MK1 Across the arctic circle this Monday (Time Lapse youtube film)

[kherseth]

Hi folks.

Drove to my parents for a little holiday last week, on my return i set up the Gopro camera for 1 pic/sec and made a time lapse of the trip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SV_piSx5U0

Considering we had about 3 feet of snow I was rather skeptical about what the driving conditions would turn out. Luckily half the trip was with perfect conditions, a bit of snow but nothing to worry about. The last half was not so good, a bit of loose snow made for medium visibility and at times very disorientating due to white outs. Also hit some 15-20cm snow fingers while doing 80kmh(50mph) during a white out, that's always exciting The movie show quite good how the visibility was, but you don't get the sense of disorientation from it that I got when driving.

The trip was about 500km(310miles), and including the ferry took close to 10hours. Unfortunately the SD-card got full 10 minutes before reaching my destination.

As to the snow capabilities of the Mk1, I LOVE it. It`s just amazing how quickly you can accelerate with it, and at low speeds <50mph it is a brilliant car to drift in the snow. Also amazed at how well it pulls through deep snow, it`s not 4WD good, but pretty darn close at times. Mind you, i do use studded tires made for Nordic conditions, they have much more thread and a softer rubber than the normal European tires. Still, cant wait for the spring to come and get the R888`s back on.

Cheers,
Kim

[ChrisW]

I wouldn't want to try that journey in my MR2! Great video!

[Hot-Lemon]

Tunnel run anyone?

great vid

[kherseth]

Cheers guys,

Wanted to get more frames to lower the speed, but I think 20minutes is long enough. Maybe do one in multiple parts when the summer comes, gonna drive the same route then.

[Toymad]

Totally agree about the fun to be had sliding a mk1 around in the snow, the lack of any interference from traction control, ABS or even power steering makes it such a joy to dial in some oversteer and drift around. Lovely vid.

[Ben]

Fantastic vid!

Out of interest, are the tyres you use studded with metal studs? I'm curious as to how they can be so effective on what appears to be a mix of fresh snow, sheet ice and clear tarmac

[kherseth]

Thanks.

Yes they use metal studs, the studs is really only important on very hard snow and on sheet ice(especially when wet). On tarmac they just gets pushed into the tire so dont contribute much at all other than reducing the effective contact area a bit. On normal snow conditions the most important feature is the very soft rubber compound used(mostly used in the nordic countries), very soft side walls and a lot of threads to grip the snow.

Of course, all the softness reduces the overall strength of the tire, max speed is only 145km/h, also the threads made for snow is not very effective at draining water, so wet tarmac is a bit scary. The handling on dry tarmac is terrible at best, think of driving with 60% of normal pressure in all 4 tyres, and you basically get the idea of how it feels. Again, soft compunds and sidewalls combined with high profile is to blame.

There are also nordic winter tyres without studs, they perform about 95% the same as the studded ones, except on wet ice where they are totally useless! They are also a tad better on tarmac than studded.

Hopw that answers your question

[Ben]

It does, thank you! Speaking from a country where the majority of motorists use summer tyres all year round, it's really interesting to see how properly-suited tyres perform in conditions we'd all consider lethal