drove home in the snow tonight.

Driving F cars in the snow with sport tires is not fun. I've been caught out in it once and there was nothing enjoyable about having the fastest/slowest car on the road. Glad you made it home safely.

 

The 456 is not good in the snow, especially on stock tires. I've heard that correct snow tires make a world of difference, but I've never gotten around to trying them.

 

Did you take any pics of the car in the snow?

 

When you think about it, the things that make a track car handle well at the limits are the same things you'd want for driving in snow ... at much lower limits.

... Well, other than ground clearance.

In MA, the (nose heavy) Jeep Wagoneers were always annoyed when I'd sail past them in my Celica AllTrac (Carlos Sainz WRC homologation).
Weight distribution is more important than 4x4 sellers tell you. A couple of decades back, I drove an Alfetta GT (perfect 50/50 weight distro) in MA in winter, without a problem.

The EVO 8 is a hoot in the snow ---- with winter tires. The car comes with a door sticker warning against trying to drive in winter with the factory Advans.

I can attest to that. While waiting for my rim order (it wasn't easy finding winter rims to fit over the Brembos), I got caught in some flurries at 32F. It was like driving on Fred Flintstone's tires. No traction at all.

But with a set of Nokians, seven inches of snow was a blast.
Above eight inches, though, and I start using the air dam as a snow plow.

The RE11s on the 328 also go "off" below 40F.

I was thinking of getting a spare set of rims and some P-Zero M+S tires for the 328. (After all, the heater could practically warm my whole house.)
But the 328 is limited to four inches of ground clearance.

My yard (DC metro) currently has about four *feet* of snow on the ground, and more coming. (Not to mention the 50 mph wind gusts.)
They cleared a lot of the three feet we got over the weekend, but the winds are blowing today's new snow into the cleared areas.

Snowball warming?

I can't speak for how the 456's active suspension would handle snow, but most sports cars do fine in the snow, with snow tires .... up until the radiator gets clogged with snow.

 

If you read the fine print on ALL performance tires, NONE of them do well below about 50 degrees....

Really should consider some winter rims and specialized compounds to have any degree of control...

Glad you got there safe!!!!!

 

Skip the M+S and go straight for the P-Zero Nero All Season. The M+S line is about 3 years old, and the All Season line takes the best of M+S and improves wet+snow traction. I just got these mounted on my BMW and I can attest that wet traction is amazing! And I've had M+S on a different car before, the difference is there, believe me.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Pirelli&tireModel=PZero+Nero+All+Season

 

Well, three years ago is when I was thinking about it.
(That's before all this "global warming" started shutting down DC in winter.)

But spare Ferrari rims are a bit pricey. Especially when I've got the EVO sitting here for winter.

 

There's a local FCA member who daily drives a 550, he has a set of Pirelli Sottozeros for the winter (on aftermarket rims). he raves about their snow ability.

seeing a 550 covered in road salt is oddly disturbing, though.