WooHoo, Yiipppeeee.   So who is going to be out cruising in this white slippery stuff.  By that I mean who is going to be out playing Drift King in there Fiero!!!    My 88 is all setup with the snow tires on it, oil is about 3/4 over full as a precaution for sustained high rpm times with the High Flow oil pump.  Antifreeze is good.   Even getting a dry change of clothes putting it in a plastic bag and stashing it in the front in case I have to dig my car out and get too wet.

Anybody got any winter prep tips they want to share?  

 Pam cooking spray on the door seals to keep them from freezing to the glass. 

Space heater in the cabin?

If anyone tries to say a Fiero can't be driven in the snow, here is my video proof from last season. http://captfiero.com/videos/snowinthe88.wmv - http://captfiero.com/videos/snowinthe88.wmv

I have more in car footage driving around Surrey.

Snow? It doesn't snow in Vancouver.

Let me just look out the window...

WHAT THE HELL !!!! 

When did that happen?

Looks like great fun.

Not to bad on the main routes in Burnaby. See my live webcam of Kingsway & Willingdon from my apartment window.

http://www.vancouverwebcam.net - http://www.vancouverwebcam.net

FieroZen

I have 6" of snow here at my house. 4" of which were plowed from my driveway thanks to my 87 coupe nose air dam/ plow. With all the weight of a  3800/4t60e in the rear traction was not bad. Now that I am home I will park the Fiero till the snow is under control. With 2" of clearance one hard chunk of snow and I,m looking for a new nose.

Fiero Zen wrote: Not to bad on the main routes in Burnaby. See my live webcam of Kingsway & Willingdon from my apartment window. http://www.vancouverwebcam.net - http://www.vancouverwebcam.net

That's pretty cool.

Nigel, are you able to aim that camera south up Willingdon? If so I could have a peek at my Dad's highrise on Willingdon and Beresford. (Just immediately south of the SkyTrain tracks.)

Patrick,

What you can't see because its just out of camera shot is a hunking big building blocking me view that towards Beresford.

FieroZen

Fiero Zen wrote: What you can't see because its just out of camera shot is a hunking big building blocking me view that towards Beresford.

I believe I know the one you mean. I watched it being built from my Dad's place, as it's just across the street (and tracks) almost directly north of him. There's another one going up immediately to the west of him that you should be able to see once it's out of the ground.

Well I left here at 2pm and headed to Langley to do some quick shopping and meet Lisa at her work.  We left Port Kells at 3pm with her in the lead and me following her.  It took 90mins to get from 200th street to 160th street on Trans Canada.  Just as I was about to take the turn off and head for home, my mother calls.  She is stranded at work.  She works for Pacific Blue Cross at the corner of Willingdon and Canada Way.  So I tell her to sit tight and I'll be there when I can.  Its only 2km from 160th street to the Port Man bridge, it took me 45mins to get to the bridge and across it.  Once I hit Coquitlam it was like a different world, roads were clear, little traffic and I quickly found myself up to speed zipping along at 90-100kph.  Made it to Burnaby and started back for Surrey.  It is completely amazing, Vancouver is clear as a bell, but shortly after crossing the bridge and into Surrey it looks like a War zone.  Trans Canada is solid ice and compact snow, cars off in the ditch, even saw a Tractor Trailer that had just given up trying to make it up Johnson hill and was parked in the middle of the highway.  

My side road is so deep that my nose was just a big snow plow.  We have got about 6-8 inches of snow here.   Last time I checked was at 1:30pm and it was 17cm in our front yard.  I will bet its closer to 25cm now.    Its Lisa and I's 11th anniversary of being together and I promised her we would go out for dinner.  So we are going to be out for at least one more cruise tonight. 

Take Care Everyone, there are some nut jobs out there that simply don't know how to drive and are not prepared for there car to go into a slide and panic.   This is one of those times that the people that normally drive like a maniac and intentionally put there car into slides in the rain, may have the upper hand on driving in this stuff.

Yah this was taken this morning not only snow but bleeeeping cold!!!

Did you add the blue tint to make the scene appear colder?

Thought I'd warm it up a bit.

Well here are the pics, from the last couple days.  These are of our place, some shots along Trans Canada heading for the Port Mann bridge and just kinda assorted.

Patrick wrote: Did you add the blue tint to make the scene appear colder? Thought I'd warm it up a bit.

 no the pic was taken with my phone throw my livingroom window but yah it does look colder

All I can say is thank god I have my GA with snowies.  I turn off the traxcking control and having a great time, but like anything...it's the ice:).  I picked up Kerstin from work on Friday just off 8th & Oak...I was stuck on the hill where there was one sheet of ice...they don't take care of those hill in that area at all.

