Chrisingermany

So I am on my way home tonight and it has been raining all day and then it gets pretty cold at night. So first thing that comes to mind is the ice or "black ice" so I am on the last final stretch and on a two lane road going maybe 40mph. The road is flat and I start to feel the back end get a little squirly. Now I am in 4th gear trying to not get up in the high rpm range where it is easier to get loose. I am starting to slow down a bit and I can tell the ABS is kicking in and I come to a complete stop. I start to go again and the *** end just kicks sideways from the get go. I almost thought I was going to get stuck on a flat stretch of road. I finally get started and drive like an old woman the rest of the way home. This is the feeling I have a lot with the camaro. I feel like if I ever had to swerve to miss something or take evasive actions my car will end up getting sideways and I would be in a world of ****. I have spent a bunch of money on suspension mods and it is still nerve racking to drive in any weather that isnt perfect. I am over here in Gremany right now where you can haul *** everywhere you want and I feel like I have to drive on egg shells. My mods are in my sig but maybe tires?? I have Sumitomo HTRII on there (275/35/18 front 285/35/18 on back) Anybody else feel this way?

JD_AMG

With all your suspensions mods I don't see shocks, the most important mod by far IMO. Are you still on stock shocks?
What lowering springs do you have?
Also I don't see your LCA's and relocation brackets helping the problem any...

Chrisingermany

I have Eibach Pro Kit springs w/bilstein hd shocks in the back and had them on front until i needed to raise the car to pass inspection, so now I have QA1 coil overs with the 325ld spring up front. And I thought the LCA would help traction??

bigj2717

iTrader: (15)

The control arms might help but I think the biggest thing is the tires. I had those sumitomos on my car and they sucks for traction especially in the rain or cold

JD_AMG

The LCA's may help traction off the line, but they arn't doing you any favors in handling, they can bind and cause the rear end to snap out when turning. I have no experience with the tires you have, but it wouldn't hurt to change them out for better ones.
And as far as stability goes, QA1's are one of the worst shocks you can run, while the advertise being able to be good for both launching and handling, they are really only good for launching, leaving the car floaty, disconnected and loose.

mammoth713

i got a beater for winter for that very fact i dont wanna have a situation where i crash my nice car in bad weather.... for the amount of money it takes to make a camaro winter drivable... its the same $ for some piece of crap beater car


my understanding is most performance tires are bricks under around 30º or 40ºF....

transamrebel

iTrader: (2)

be like me and get a 4x4 truck too! you can drive it when its shitty out and save the car for nice days, drove my t/a in light snow once and almost died!

HumanNipple

iTrader: (2)

dude you have got to get rid of the Sumi's, i have a set right now and they are GARBAGE in the rain or cold slightly damp weather. I have also had another set of sumi's when I first bought my car and they too were horrible in any weather other than summer time heat. Pirelli makes some good all season tires, i had a set of them and loved every minute.

Lopoetve

iTrader: (1)

I'm going with tires.

I had some random all-seasons on, and they sucked major ***** for anything resembling wet/cold/snow/ice. Got Nitto NT05's on there and I couldn't be happier with them, even in the rain (snow+ice is still entertaining, but they're a summer tire )

HumanNipple

iTrader: (2)

I enjoyed driving my SS in light snow with my pirelli's, people look at you really odd.

ncfastls1

iTrader: (1)

That's probably just because there was some ice on the road and your tires might not be suited for those conditions. I have had to make a few quick swerves to avoid hitting something and my car stayed glued to the road. I have Strano valved Bilstein HD shocks as my only suspension mod. Front tires are some Kumho Ecsta ASTs I think and the rears are Goodyear Eagle F1 GSD3's that I got on sale. The F1's are AMAZING in the rain. I have never experienced a tire that stays as planted in the rain as the F1. Honestly I can say wet traction is almost as good as dry traction. However they hate cold weather though. Holding it at 3 grand and flooring it in 1st gear will completely break loose the rear tires, and that's with 295s. My 275 General Exclaim UHP's didn't do that.

Chrisingermany

Yeah I think the tires are the main problem as well. Don't get me wrong the car has been parked for most of the winter. It was a little nice out when I went to work and got cold while I was there. I am in Germany so a beater here is all the thousands a BMW's and I have two of them. One for the wife and another for my DD car. Also I know the QA1 are mainly for drag but like I said I had to put them on so I could raise the car to pass inspection. When summer finally comes I will be getting some new tires I just wish 305/35zr18 werent so $$$$.

YellowToy/A

iTrader: (1)

Get a set of winter tires that are about 235 75 16. If you use winter tires you will get way more traction in the cold and snow.

z_speedfreak

iTrader: (3)

I run avon tyres MT550's and they kick ***! dry & wet and when I bought them they had the highest snow rating @ the time on tirerack for ultra-hi performance tires.. I've had them for almost 5yrs now but I haven't found out about the snow part yet myself. I have how ever swerved hard around some bimbo who pulled out in front of me while I was going 55 and they stuck hard w/ my stock suspension. ther very predictable and easy to read in the corners too. best part is ther cheap! when I got them they were $96 a pop for 245/250 16's but not cheap in quality, I know lotus uses avon tyres on ther cars.

Mike's02Z28M6

A dedicated winter tires ability to handle snow can not be overstated! They slaughter all-season tires. With that said, I've been in a 4x4 truck on ice and when it comes to a truly ice covered road there ain't nothing that can help (save metal knobbies in your tire)

2fast97Z

iTrader: (20)

GET RID OF THE SHITTUMOS! haha. those tires suck *****. end of story

MasterV8

iTrader: (7)

I have F1 GSD3's & totally agree, these tires are f**king amazing in the wet & dry & give fairly good traction on icy roads(Not black ice), but suck bollocks on snow! I could hardly get any traction on wet roads on the stock tires & it's been downright embarrassing a couple of times.

Never really had problems with them in cold weather though, but I suppose it depends how cold you're talking about.

leadfoot4

iTrader: (1)

I agree!!!

Back in '85, I bought an '85 Firebird SE, and drove it through 1 winter. It wasn't the worst, but it was far from ideal for winter driving. After that, I parked it for the winter, primarily because I almost got hit a few times by "amateurs". I got an old beater car, with good snow tires, and didn't worry.... Later on, the Firebird was replaced by a '96 Z-28, and when my finances improved, the "beater" was replaced by a 4x4 [I]with Blizzaks![/I, and I never looked back.

As several here have already pointed out, but it bears repeating, "performance" tires' rubber compounds get really hard in temps below 35-40 degrees. They truly do become "hockey pucks".....

98TAjwh

iTrader: (4)

you can have all the suspension upgrades in the world, but even four wheel drive vehicles are useless on black ice. get yourself a beater dd for the winter months

Greggy

Drive all winter in Boston for the past 24 years with RWD Firebirds. Get a good performance snow for winter and you're fine.

Most of your mod would hurt cold /smow traction. You want softer everything not stiffer, but tires are THE most important thing. My cars has Koni's, so I sometime reduce the damping with my snow tires.