FIrst time snow driving, and some childish axis spins

[Alan Pritchard]

He he... last night we had some snow... approximately 1/2 ". This is unusual
for where I live in the uk.. infact, the last time I remember a similar
amount was about 7 years ago. So... this is my first time with a car, my
first time with Quattro..... I waited until my girlfriend got in... and at
about 1130 last night decided to go out for some fun. I phoned around a few
friends, one with a video camera, another with a mitsi evo. Must have been
too late.  So I went on my own... out of the driveway... tested the
brakes... instant abs... snow had already started turning to ice... out of
my road onto a semi-major road floored it :-) he he what fun tee hee....
Nicely controllable, although when I bought my last pair of rear tyres, the
review quoted "lethal in snow" so this was going to be fun. I was heading
for the local college were there was some reasonably sized car parks (can
you guess where im going with this?) so I slowed to turn into the college
road... approx 5-10 mph went into the right hand turning.... And kept
turning.... And turning.... Hmmm ....180 degrees infact..  and im drifting
towards the kurb on the wrong side of the road (although the correct side
for the way im now facing). It was strange... it seemed to all happen very
slowly, but I knew if I hit the kurb it was going to do some damage. So im
countersteering, applying power..... no avail... then a remembered...
abs.... So I put my foot hard on the brakes and sure enough....the car
stopped spinning and came to a halt... parallel parked perfectly the
opposite way round to the way I was going.  So I have learnt the conditions
now. And of I go to the college. A few lads have obviously been there before
me, every car park had a donut in it, made by fwd cars though ;) so axis
spin time, first gear, full lock and floor it, using the handbrake
occasionally when it was not drifting enough.  How easy is that!!! At about
3k I can hold the wheel one handed and spin on the spot at about 10-15 rpm.
Fun... then I went into leaving the spin and turning in the other way to do
some figure 8's. he he... I love quattro...