Very wet stuff.
The backend would move about 6" to the left when starting in the stop and go traffic. It little 'scary' at first, but then I got use to it.
When I got home, and tried to back into the garage, up a very mildly slopping drive way, I was fishtailing left and right.
I finally gave up, for fear of hitting the door openning, or the other car.
Once I shovelled the drive, I was able to back it in fine.
This experience HAS convinced me to get the Blizzak snow tires.
One other thing, the side windows were fogging up, even though I had the air conditioning ON. I tried just the defroster, the defroster and floor, the floor and vents, but there was never enough air coming from those little vents by the window !
What finally did seemed to work, was to point the larger, side vents, up and toward the windows (left and right) and Close the vents in the middle/top of the dash board. Then, using the Floor/Vent setting, I was able to keep the feet warm, and get enough air on the windows to keep them from fogging, and melt some of the snow off.
Does anyone get a noticable amout of air from those small side window vents ?
And, to all a good holiday...