Get your shopping, etc. done today boys and gals...today 5m+, tomorrow upto 15cm in areas...and fricken cold!.  I just spoken to my mother and the 1st time in 30 years where here kitchen sinks cold water tap is frozen...any suggestion on how to prepare for when it softens?...concerned about her pipe cracking.

Anyone who's home and relaxing that is a gamer...hit me up if you play COD 4 or 5, COH, or any other FPS game...can hjoin in with my clan on comms, etc...lol

Well damn, it's really starting to pile up now! Sure glad I braved the crowds yesterday and did some grocery shopping for my 88 year old father. (I didn't want him walking the couple blocks to Metrotown and slipping on some ice.) I think my Fiero will be parked for a few days now.

I'm sure a lot of us will be able to take some great pictures of our poor Fieros buried under a thick blanket of white stuff.

Have breaky and heading out for a walk through Queens Park...I wanted to get my GA out for a cruise, but the hill where I have to come out off is way to steep...lol

We did the same thing yesterday...did the shopping for what we needed and plan to take transist if needed...have fun everyone, if driving be safe:).

LOL, This kinda snow is the most fun to drive in.  Nigel was in his Fiero, I was in my 88, Chris was in his 4x4 Truck, friends were in a new VW Rabbit and a Honda Fit, we drove to Guildford did cookies and drifts in the back parking lot, then drove to the industrial area and went drifting around the deepest snow we could find, then went back up the hill from 176 back up to Guildford and went to the lower parking lot that has not been plowed so the snow was really deep. (Well about 20-30cms if you call that deep)  Chris managed several 4 wheel drifts in his truck.  I did some awesome figure 8's.   Some of the most fun was chasing each other from 160st up 104th Ave to 152nd Street.  We were the only ones actually doing the speed limit or a little over.   Man it was a blast, I honestly forgot how much fun was to go horsing around in a car in the snow.   I drove Lisa to work in Port Kells at 5:30am and just got home from picking her up.   There is an 18 wheeler that went over an embankment on 176 street, that has got the 176st area closed down.  At first all you can see is the trailer sticking out of the ditch and you don't see until you get pretty close up to it, that the Tractor is still attached and hanging over the embankment only being held up by the trailer that is stuck in the trees.  

I got all of this on Video, both in car video and other people with Cameras took video as well.   Just what I have here is about 1.3 gig and I think there is another 2 or 3 gig to be edited down. 

Well we got out for a walk and wanting to drive so bad...but it's the hill from my underground garage:(.

Here are some pics...Go Canada:)...lol.  Time for rest as I slipped a few times and jolted my shoulder, Xmas Paralizers rock:)

      Well I spoke too soon.   I made it 6ft.   Snow here is taller than the turn signals on my 88.  I may have good traction, but not good enough to use the car as a snow plow.   We are going to wait until day break and try to dig the car out.  However for the moment, she's not going anywhere. (The car or Lisa)   I'll post pics later.

Oh Video's all the raw videos from Yesterday are uploaded.  You can download the raw stuff or wait for the official video to get done.  Raw stuff is here.

http://captfiero.com/snowvids2008 - http://captfiero.com/snowvids2008      The videos with "driving" in the title are just boring shots where I left the camera going on the mount.  Great if you want to check out the scenery.   However the better clips are labeled with what happens in them.  The Nigel spin-outs and Chris clipping the curb are on the same clip, and the one where I clip a curb is on another shot.  Don't worry I didn't hurt the suspension, just the steel rim and a bit of my pride got dented.

http://captfiero.com/snowvids2008/bigsnowvideo2008_0001.wmv - http://captfiero.com/snowvids2008/bigsnowvideo2008_0001.wmv  

Aaron will have a better quality clip later.

Cool videos.  I was so tempted to join you guys but was worried about getting stuck along the way out.  No snow tires here, but good enough M+S all seasons for the most part.

Hahaha I made it maybe not even 3 ft this morning before I got high centered.  I tried to back out from the garage down the not so steep driveway and heard a shallow 'thump'.  I knew instantly what happened, the floorboards were sitting on the snow

Half an hour later with some shovelling under the car, 2 wood boards and some tire smoke later, i got the car back into the garage.  Yeah guess I'm stubborn and had to find out for myself if 12"+ of snow would bottom-out my low ground clearance lol.

I didnt have any problems Saturday though.  I went out to play in the snow in the middle of the night around 1-2am.  Mitchell Island and the new office developments in South Burnaby are great places to play.  There was an S2000 doing some nice high speed snow drifts.  Kinda wish I had snow tires.  Oh well.

