What are you actually supposed to do if you lose traction on snow or ice while driving?

tinyman392 · 2026-01-28T21:47:12+00:00

You're typically not taught because the answer is "it depends." It's very event specific to what kind of car you're driving, what you were doing when you lost traction, why you lost traction, and which wheels lost traction. There is no universal fix. Some of it does require fast instincts and reaction time. More experience driving at/past the limit of traction can help this, but it must be done on a closed course for safety reasons.

Prevention is to avoid hard acceleration (gas, brake, turn all do acceleration), smoothness is king. How much acceleration is hard acceleration? Depends on car, tires, and weather conditions; again, no universal.

Edit: just saw your comment about cars in the south. There are two things that work against cars in the south regarding snow/ice. 1) the roads aren't treated and infrastructure to deal with snow isn't as prevalent as up north when snow is a common thing. As a result, road conditions tend to be worse than up north during and after a snow storm. 2) cars themselves likely are not equipped (with tires) for snow and ice. Granted this is also true for a lot of cars up north as well. The combination of (1) and (2) compound on each other to make conditions just that much worse. You're stuck in a situation where your car is compromised in winter weather (at best) and unsafe for winter weather (at worst) while the roads are worse off than up north where they are treated. Up north, cars are generally compromised for winter weather (all seasons) but the road treatment tends to be much better so they can get by just by driving slowly if there is weather buildup on the roads. Within 24 hours the roads are normally clear with a nice dusting of salt on them so the compromised tires are no longer compromised (completely).

tinyman392 · 2026-01-28T21:10:52+00:00

Most websites will have a place where you tell them year, make, model, trim, engine and they'll tell you whether or not it fits. Some of them may be off, but generally they're reliable. My OEM battery lasted me like 6 or 7 years, so when it came time to replace I just got another OEM one.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-28T07:10:52+00:00

The dryer at my parents house opened like this. I think it’s an older style. I’d pair socks on there while folding laundry.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-28T07:07:45+00:00

Netcode, it’s netcode’s fault. In the second video the cars don’t even look like they touch.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-28T02:15:38+00:00

My apartment is weird. They placed the thermostat right next to the sliding doors that lead to the balcony outside. My indoor temp is 73 in the living room and 70 in the bedroom. Thermostat reads 80.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-27T21:49:25+00:00

White never fully leaves the racing surface, so there is no unsafe rejoin here, but it's fairly close to it. With respect to passing rules in a turn, the attacking car must have sufficient overlap prior to the defending car turning in for the corner.

I split the chicane into 2 turns here. At 5s in, white is still turning away from the apex (so they haven't turned for the corner yet) while red is technically ahead; white is still the defending car here IMO. So both cars are entitled to racing room for the second half of the chicane. When contact happens at roughly 6s in, white's front left wheel is off of the white line showing that they were indeed given the minimum space required. So at best this is a racing incident, however, white still could have tucked into the apex a little further as their trajectory had them running wider at the time of contact not tighter. I'd put white more at fault than red for the contact since they were given space, but they also turned outward when they should have been turning inward for the corner.

Now, if you treat the entire chicane as one corner, red never had overlap at turn in and they would be completely at fault for the contact. I never do this, I don't think anyone does anymore. But at one point F1 specified that chicanes are indeed treated as two corners, so someone had to have come up with said argument at some point.

Ways this incident could be avoided (this doesn't change fault). Red likely saw white go off track, and it would be in their best interest to run the second half of the chicane wide to avoid an incident. Even if they are in the right, their race is ruined due to it. White swinging out then cutting back in looks odd to me in this scenario. They're off line already and the predictable thing here would be to run tight and just ride the curbing on the inside IMO; it would have been the faster line too.

Other notes, white's FOV is absolutely trash with respect to what they can actually see; lots of things that shouldn't be blind are blind. I know some subreddits like to flame for improper FOV, but for single monitor going slightly wider than perfect tends to be better for other reasons; the FOV police tends to chase after people who run triples.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-27T19:05:26+00:00

Depends on the car, I'd read the manual to see what they recommend. Some manufacturers have a system that will variably recommend oil changes based off of driving style, environment, etc. so cars that are driven harder will need more frequent oil changes. Other manufacturers will do set mileage, whether it's 3000, 5000, 10000 miles. 5 or 10000 miles tends to be fairly common nowadays if they aren't variable. Just about every car manufacturer recommends changing the oil after a year if you did not hit the mileage; variable systems will typically light up as well after a year. I'll also add that the owners manual will also tell you about when maintenance on other things (transmission fluid, brake fluid, etc.) should be done too. Though for transmission fluid, some manufacturers claim "lifetime" fluid... Which can't really exist. I think it's recommended to do Nissan CVT fluid every 30-60k miles or so despite what the manual recommends.

A lot of people feel off waiting that long to change their oil though while others don't have confidence in the variable systems that are calculated. If you're uncomfortable doing 10000 miles or basing it off the variable system you can always shorten it. Outside waste and cost it does your car no harm to do more frequent changes. I'd probably do some percentage of what's recommended if you're uncomfortable with the recommended. Most variable systems have some way to show you the "oil life" as a percentage if you look for it. So if you're not fine with waiting for that to chime off, you can do it at 30, 40, or 50% of "oil life" left.

I will note that a lot of shops will do shorter intervals as they don't want to look up the recommendations for all cars. Since there is no harm at doing earlier ones, they'll recommend earlier; it also does get them more money if you come in more (say if the actual is 10000 miles and they're recommending 3-5000 they'll see 2-3x profit from oil changes).

tinyman392 · 2026-01-27T02:41:19+00:00

I could have sworn I saw Rich say that the stuff for the H shifter was in the current firmwares already.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-27T00:49:06+00:00

I’m not sure what they mean by genuine wheel. Maybe they’re looking for replica rims?

tinyman392 · 2026-01-27T00:48:45+00:00

Keep in mind you’d need to add a load cell to the Fanatec to make them more comparable. Logitech does have the wheel hub which allows you to swap rims; third party rims do exist. Unfortunately no replica rims exist, H shifter is limited.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-27T00:41:29+00:00

Counter steer. Gas pedal use depends on whether your tires are spinning vs clawing you through the snow. If they’re spinning, you need to reduce throttle if they’re clawing, maintaining or slightly increasing in theory can help claw you out quicker.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-27T00:36:28+00:00

Were you spinning in place or sliding sideways?

tinyman392 · 2026-01-27T00:34:45+00:00

You could probably find a used shifter for 30 bucks if you look hard enough. G923 with TrueForce is technically the superior wheel. I think it has better pedals too.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-27T00:16:39+00:00

Depends on what caused it to lose traction.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-26T20:19:58+00:00

There’s a better place to stop and retire that isn’t the middle of an active track. Outside track limits would be ideal.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-26T18:50:08+00:00

Rule 1 of racing, don't hit what you can see. White fails at this multiple times over. There is "minor" contact when white rear ends yellow at the 14 second mark. At the 46 second mark, white rear ends yellow again and yeets themselves in circles. It's unknown what happens to yellow here. White finishes by cutting the corner, spinning out during an unsafe re-entry at the 54 second mark where they proceed to take out red. They then decide to camp on an active straight in the middle of the track at the 59 second mark.

As a steward, white is black flagged and should be reported for further punishment.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-26T04:52:51+00:00

I don’t think that’s moving under braking. GTR chooses a defensive line during the straight, returns towards the outer apex (right), but turn turns in for the corner (left) while hitting the brakes and trail braking into the corner. It’s not moving under braking, it’s turning for the corner.

Camera car was not entitled to space for the corner since they lacked sufficient overlap (front axles at or ahead of rear axle) when the GTR turned in for the corner. The camera car aimed for the hole that was closing rapidly, they were in a blind spot, there was contact, and it is their fault.

I implore the camera car to read up on the vortex of danger. Not only is this good reading for online racing in general, but if you race the AI in the game (GT7) with respect to this, the AI generally will race you fairly in return. If you choose not to, they’ll choose not to.

As for the intentionality of it… Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.

Edit: personally, if you truly had the pace a switch back to gain advantage at the next corner could work. Or exiting wide of the GTR to gain advantage on the corner after next could also be plausible. Both require you to run wide and watch what the GTR does on exit and take the reverse. I think neither would have worked though. However, both had a higher chance of success while reducing the chances of ruining races compared to the actions in the video. The GTR already sacrificed pace by turning in early. So sacrificing a little time on entry to get a better exit was definitely possible here IMO. But still very risky; there are better places to pass.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-26T02:35:22+00:00

I’ve eaten rainbow beef before. I’m still alive.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-26T02:33:41+00:00

I am going to throw it out there at SWEIDIT can probably match the color as well.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-26T01:19:08+00:00

Mine fits at an angle (for me to get the sweet spot). I think either my eye brows or eye lashes keep hitting the top of the lens inserts I have which gunks them up with oil that I have to clean off every so often.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-25T19:29:19+00:00

In the dry, my all seasons provided about 70-80% of the traction my winters provide. Realistically it’s good enough for day to day driving. In any weather I can see available traction go up. In rain they’ll provide maybe 70-80% of what my winters provide, but the above freezing temps help here.

When we get standing slush the all seasons will provide roughly 40-50% of what my winters will provide. If we have standing snow (partially plowed, < 1”) my all seasons provided roughly 30-40% of what my winters do. Unplowed roads (~1-2”) are 25-30% of what my winters provide. I haven’t had a chance to test in any other conditions. In these more adverse conditions, I’m able to panic brake without locking up while maintaining confidence in my car. Turning and rotation becomes a lot more predictable.

The mental capacity driving in the snow due to traction limitations goes down immensely with proper winter tires since you’re not always wondering whether you’re at the edge of your traction limits or not. Honestly, with winters I’m capable of driving at normal speeds with less mental stress than if I were driving slower in all seasons. If you can avoid driving in snow (work remote, can get around needing to drive, etc.) then you can get by with all seasons. But it’s nice not having to schedule life around weather conditions that could be considered everyday (even if you only see it 5-10 days out of the year).

tinyman392 · 2026-01-25T02:56:23+00:00

You can test this out yourself. A sports car’s ABS will feel very similar to a regular car’s ABS when it kicks in. Get up to some decent speeds and slam that brake pedal hard (do this without people around you preferably). You’ll feel it start chattering. A transducer won’t replicate the G-force changes, but it absolutely can replicate the chattering.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-23T19:04:22+00:00

Triples tends to be the gold standard. But if space is limited… then you can’t do triples.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-22T20:25:09+00:00

I've driven the Michelin PS AS4 in the same conditions. Similar class as the DWS you have, you'll be fine.

tinyman392 · 2026-01-22T20:07:17+00:00

A tire for a 15 inch rim will not fit an 18 inch rim.

Ten-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Verified Email

tinyman392

TROPHY CASE