Have you ever driven your Ferrari in the snow?

I got into a few snow flurries while I lived in Detroit. When the roads are salted and the car is on summer tires, there are better tools for the job.

 

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Yup

 

Pfft, when I bought my 348 from a gentleman in Toronto I drove it back to Virginia in the middle of December and there was snow on the ground at least half of the way. And I am not talking just a dusting... it was at least two-three inches.

Obviously I drove very slowly in the deepest stuff, but after a while one develops a sixth sense for what the car is going to do and I picked up the speed a little. Needless to say, that was VERY LONG drive. Sorry, no pics to show.

 

Nope. Never even used the windshield wipers...


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Yup plenty of times. Steering feedback is amazing on the 348 so its really easy and fun to slide around in the rain/snow. In the future I want to get an extra set of wheels and some Blizzaks to take it snow drifting more often. A while back a random person spotted me on a winter drive (really icy roads that day) and posted this pic to a Facebook car spotting group. The picture ended up getting 600+ likes. The caption the guy put was "If this is his winter beater what is his daily driver?". Reading through the hundreds of comments of people's guesses was a riot.
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A few of us out for a visit to the Ferrari Quebec dealer for some maintenance in February 2019!


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Geez mines never even had rain on it since I've owned it.

 

I don’t understand why a person would do that. I wouldn’t take my $15,000 Honda S2000 in the snow and it pains me that I’m driving my E46 M3 in the snow daily. I’ve lived in the Mid-west my entire life I know what salt does to cars...the last thing I could even imagine doing was taking my Ferrari into conditions that are ACTIVELY damaging it.

I could only understand this if you were in a location that used some other material on the road other than salt.

 

When you live in Quebec, you must accept that we are in a nordic climate and adapt to it. Ferrari ownership or not, snow is a part of life here. We're actually getting lots of it today as I'm typing this.

We love our Ferraris but rarely take them out in the snow or winter or even rain. This was a particular circumstance and we had some fun making a photo-op out of it. Disclaimer "No Ferraris were harmed during this photosession. Nothing melted or rusted or disintegrated" LOL

 

I don’t know about snow removal in Canada, I mentioned that. While I wasn’t insinuating that your cars were somehow going to melt or disintegrate because they were getting wet, if salt was involved and your car wasn’t completely sprayed down after the fact...yes, something DID rust or is actively working on it!

Again, maybe road salt isn’t used where you’re at, it actively destroys everything it touches in Illinois!

I’m not the guy that takes pride in “my car has never seen rain”...salt is a vastly different story!

 

Nope. And I removed my wipers. They are in the attic

 

Sure they use salt, they have to but on a dry day there isn't much salt actively getting stuck under your car even if it's present on the road. Only the 4 rubber tires are making contact and even with some splashing it mostly ends up on the plastic in the wheel wells. But to answer your question no rust or damage was done on that specific day to any of the cars (this was in February 2019 so 2 years ago)

 

That's completely inaccurate or salt is used very sparingly there! We haven't had any precipitation here in over a week and a half, roads are completely dry, yet when trucks fly down the road by me there are clouds of salt dust in the air, you're telling me that salt dust is "only getting on the tires"?! This portion of your comment speaks volumes..."even with some splashing it mostly ends up on the plastic in the wheel wells". I completely disagree with the "mostly" assessment, just because our tires are the contact points to the street (I really didn't need that lesson) that's not preventing the salt dust to get all over everything! Even if splashing is "mostly" in your wheel wells, like you say, the salt residue is getting all over your calipers and front end components. You're telling me that because our cars roll down the streets on tires, your exhaust isn't covered in salt dust? Your tires aren't throwing it all over the back end of the car? It's no getting all over the bottom of the engine and in the engine bay?

Come on, let's be realistic! The ground up salt chunks are now dust coating everything, it's everywhere. I wash my M3 every, single, night on the way home from work to get as much of the salt dust off as possible.

Your cars, you guys do what you want with them, your business! I'm not about to sit and discuss if salt is corrosive or not though, or "my car has rubber tires and that's what's on the road" so now my car is impervious to those same corrosive attributes hanging in the air.

Is a drive or 2 in the snow going to hurt anything? Most likely not. But I guarantee that the person buying me M3 whenever I sell it will be able to tell that it's been driven through IL winters, no matter how hard I try to clean it every day.

 

Your scientific facts are all accurate and we love our Ferraris but the “salt in the air” is just not a grave concern to us. It was a one time thing, we had a laugh, took some photos. Cars were brought to the dealership and washed upon arrival. Big picture wise this was no big deal and 2 years later the cars look the same as before.

 

Living in Salt Lake City (yup DOT gets salt for free and uses it like it's going out of style) we endure salt dust well into June. Especially thick in canyons. Many of us swear by 'Salt Away' salt rinse and neutralizer. Used primarily in commercial marine exterior and engine flush applications it's sold on ebay. Get a wand sprayer with a small attached soap or chemical dispensing jar. Pour in Salt Away. Mix ratio doesn't seem to matter. Liberally squirt undertray and wheel wells. I fresh water rinse after. Directions say leave to air dry. Makes no difference near as I can tell. My 355 has driven Utah's salt encrusted roads for 22 yrs. Thanks to Salt Away - Zero rust. Zero corrosion. Everything still looking good.

 

I’d drive anything in the snow with winter (M+S) tyres fitted.

On the other hand, wide summer tyres on snowy roads is asking for trouble.

You can have all the skill in the world, but when the rubber is as hard as a rock and the tread packed with snow then even Juha Kankkunen is going to end up in the back of the car in front, or knocking down that kid that ran out in the road playing snowballs with their friends...

 

I've never intentionally driven in the snow. But I have been caught in it several times with the 308 & summer tires. I've grown up in NNJ driving in the snow so it doesn't phase me.
1) Once I went to the mechanics to retrieve the car before it started snowing. I just started home and about 10 min later and a white road I stopped for a light before a large hill. Light turned green, I eased the clutch out and the car just sat still. Summer tires and they just spun. I didn't move an inch. I needed to back up & get a running start and did make it up the hill. But it was an odd feeling not moving at all at the light.
2) Coming up & over a fly-over on a state highway, it froze before the rest of the road & the car was slipping all over the place at about 15mph. I did make it home and amazingly, up my very steep driveway.
3) in a dubious town at night caught in sleet, the Waterpump/Alternator belt snapped. She had to be towed.
4) Coming home from the g/f house at night it snowed and I couldn't make it up the state highway's modest incline to my exit light. I pulled into the corner Exxon where I asked the owner's son on duty if I could leave the car in his lot. I guess I could have made it home, but no way would I make it up my driveway and the town plows would show no mercy. He was enamored with the car and agreed, then had a friend drive me the 1 mile home in his Honda. I picked the car up the next morning when the roads were plowed.

 

Less drag
I know you too well !!!!
And lighter I guess

 

I could not ever see a desire to even consider driving my Ferrari in the snow. (Or any other sports car for that matter).
I just do not see how it would be any fun whatsoever, I don't even like driving my pickup truck in the snow, and that is mostly due to the other drivers on the road that should either stay home or take the bus. And...WAY too much salt.

 

I drive all of my cars all winter long unless its heavy snow. I ceramic coat the whole car, undercarriage as well, and never rinse after a drive. Every few weeks I put them up on a lift and wash and completely dry them. Adding water to salt even with coating unless you completely dry it speeds up rusting (not my opinion just chemistry). In the Northeast I just refuse to have 30% of the year with no Ferrari driving. I might be crazy . . .


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THAT is sad........