Outside:

Just adding another video.  No drifting in this one.  Just a 10min clip showing what Surrey BC looks like cruising around, and even a clip proving that a Fiero is able to drive in fresh snow at 80-90kph just fine.    I had to take Lisa to work this morning, so I grabbed the camera mounted it in the car and headed right out to the highway.   I left the news playing in the background for the first part, on the 2nd part I clicked it over to a sorta Christmas song playing on the local pop station.     They are calling for another 30cms of fresh white stuff today, on top of the 40 we already have.  

Well here it is.   http://captfiero.com/videos/snowcruise2008.wmv - http://captfiero.com/videos/snowcruise2008.wmv  

For the record the car is an 88GT 5spd, all poly suspension, running 195/70/14 Firestone Winterfire snow tires on all 4 corners.  I have taken it up to 120kph in the snow just to see how it felt.  Car felt good, but I know margin of safety at those speeds is non existent, so I dropped it back down to 80-90kph.  

I'll try to post some recent pics today, of the all the Fiero's under a blanket of snow. 

Sorry about not posting pics yet, had to run out to do some more shopping.  Trans Canada is  a bit slick, but once we made it into downtown Langley, all the cars stuck in traffic had melted all the snow on the main roads.  Hwy 15 (176 street) is about 90% clear of snow.  A few small patches hear and there, but as long as you don't brake or steer your fine. 

         Looks like Lisa and I are heading to Abby tonight, I will try and post back later from my phone.  

Take care and drive safe guys.

I took these at about 9am when there was a break in the snow, however a lot more has fallen.  The cars that you could just barley see, are completely gone now.   My trailer has disappeared into the snow.  The pic in the way back of the lane is a 92 Le baron that has snow up to its door handles.  There is a mini van beside the house and snow is up past the top of the wheels.   We got my 88GT out of there 2 days ago and moved it around to the front of the house which we keep dug out.  I actually just got home from driving it. 

Next to the tree is an 86SE, in the driveway is my 85GT and Lisa's 85SE, beside those 2 in the grass, is my 87GT Project car and beside that one is Lisa's 86SE SBC Car.   The trailer is suppose to be on the grass next to the Black 86SE however there is nearly Zero of the trailer showing.

Well here are the pics.  Lets see some of your places.

My friend & I went out to play in the snow last night.  He's got a 240sx with these poor all season tires half worn, can't believe he managed!  Anyway we left around 12pm just as the snow started to fall and cruised out to various spots.

Most of the places are plowed quite regularily though unfortunately.  I had quite a bit of fun at what used to be the old Bby Costco.  Next was the big new Costco, ENOUGH FREAKIN SALT? damn there wasnt a spot of snow on their pavement but we drove around the parking lot anwyay unl a security guy chased us out lol

 We played at Brentwood Mall for awhile since it was nearby.  There was just barely enough snow to keep us sliding.  We then trekked over to the Marine Dr. Superstore but when we got there, to our surprise, it was BUSY!!! I couldn't believe it, there were probably 50 cars parked there?!  At 1AM!! Turns out they are open 24hrs for the holidays.  Good thing too cuz we stopped to get some munchies

Eventually, we hit up Lansdowne Mall in Richmond and wow, wide open lots with now smooth powder that been falling for the past few hours.  NICEEee   We had tonnes of fun there going all around the mall to the various lots.  By now we were starving so we had dinner at the 24hr Chinese restaurant there.  BTW Shopping carts, are AWESOME 'obstacles'.  We carefully placed them and used them to drift around and made our own AutoX type of rallys. 

After dinner we hit up the Home Depot by Bridgeport.  This was the highlight of the night.  Shopping carts, fresh powder, light poles, islands, PERFECT for a mini-rally!! We played there til about 430am when the snow was starting to really pick up.  I was getting worried about all the hills we had to go up to get home so we called it a night.

Here are some pics of the night, sorry didn't take more was too busy having fun!  I've got some video footage as well but it was pretty dark so theyre not that great.

BTW Adjustable Coil-Over suspension is freakin awesome!! I raised the rear to about 1-2" higher than stock and the front I put in rubber coil-spacers to get back to about stock height.  I had problems on Monday getting high-centered and this definately helps!  Tires are just cheap All Season M+S tires 195/70/14 i think. 

   When you mentioned shopping carts placed as auto cross cones, I just about fell out of my chair laughing.  That is so Wicked Cool.   Man I wish we would have thought of that.  Wait,  I guess we really couldn't have :(  As the Guildford Mall we did most of our stuff at was still open and there was not a buggy in site.       If Lisa and I were not leaving for Abby in 90 mins, I would say we should get together tonight and have some more fun.   

The snow here is getting freaking deep.  I'll try to post some updated photos before we leave. 

Looks like you had it a bit sideways.  Looks like it was fun to boot.

Well just a quick update here are the updated pics, I meant to post these before we left for Abby, but just ran out of time.

Note that little black spec in the middle, that is actually the passenger side door mirror.  The snow is level with the door. 

