Can 911 Be Driven In Light Snow? East Coast U.S. Weather?

my 911 is my only car. I just had some all-season Bridgestones installed so I can drive it through the winter (admittedly winter in St Louis is a bit nicer than in Jersey).

today we had rain/sleet/snow (no accumulation, but slick roads) and the Pcar did just fine. I can't wait to see how she'll do in a few inches of snow!

 

The 911 will work fine, if you want abit more assurance get a C4S AWD will help. but i know people who drive them daily here in NE with winters getting pretty nutty just put good set of snow shoes on it and u will be fine, I would say put the snow tires on the stockers and get a better summer set of rims/tires

 

As a freshman in college (88) I drove an 88 Mustang GT convrt year round in Duluth, MN.

Granted that car is a POS now, but back in the day it had horsepower that rivaled anything on the road. Needless to say it was a handfull on the bridges/frozen overpasses and snow filled parking lots of Minnesota.

I often (fondly) think back to those days of driving sideways over bridges/overpasses, and up the hills to campus......ah the memories....

Driving a car is an activity...enjoy it.

 

I don´t want to destroy your picture about Porsches, but here in Germany more than 60% of all Porsches are driven all year long and in all weather conditions. You get excellent winter tires and in the mountains you can have a lot of fun on the snow.
btw the protection against rost and salt on the streets is one of the best you can buy for a car.
So go ahead and have fun with your car, with what it was built for!!!

 

I have also joined your plan! I have already decided on the 911 for my DD and will be looking at a spring purchase. I live in Chicago and have talked to many people about driving in the snow. In fact, I have already purchased a second set of rims with snow tires on them (thanks Craigslist!) ready to go for winter 2011. As stated above, you have to remember these cars are made in Germany where they drive year round. The one thing everyone advised is get snow tires for it. The other issue is ground clearance as the 911 is fairly low. I plan on taking my wife's car in the big storms.

I have also pretty much swayed to getting a C4 or the C4S (preferred). Good luck to you and your search!

 

My daughter had to borrow my truck for a couple of weeks so I'm driving my 911 every day. Yesterday I drove thru HUGE thunderstorms, standing water on the interstate at ~70 MPH.

Did fine with PS-2 tires.


But I was constantly mindful of the comical place they put the engine.

 

i lived in NJ for 7 yrs. a 911 in either awd or rwd will be fine with snow tires.


the thing about nj is, there are a lot of people with cars like bmw's without awd or snow tires. you will be limited in your speed by those guys anyways. you will be crawling along on most roads due to the high density of people and lack of preparedness.


i've been using awd 911's and currently a rwd 911 as daily drivers year round in bad snow places for the past 5 yrs (RI and NH!). btw, i have both a full size 4 x 4 pickup truck and a subaru wrx with studded snow tires, and both usually sit at home during the winter. i woudl still rather drive the 911 and even when its actively snowing, i usually take that to work.


i would drive any 911 year round (with snow tires) with no problem in NJ.
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A Porsche is not a toy.

Put snow tires on it and drive with confidence.

 

Yep.........with snow tires you will have a blast !!

 

As every one else said, snow tires. My mom has had her Porsche Boxster for 3 winters and it has been painless here in Chicago with the snow tires. I put snow tires on my 350z as well and have only encountered one incident and that was due to my boneheaded decision to try and get through an unshoveled ally (to deep for the small amount of clearance).

I would think that with snow tires you could make any car work as a daily, as long as you're not going through the deep stuff.

 

This is one of the finest snow and ice cars ever made.

Not only will it get you there, but after a few days of weather, you will never again fear the dreaded oversteer. Step down lightly on the engine and steer.

 

Considering Roy (of cats exotics) uses his lambo's in the snow I can't see why not. In europe many porsche drivers use their cars in the snow too...

My friends father used his 550 Maranello in the snow too a few times (regardless, he crashed...but this was due to using a backroad which didn't receive a salt cover that morning and skidded on complete ice...So don't go driving it on unsalted roads).

 

I had a dedicated set of rims / snow tires in a Mazda RX-8 (read very light and rear wheel drive) and would run circles around SUVs on all season tires in the snow/ice conditions.

Can't say it enough. Go with snow tires.

 

Mike,

I have had 7 993 and 996 911's (turbos, cabs, turbo cabs, and a C4S) and have put snow tires on all of them and driven them in NJ for the past 10 years. I have never shied away from taking one out in any weather no matter how hard it was snowing. The 2 wheel drive versions work fine -- no issues. Put some snow tires on and drive it!

Kirk

 

I only got stuck once getting out of the driveway of the cabin we rented in Wisconsin.
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You lucky man, you live in my home town. Work for BMW? Your German slip was showing with "rost" instead of "rust". Yes I know it's the German word for rust.

Fröhliche Weihnachten und frohes neues Jahr zu Ihnen und Ihres

 

it seems you understand german.
indeed i work for the car industry, but as a freelancer, so i worked already for both of our bavarian car companies.

i wish you eine fröhliche Weihnacht und einen "guten Rutsch" (this is bavarian) ihnen und ihrer Familie

Oliver

 

Get snows for your 911 and you'll be fine. I've had snows on my BMW M cars and they were fine in all but the heaviest snows in Boston and other parts of New England!

My current X5 has Z rated tires and it's a mess in the winter if I don't put snows on it.

Keep in mind that most Northern European countries require you to switch to winter/snow tires by law by a certain date! That's why you can drive such cars all year round. For whatever reason in the US, we don't have such regulations.

Oh yeah, I'm in NJ too.

 

Like everyone said, a 996 with a good set of winter shoes will be fine. Key is winter tires. The AWD from Porsche is pretty good...added traction to get going but you also need to stop and turn with confidence. That's where the tires come in. I have dreams of adding another air cooled 911 (a 964 C4), jacking it up and building a 'Dakar rally' type 911 for winter fun.

 

Repeat after me, "You only live once."

 

I am familiar with "good slide" into the new year. I usually come back every other Christmas.