Re: GTV6/Milano on snow

[C M Smith <cmsmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I drove my 82 GTV6 for two winters on stock Pirelli P6 V rated tires and 
felt the traction available to be more than adequate. The chassis was so 
well balanced you could steer easily with the hands or the right foot as 
required or desired. In contrast, my fwd 164 on stock Pirelli P6000 
Performance tires is hopeless on snow or ice. It handles extremely well but 
you cannot get any useful traction. Put four snow tires on and the 164 is a 
dream winter car.

Tires are critical for snow or ice driving. Newer high performance tires 
are no good for this. All season versions of these tires are OK for snow 
and ice and OK for bare road, but who needs OK?

It is important not to confuse chassis inadequacies with tire inadequacies. 
Generally speaking a well designed car will handle the same way on snow or 
ice as it does on dry road, just with lots less traction. The GTV6/Milano 
chassis had plenty of understeer built into its chassis under low side 
forces so handled extremely well on low friction surfaces. As cornering 
loads build up the chassis develops less and less understeer until under 
very high cornering forces the chassis was essentially balanced, steerable 
with the gas pedal. Excellent road car.

Cheers


Michael Smith
White 1991 164L
Original owner
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