This is where my 85GT is suppose to be.  You can kinda see Lisa's 85 and my 87GT in the far background.  Lisa's 86 is just gone.  I have never seen snow this deep before.  

Just  quick shot of the road as I was coming home from McDonald's. Our street was so deep that even my stock height 88 was getting high centered if I stopped for more than a second.

       On a final note, Lisa and I just got home from Abby.  We counted over 7 cars, spun out or flipped upside down on the highway on our way out.  The stretch from 232nd all the way to Abby is pure ice.  In 4th gear at 2000 rpms, if I pressed the gas the rear tires would brake loose and we would drift sideways.   We spent a great deal of time about 100ft behind a snow plow doing only 40kph as he was doing a great job of cleaning the fresh snow away for us while we drove.   A few cars tried to get gutsy and pass the plow, only to find that when he hit a thick patch of snow, it would pound there car., from the wash from the blade.  Pretty crazy. 

The drive home was about the same ICE all over the place, the worst part is not knowing if you were on compacted snow, or wet pavement or straight ice.  Even if you could tell from the sound of the tires on the pavement. (snow is like sandpaper noise, wet is like static from a TV and Black Ice the tires go Silent)  You never knew how long it was going to last and when you were going to be riding the edge of insanity.  I was able to maintain about 80kph on the way home, chain smoking cigarettes and white knuckles all the way.    Sometimes knowing all to well how bad it can get, when things go wrong, makes driving it all the more nerve wracking.    Keep the tires straight, no sudden jerks on or off with the throttle and don't touch the brakes.  Pretty simple until you take in account the patches of built up snow that force the wheel to the right or left if you hit them. 

Dah I am just rambling.  I am just winding down.  I have to go back to  helping Lisa get the rest of the gifts under the tree for the morning.  Nigel let me know what time you are going to make it over.

Everyone else, have a Merry Christmas.

P.S.  If your home alone on Christmas and want to come hang out, we have a big family and friends dinner at hour house.   No one should be alone on Christmas.  ( I don't care what religion you are, its the spirit of Christmas we celebrate here, giving, sharing and caring) Its a time to let your friends know that you are glad they are in your lives.  The only thing we ask is that you bring something if you can to the dinner table.  (just about anything from a finger food plate at your local grocery store to something you made from stuff at home)    Feel free to show up any time after 11am.  Well start with the food around 5pm.  (beware the dinner TV is gonna be Star Trek and Stargate Atlantis.  The final 2 episodes including the Season Finale for Atlantis)

I think I'll hold off driving her for awhile yet.

Is it ever going to end?

     So Lisa and I went out spent a wonderful day browsing the malls, bought some new computer stuff, and some clothes, really had fun.

We get home cook up some left overs from last night and sit back.  I'm all set to tear down my computer and install the new MB, CPU, Ram and enjoy myself, then, Blink, Flicker, BLACK.  FRACK.  No power.  We have no power, no heat, Nada.   I keep checking the hydro website and they still don't know why the power is out.  Just calling it adverse weather.  

I have the 350w inverter in the car with a 50ft extension cord running into the house.  Feeding my Laptop and my cell.  So at least I have internet via my cell phone modem. 

As for snow, ya we got one hell of a dump today.  Roads were super slippery in and around Langley.  It was a total blast cruising around.  You could be doing, 80kph in 5th gear, drop to 4th punch it and the rear tires would break loose and could run a controlled slide for almost ever.    Only had one instance that got a little hairy.  Was coming up to a light about 70kph, it went yellow and I was too far away to run it, but was close enough that braking was going to be interesting.  I dropped from 4th down to 2nd and managed get a compression slide from the rear tires.   I popped the clutch back in and pumped the brakes a few times and got it under control however still had the nose about 10ft past the stop line.  

There is a major 4 car pile up on Trans Canada near he scales at 176th street.  I hear we are suppose to be in for some serious flooding over the next week.    Gonna be interesting.

Well...I live on the 20th floor. I never expected to experience a snow drift. But as you can see from the photo...its possbile.

Patrick wrote: Is it ever going to end?

Nope, well not for a while at least.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/CABC0284 - http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/CABC0284

Rain/Snow mixed for the next week, then Friday Jan 2nd, temps drop to -7 and expect another 15cm's of this stuff.  I think this is going to the most snowy winter I have ever seen. 

I may have to talk to Austin and get more info on those spring risers he was talking about. 

Capt I'll see if I can snap a pic of the spring risers next time I'm at CrappyTire..  Only some stores have em, seems the ones that have lots of old stock kicking around.  The new stores dont seem to carry them.  There are different kinds, some are chunks of rubber, some are the kind you crank up/down with nut/bolts.

We got a massive half inch dump today in East Van which has since turned to slush.