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Doughnuts?

NSTG8R

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My Elio will be the 2nd FWD car I have ever owned, and I'm 55 years old. Never liked the way they handled. Now, with 3 wheels, I prefer FWD. Donuts are still a grin :)


Wow! Never thought about this until you mentioned it. The only fwd vehicle (solely) I've owned in my entire life was a '02 Mazda Protege5. Absolutely the worst car I've ever driven in the snow (tire choices were limited due to the rim size). "Everything else" has either been rwd, 4wd, or full-time AWD (My Suby and the wife's Jeep GC). Interesting!
 

Hog

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Up here in snow country, part of teaching your kids to drive always includes an empty snow covered parking lot.
I think the kids enjoy it the most, even though they are supposed to be "learning" how to control a slide....
Donuts in Snow.jpg
 

RKing

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My miss spent youh was spent sliding around the curves on chert roads,, year round. You learn to steer with the throttle as much as the steering wheel. Snow (when we got any) was just another time to play some more. Now ,the normal "white stuff" was a cruel attempt to hide the ice beneath it. And I do REALLY respect ice, can't even walk on that stuff and 4WD is a bad ,bad idea. FWD just means you have little to no oppurtunity to influence which direction your going. Snow is fun , ice NOT ! Chert and ice, with just a little midday sun, has to be the slickest thing on earth :)
 

CaribbeanZombie

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[QUOTE="Jay3wheel"
I'm surprised a good gust of wind wouldn't dump it.[/QUOTE]
I, for one, will NOT be driving my Elio over the Mackinaw Bridge in high winds...anyone else remember the yugo getting blown over the side in the 80's? Yep, it's a true story...here ya go:
http://www.answers.com/Q/Was_a_yugo_actually_blown_off_mackinac_bridge?ad=1

Careful on grated bridges in high winds! :)
 

Music Man

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[QUOTE="Jay3wheel"
I'm surprised a good gust of wind wouldn't dump it.
I, for one, will NOT be driving my Elio over the Mackinaw Bridge in high winds...anyone else remember the yugo getting blown over the side in the 80's? Yep, it's a true story...here ya go:
http://www.answers.com/Q/Was_a_yugo_actually_blown_off_mackinac_bridge?ad=1

Careful on grated bridges in high winds! :)[/QUOTE]
Sure glad to live down here in bayou & alligator country, where 90 % of the time the only snow we ever see is "Cajun Snow." Just a heavy frost. But even that can close schools down here. :eek:

In all my life, I've never seen a car "blown off" of the Mississippi River Bridge anywhere in the state. Guess the frost is never deep enough. :rolleyes: :D

Go figure. o_O
 

Sethodine

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Wow, thread necromancy!

But honestly, I think the "three wheels are unstable" argument is bunk. That's like saying an airplane is unsafe because they can't hover like a helicopter; driving on 3 wheels is different than 4, just like driving a unicycle is different than a bicycle. It takes a different skillset, because it is an inherently different machine.

That said, the Elio is clearly engineered in such a way as to maximize the car-like stability and control that most drivers are already used to. Tools like ABS, Electronic Traction Control, and other mechanizms help to keep the car performing in such a way that it won't experience the sort of rollover potential that the trike design typically has. I predict that Elios will roll over less than first-gen Ford Explorers.
 
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