Winter driving

How many of you are useing your cars at the moment? I have had mine out of the garage a couple of times the past monthbut worried the salt will kill her…

I use mine all year round; it?s a plastic body and a galvanised chassis.

Alan

the D.O.T puts 15 tons of salt on the roads in my region EVERY SNOW STORM --cars go completely white from it -Buicks disolve -I don’t even take anything out of the garage until may 1st --the salt is mostly washed off the road by then ----ed

I have been pulling apart a Lotus 912 engine out of an Excel to use as the basis of new engine for my series 1 Esprit. I got it from England and just about every bolt in the front half of the engine is corroded in solid unless it was exposed to an oil leak.

Plastic body and galvanised chassis are fine just remember the anti sieze is needed in every bolt exposed to the salt also

cheers
Rohan

I’m taking my Sprint through Coconut Grove, across the causeway, to Key Biscayne tomorrow morning for Cuban coffee and pan Cubano with a couple of my other Britcar friends (AH 3000 and an MGB GT). We have an OSD (Occassional Sunday Drive) together out to the Key about once a month.

Only salt around here is typically on the rim of my margarita glass… :smiley:

Gary
'71 Sprint FHC
Miami, Florida

may a group of incontinent Morris Dancers invade your garage ----- :slight_smile: —well that’s kind of harsh ----Ill settle for a drunken gay motorcycle gang in your driveway----- ed

Rohan, good point about the use of anti seize. I have just replaced the front suspension bushes and everything came apart with no problems thanks to Copper Ease.
I also keep a good collection of nuts and bolts in all sizes so I?m never tempted to re-use an old one.

Alan.

Me too. The ‘chassis lubrication system’ (oil leak(s)) looks after most metal parts from the engine rearwards… :wink:
Mine didn’t want to start after a -5?C night though. It turned over, but there were not enough volts left for the electronic ignition. A ‘starter-charger’ got it going. Yes, it’s probably earthing/bad connection issues, but I’m not concerned as it’s fine the rest of the year and I don’t expect it to be that cold here that often… :slight_smile:

:arrow_right: Matthew

Mine’s a daily driver…rain, sun, snow and ice (mostly rain here though :frowning:).

Get’s a bit cold in -5C, and blown about a bit in 100+ km/h winds but still a great car and returns fun in spades!

Peter

Took mine out today - 1st decent day for a week or so. Some salt/grime on the roads but a good wash when I returned was an absolute necessity.

A combination of low sun / white roads & wash/wipe system that could only move the dirt from one piece of windscreen to another without actually cleaning it, meant that the last few miles were…

…interesting

Richard

:slight_smile:

Drove to Dublin last week. Was -5 C most of the way.

As a result the rear and side windows remained frozen over (90%) inside and out till I got to Dublin…

AND…my windscreen wipers kept on freezing stiff so that only the outside edges of teh blades were effective :open_mouth:

Had a creek in my neck when I got to my destination…still smiling though!

Peter

kind of a trade off for me…in chicago, the road is so salted up it’s just bad for any metal. but, the car gets strange if not driven…electrics, rubber, fuel system especially. so i drive it when the road is clear of ice and snow, and then wash it down to remove salt on the bottom. also, i get strange if not driven.

You’ll learn. :smiling_imp:

Hello
Luckily in rural France they only grit/salt steep hills or large main roads , so providing you can dodge around on side roads you are OK
So come to France everyone and drive your Lotus!
(Oh - but you’d have to drive on the salted roads to get here - Drat)

Terry

I can drive here at the moment, -10?C but dry roads, but it always feels as though the schocks are nearly solid when it’s this cold, so I sort of feel I may be damaging something. Always OK when the weather warms up once again however.
Gordon
Sprint 5

Reduce your tyre pressures slightly ? At least you can enjoy the drive, especially on a clear sunny Winter day. :slight_smile: