164 and lawnmowers

[C M Smith <cmsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you want a 164 that will carry a lawnmower (or even a refrigerator 
apparently) get a SAAB 9000 Turbo. It is essentially the same car, just 
different, and will carry an amazing amount of stuff up to some very 
impressive speeds. Oh, and they're a lot more comfortable and practical 
than a truck van or SUV.

BTW, fwd main advantage over rwd in snow or on loose surfaces is 
understeer. You can pretty well forget about ever skidding the rear end of 
a fwd car, though it is possible of course. Oddly, rwd has a traction 
advantage over fwd in snow and on loose surfaces due to weight transfer, 
the Porsche 911 being an example of a car that is virtually unstoppable in 
snow, (well actually the rear weight bias of the 911 also produces 
excellent braking characteristics on snow.) Steering is a bit iffy, though 
with rwd you tend to steer as much with the gas pedal as the wheel.

One major advantage of fwd in snow from a traction point of view is you can 
almost always reverse out of anywhere you get stuck as the traction 
available in reverse is always slightly more than the traction going 
forwards. With rwd you tend to lose traction as you try to reverse out of 
that snow bank.  Fwd also tends to chew its way through deep snow, 
especially when trying to corner, where rwd will just push the front wheels 
sideways until you give it a bootful and swing the rear around. My 
preference is for fwd in winter as it definitely is better when all the 
pros and cons are added up. Heck, I regularly out accelerate awd SUVs on 
snow because they  generally have a rwd bias.

Cheers


Michael Smith
White 1991 164L
Original owner
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