Just curious- how many people drive their coupe during winter/snow

scottevest

scottevest

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I miss my coupe. It is in the garage for winter. I imagine it is horrible in the snow, like my 635 was unless I put sand bags in the trunk. Does anyone drive theirs in the winter/snow?

Scott
 
When the humidity is high enough, you can hear my car sizzle from the rust working (hope not)
Drive in snow? Gadzooks!
 
i will drive my coupe during winter months ... but then again, i live in atlanta. it won't be driven in any messy weather if i have any choice at all.
 
I will drive around the block to avoid a puddle :mrgreen: If it's dry out, I'll drive it year round.
 
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I drove one of my E9s in the snow a couple of times back in the early 80s (before rust became such a known issue). Considering it was on stock Michelin XVS and the car did not have an LSD, it did ok for traction. I probably had a trunk full of stuff in those days. It had been Ziebarted (70s rust prevention process) which slowed the rust down some!
 
scottevest said:
Does anyone drive theirs in the winter/snow?

Scott
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The better question might be whether anyone on this board admits to driving their car in the winter or inclement weather.

Although far from often, I have seen E9s and other similar vintage vehicles (Porsche and Mercedes) driven at or near US ski resorts. (Colorado and New Mexico.) Yes, with snow tires or chains. Perhaps ill advised, but for a select few, this may be one of the draws of ownership, rather than merely occupying garage space.
 
Snow?

Got caught out once, nice day until the storm hit unexpectedly and I was 100 klicks out. Got home no problem, but I have major winter driving experience. I find a light misting drizzle to be nice for cleaning the car....back out of the garage and let sit for 5 mins. then pull back in and wipe her down!
 
Here in Bucks County PA the winters can be harsh. But when a rain storm washes the salt off the roads, the sun is out and the temp is above 30 degrees F. I am on the road.

I have been on the track in a rainstorm or two and caught in a local storm coming home from a car show. But I try and speed dry the car with an agressive drive as soon as I can.

And yes, I wash it carefully and speed drive immediately.

Is my coupe rusting. Probably, almost certainly. But it is too much fun to not drive four months of the year. There are only so many left.
 
scottevest said:
I miss my coupe. It is in the garage for winter. I imagine it is horrible in the snow, like my 635 was unless I put sand bags in the trunk. Does anyone drive theirs in the winter/snow?

Scott
Click to expand...

My 77 Euro 633 was pretty good in the New York snow but rust ate it.

The E9 is used through the winter as I in Cupertino I do not know what snow is any more than whoever Tim Allen is.
 
I turned the heat on in the garage today. I will be on rust watch all winter, and it is not leaving the shop after the first salting.
 
Heat

Just reassembled my exhaust from donor and original (P.O bits) The main exercise to replace a leaking freeze (core) plug as well as to finish the install of a wide band O2 and AFR gauge. See where my old d-jet was at.( All my own fabrication and mild steel) It turned out that the offending plug was exactly the one required to install a block heater (spec 635) So the old girl will be warm for the winter! For sure interesting to see the A/F readings as before I was running blind. Need to do a road test but blowing a major storm here this evening. This should be interesting to CSi owners and CSL owners and I will post once I get some reliable numbers. My garage testing, no load looked good. My blind tuning OK. We will see if I need to tweek the box.
 
Snow and other matters

When driving my coupe back to Canmore, AB from Los Gatos, Ca after purchasing same from TJ Noto November 2004, I made it all the way on dry roads until the end of my block where I made (almost) the right angle left on a glazing of packed snow at 2mph on summer tires...and inertia took me between two large boulders into the shrubs. No damage so backed out and made it another block to my warm garage for the rest of the winter.

We get random winter from July to June and the real thing anytime from the middle of October to the end of April unless it wants to snow and then it does that whenever it damn well pleases. So the car is off the road from the end of October until the first of May - unless it's really nice in which case it has been out in the middle of February if the road is dry.

Forgive me father BMW for I have sinned.

Happy Holiday which ever it is.

Doug
 
Yellowknife would be good place to winter drive an E9. Cars don't rust in Yellowknife. If ever anybody goes up there, visit the junkyard. It was full of rust free 62 Valiants or similar when I was there in 1984. All they probably needed were new spark plug wires.
 
I had my car with me in Idaho while working a Bechtel enironmental remediation project. I restored it in my spare time(was working 6/10's) It stayed garaged the 2 years I was there,but when job finished at the end of Nov. I headed back to upstate NY with my fingers crossed. Sure enough went through major snowstorm in Wyoming barely making it through one of the passes before it closed. many cars in the ditch and a Fedex truck jackknifed sideways with packages all over the median. Car handled suprememly well and when I got into Nebraska found a car wash and rinsed the bottom off as roads were being salt sanded ahead of me. OUCH!
 
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I have :)

The grip on snow or ice was not very good and the rear felt very restless. And the front really wants to continuw stright on when turning sharp. I was playing around a bit on a big open and snowy parking lot.

They do salt a lot in Switzerland so I avoid it for sure but had to be tried. Nice to take it out every month on a dry day though and leet it warm up and work through everything.

However it is generally quite dry on the roads there in winter so I have used it at times to go up in the alps skiing (chains in the trunk...) and it is nice to drive into Chamonix with the car, people do look.
 
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