[Goatracer1]

I drove these cars when they were only a couple of years old as daily drivers and they made great winter cars. Snow tires with a limited slip differential and some weight in the trunk worked great. Also back then the fad was to jack up your car a few inches for the gasser look. Great ground clearance. Today I will still drive my old cars if the roads are clear. There is not enough salt residue to worry about. Besides I am 76 years old and what am I saving the cars for? The next owner? Enjoy your car before it's too late.

[i82much]

Originally Posted by Goatracer1

I drove these cars when they were only a couple of years old as daily drivers and they made great winter cars. Snow tires with a limited slip differential and some weight in the trunk worked great. Also back then the fad was to jack up your car a few inches for the gasser look. Great ground clearance. Today I will still drive my old cars if the roads are clear. There is not enough salt residue to worry about. Besides I am 76 years old and what am I saving the cars for? The next owner? Enjoy your car before it's too late.

I'll be 49 this year. My GTO was my first car and I drove it in the snow all the time in the 90's without thinking twice about it.

It's a close call. I think it would be super cool for my kids to grow up with memories of me using the GTO as a daily driver and for road trips the same way my parents did. Considering the long winters in eastern WA, there's an awful lot of time we could spend in the car if i did snow tires where I wouldn't feel safe without them.

I run studded snows on my 2500HD all winter long. I wouldn't consider driving in snow or ice without them, especially in an old car like that.

[DaleO]

Originally Posted by Stuart

You'll have to check to see if they have your size, but Hakkapelitta tires from Nokian are probably the best snow tires available. Don't forget to put snow tires on all four wheels, not just the rear like we used to do. https://www.nokiantires.com

Nokians will be hard to beat but also look at Les Schwab "I FIT Ice" as they are an equal if not a very close second. Friends are running N's in Bozeman and I know of a studded set of I FITs in Butte MT on a Honda Civic and my daughter loves them. It is a low HX model and it pushes it's way through snow amazingly and ice is not a problem either on all the hilly streets. Winters are long and it snows a lot over a mile high in the Rockies and I wasn't going to compromise her safety.

Don't fall for the crafty Blizzack name!

[vertigto]

That's why I moved South. Too much $ invested to even think about it. Of course, snow/salt days are minimal and surpassed by sun and fun in NC. Supposed to be in the 70s and sunny on Saturday.

[i82much]

it's tough to find 15" snow tires so I would go with whatever i could get really ... not much available.

[i82much]

for those of you that mocked me!!!

https://www.enginebuildermag.com/202...020E2629790G9S

[zippy]

I live a bit north of you, In Actual Canada!!! LOL. Shuswap to be exact. And while I no longer drive my TA in any snow. A good set of winters will work. Pretty much anything studded for me. The damp warmer snow you get in Spokane turns to ice much faster than the drier snow here. That's why the first snowfalls are the worst. It turns to wet ice as soon as you drive on it. Studs help there.
And the colder it is, the better the traction. Working in the Yukon at -45, the roads are like pavement for traction

[i82much]

i got talked out of it for fear of the road salt causing rust. sucks!! i would daily mine if i could solve that problem!

[Formulajones]

Ya gotta move south

When I lived in Ohio I used to daily V8 Vegas and Monzas all through winter.
They were cars that I really didn't care about the salt and snow so I could keep the nice stuff.....well........nice.

I would travel out west, find a nice rust free body, bring it back to Ohio and put my V8 drivetrain in it. Then proceed to drive it through winter. Talk about a squirrely ride. I didn't even use snow tires. I'd put a little weight in the back and go.

I'd get 2-3 years out of it before it rusted so bad underneath the control arm braces were falling off and became unsafe to drive.. So I'd rinse and repeat. Find another rust free body and swap my drivetrain over. I could usually sell the rusted shells as rollers to guys wanting drag cars that were going to back half them anyway so it worked out well.

I did that for a lot of years until we finally moved to Arizona, now I don't have to worry about it.

Thought I was done with V8 vegas although I did keep all my V8 stuff. Ironically after 20 years here I am building another V8 Vega LOL It's a sickness. This time it should last more than a few years since we don't have salt here and very minimal snow.

[kingbuzzo]

I did the same but with AMC bEagles...winter is a b*tch but whatchagonnado

Maybe someday they will replace the road salt with beet juice...lol

[JSchmitz]

When I was young I had to drive my GTO in the snow a few times. Had to drive it to work because I had no choice. Put a few hundred pounds of sand in the trunk. It did just fine. A lot of people telling me I was crazy. Lol! Amazing how many compliments you get when you have the courage to actually drive your classic car. Ha! We used to drive to the track, remove our exhaust, change our tires, and race. People used to love it. We didn't always! Was plenty glad when I finally bought a trailer.

[Formulajones]

I still go to the dragstrip without a trailer. They are street cars after all

I have multiple trailers, I just prefer to drive the darn thing, race, and drive home. The drag radials just stay on the car all the time anyway so I travel light to the track.

[Formulajones]

Funny tid bit. There is a local here that has a decent running tri 5. He likes to go to the track with it, trailers it. Even trailers it to longer distance shows but calls it a street car. Funny part is he likes to tell people how it runs high 11's and drives it on the street but doesn't bother to mention all the changes he makes to do it. He swaps in 4.56 gears, then swaps in a 4000 stall converter, and calls it an 11 second Street car lol. On the street he runs 3.25 gears and a 2500 converter, that's how he drives it around. I asked what it runs in that configuration, he hasn't tried that of course. So it's technically a mid to high 12 second Street car lol. What's even funnier is he still won't drive the car any real distance, never leaves town in it unless it's on a trailer.

Ive been driving my garbage to the dragstrip for 40 years. As far as 300 miles away in some cases. Never had an instance where I needed a trailer either.

[i82much]

i live in spokane, i freaking LOVE it here, and i love winter. honestly let's say the car started rusting. crap happens. i will fix it.

[locomotivebreath]

Larry , where did you live at in Ohio ? I grew up in Cincinnati and live just across the river in Kentucky now .

[Dragncar]

What is this "salt" on the roads you speak of ?
Here in Humboldt, no salt.
And a drag strip on the beach.
Live near the coast, so stuff does rust. Ask me how I know ?
But its 115 deg in Redding today so all the campgrounds on the coast are full of inland folks.

[Formulajones]

Originally Posted by locomotivebreath

Larry , where did you live at in Ohio ? I grew up in Cincinnati and live just across the river in Kentucky now .

Lived in Cinci. To be more specific I grew up in Amelia, and also lived in Withamsville for several years before I moved out to Brown County and lived in Hamersville for about 10 years.
Small world