 A lot has gone on in the past week and a half. I RallyCrossed the Subaru and it held together (with 4 people sharing the car, for a total of 16 runs). I hit a raccoon in my M (did a reasonable amount of damage to the front bumper and associated components). It got cold. It snowed... a lot. I've been driving the Subaru around for the past few days. It's the most capable vehicle I've ever driven in snow/ice, and that's with mis-matched no-name all seasons on it. I should really get the studded snow tires that it came with put on some wheels.
RallyCross was great, I headed down early Saturday (the 18th) morning with some friends from work. They were going to share a car one of the organizers was driving (an old Audi 90 Quattro), but on the first run one of the wheels fell off and took part of the hub and brake disc with it. Apparently somebody forgot to torque the wheel bolts. Oops. This resulted in the 4 of us passing the wagon around all day. It's an amazingly capable car off road. We ran better times than many of the WRX's and STi's, partly due, I'm sure, to not caring whether or not we broke our car.
As for the snow... we had been forecast to get 3-5"+ starting late Monday afternoon. I headed home early from work as I was driving the M and didn't want any part of that. I got home around 4PM, and still no sign of snow. So I ran out to do a few errands, and about 10 minutes later the snow came. We got a couple inches in less than an hour, with a base coat of ice. Being that we rarely get this type of weather where I live, the traffic was absolutely insane. The general motoring public has no clue how to control their vehicles when faced with a low/no traction situation. I avoided a handful of accidents due only to dumb luck and some amount of skill. I finally managed to get my errands done (I'd already made it into town and avoided death a couple of times, so why not?), and get my M back home. It did end up, for a short time, parked sideways in my front lawn as I lost the back end trying to get a running start up my driveway. A shovel borrowed from the neighbor and a bit of creative footwork (did I mention the car has NO grip in the snow whatsoever) on the gas/clutch and I had it in the garage.
The Subaru, in direct contrast to the M, is a brilliant car in this kind of weather. 4wd coupled with a low range makes it perfect for creeping down ice-covered hills, as well as back up them. I'm currently transporting 2 friends back and forth to work, one of whom is crashing at my place until the road to his townhouse melts (it's a 10%+ grade, and solid ice currently). More snow is forecast for tonight so I'm getting ready to wrap things up at work and head home a bit early to beat the madness. At least I'm in the Subaru today.
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