strikethree

Jeepers! I am all over this thread now. Sorry folks. I just LOVE winter driving though. I have some advice for you (which you are free to ignore of course). Whenever I suspect that traction conditions may be changing, I apply my brakes to verify my traction. If traction is good, I will slow down from 60 to 40 (example numbers) very quickly. If traction is bad, the anti-lock brakes will kick in rapidly. I then adjust my driving speed and style accordingly. Do not try this on a turn or if someone is right behind you. strike

A piece of advice when you know your traction is about to hit 0. Do not let up on the gas. Well, you can let up on it a little bit, but if the tires do not turn at the same speed you are travelling, you are going to spin out of control. This advice does not apply if your traction is 10% or better. strike

Oooooo. My wife bought a 240SX years ago. Oh my god was that thing horrible when perfect driving conditions were not available. She flew off the road so many times it scared me. Thankfully, she drove at 10mph (in the snow) so she was never hurt but I sold that piece of crap as soon as I could. I later found out that I could have added a LSD to the rear which would have GREATLY improved its handling in limited traction conditions. strike

Eh? My 2006 LGT and my 92 Eagle Talon are not like that at all. They are both AWD and both handle awesomely in the snow. As a matter of fact, 2 years ago, I had to drive up to Denver in the middle of a snowstorm with summer performance tires on my Talon. I left my friend in his Lancer Evolution with Blizzaks in the dust (snow actually) and I thought I was being careful. There were cars and semis and such strewn all over the sides of I25 but I had no issues. God forbid I would have been driving my LGT with quality M+S tires on it. I would have had to wait over a half hour, rather than 10 minutes, for my friend then. (the Evo handles great too. My friend was too paranoid and not skillful enough) In short, I am calling out your driving style if you think all AWD cars have the issues the Outback has. strike

I do not own an Outback, however, I did push one really hard during a test drive. The ass end is HEAVY. I tried throwing it around a sharp corner at high speed and I could feel the back end trying real hard to get in front of the front end. That is ultimately why I did not buy an Outback. Very nice vehicle otherwise. If your speed and direction is constant, the issue I described above should not be a problem. It would only become a problem during braking. strike

If you are getting headaches, the first thing I would check is your eyes. Seriously. If you wear glasses, your prescription may have changed. If you don't wear glasses, your eyes could be fighting hard to maintain focus. If one eye has less acuity than the other, it will cause severe headaches. I did the hogzaust today and the noise is nowhere near as loud as my 92 Eagle Talon and it has no exhaust leaks. My Talon is MUCH quieter now that I added more exhaust system to the downpipes, but even with a good muffler, it is still louder than the hogzaust. At cruising speeds, I can barely even hear it. My 15 year old daughter (who loves my Talon) just kind of said, "meh", about the new tone. My friend (who built my Talon for me) agreed that it sounded meaner but I could tell he was trying really hard to be open minded about a mod that is not strictly for *performance. However, I have some interesting news about performance. I did not think it was worth it to do a before and after dyno run for it. That would increase the costs a thousandfold! But... My butt dyno said that there was at most, 8 lbs more torque. Most of that, I attributed to the new sound. I am like a kid with a bike who puts a clothespin and a card so the spokes click, so I figured it was probably ALL my imagination... but that may not be so. Read on: There is a stretch of private road just over a quarter mile long near my house. I have done several 3rd gear runs on it starting at 2000RPMS. I always top out at about 92MPH before I have to stop rapidly. An hour ago, I topped 100MPH. WTF? My car is mostly stock. There was some sort of aftermarket intake air filter in it when I bought it. The only change has been the hogzaust. There is no way bypassing the mufflers would create 10 extra MPH. I have no idea WTF is up. I am going to hook my Tactrix cable up again and compare a new third gear run with several older logs I have of the same run. I will post here again if I find anything interesting out. Very weird. (I bought the Tactrix cable for logging, I already have a badass car I can reprogram) strike

Hahaha. I am 40. Let the kid inside of you live a little. Keeps the heart attacks at bay as you get older. strike

Yeah, I know. I am responding to something over a year old... however, my 2006 Legacy GT Limited feels quite stable over 100mph. It is stock (until I do the hogzaust mod that is). I wonder how far over 1000 posts this thread is now. strike

Actually, I have just heard of this just now. Been reading this thread for three hours and it looks like I have another 8 hours of reading to go to finish it. I am going to do this tomorrow (assuming I find nothing evil in the later posts). strike