bean438

The answer is yes!
I live in Winnipeg. As I write this the temperature is -32 celsius. This is actually t shirt weather in Winnipeg! Lol.
We had the pleasure of 50 cm of snow over a 3 day period starting new years eve.
Our roads for the most part are plowed but extremely icy
My 8 is only drive in frozen conditions, on bone dry roads(except for ice), and when it is not snowing.
I have an auto tranny, no traction control, and a regular differential.
The car drives just fine. My Pilot aplines do me just fine. Sure I can spin and slip, but I can do the same in my Protege.
It simply requires a lighter touch, and sometimes a shift into manual mode and starting in 2nd gear.
Regardless of winter tires, traction control and a lsd this car would not have been drivable in our recent snow dump until the roads are cleared. Clearance is clearance.
The fact that the 8 can spin and slip easier than a fwd car actually makes it safer because you pay more attention to how you are driving.
Thats more than I can say for a typical SUV driver with ABS, LSD, traction, control, winter tires, 4WD, who for some reason think this means they can drive like it is summer out. Lol. Maybe its a Winnipeg thing, but all the vehicles that were ditched this blizzard were SUV's.! Lol.
So basically thumbs up for the winter. Just drive with some common sense.
Now if only I can figure out this cold starting thing, or no start after parking for a week or 2. I am parked in an attached garage, temp - 9 usually. (Battery Tender anyone?)


P.S. When it is -32 outside Tim Horton's coffee seems to taste really really good.

SaugaBoy

Hey Bean,

I agree with you, the 8 can be driven in winter, just depending on the clearance. I got stuck when I moved my 8 to the street so me and my brother can shovel the snow from the driveway. The street had about 8 inches of snow with a layer of ice ontop or very hard snow about 1 inch thick. The bottom of the car was just basically sitting ontop of the stuff, but managed to move it out, and that's without traction control (manual transmission), just a set of blizzak's. You just need a like you said, a lighter touch, which took me a while to get used to.

As for the cold starting; I received a letter from Mazda Canada at the end of December which is about:

RE: 2004 RX-8 Canadian Cold Weather Engine Starting Special Service Program #61

This is roughly Mazda's way to inprove engine starting in cold weather and has launched this Special Service Program.

The Dealer will do the following:

1) Update your Owners Manual with a special label which includes detailed instructions on how to start your engine in the event that it becomes flooded during initial engine starting in cold weather conditions.

2) Your Mazda Dealer Service Staff will go over in detail, the step by step instructions outlined in the "Update Label" covered in point number 1.

3) Your Mazda Dealer using a software update will reprogram the Power train Control Module in your RX-8 which will improve the initial engine starting performance in cold weather conditions.


I strongly suggest that you contact the head office of Mazda, find out about this, or just contact your local dealer and ask to have the RX-8 Canadian Cold Weather Engine Starting Special Service Program #61 performed on your car.

I made an appointment for this last thursday, and went, and when i got there, they told me that the computer wasn't working properly, and they tried it few hours earlier on another 8, and didn't work, so they said they had to send it out to get fixed, and should be back on the 3rd. I'm like so when am I going to know when I can come back in and get it done? They said we'll phone you. I replied by saying, just like how you knew that the computer wasn't working, and called me to inform me not to waste my time, take time off work, lose money, and not to show up, u mean using that phone number? They all just looked at me, and said sorry about that, and said they would phone me. Guess what, they still haven't. No Surprise there! This is an ongoing problem i have at my dealership with them ordering a part, it not coming in, me coming in, and its not there (3 times), and them telling me that they are going to phone me, which they don't (2 times). Hate dealing with incompetence, time for me to find a new dealership with a better service team.

scoop

"who for some reason think this means they can drive like it is summer out. Lol." ah yes but nothing beats intentionally drifting around corners with all four wheels spinning in the Subaru. That's almost as much fun as driving the 8 in summer. I can understand all the ditched SUVs though, the Subaru with AWD has so much traction on snow that you can just mat it off the line and you would hardly know that you weren't on dry pavement. The problem is understeer in corners though and people don't realize how slippery it is until it's too late. Playing with a throttle though you can coax it around corners pretty quickly once you have the feel for it. 4WD truck based things understeer a fair amount more, I wouldn't want to go there . . . Then there are the people that think they must apply the brakes every 50 feet when it is slippery, just to make sure that they don't miss any icy patches and a chance to slide off the road . . . I was trapped behind one of those very "cautious" people the other day on the way to work, I was scared to death that they were going to start a little parkway pinball in front of me.

Maybe you could install some lowering springs and one of those MazdaSpeed bumper/plow kits for the front of your cars, no clearance problems then, just push everything aside ;-)