FRS to Bear Mountain.. Bad idea?
 

I'm going snowboarding this weekend and I was wondering would the FRS be a safe car to drive up there? As far as I know the weather conditions look fine and no chains are required. This is my first RWD car so anything I should know? Is it a bad idea/ anything I should do to prep like tape the car edges to prevent dings?

Traction control should keep you safe if you know how to handle the throttle (do not treat it as a ON/OFF switch). Not sure if they're doing chain-control, but that might stop you from getting there.

Snow or ice on the ground? No, unless I had chains. Other then that I don't see a problem. I've never been to Bear with a lot of snow.

No chains required as of now. Not sure if there is ice on the ground don't have much experience driving up there.

TBH I could drive manual since I was 16 but this is my first manual car and I've had it about 2 weeks so far. I'm fairly confident in my ability but can you elaborate on the handle the throttle? Basically dont over-rev?

I think what he meant was basically do not lose traction because of rapid fast/slowdowns. Last month I was in Oregon and played around with the Jeep rental. RWD seems to be actually doable in the snow but if you gun it, it will wrap around you easily.

Exactly. Be very conservative accelerating, braking, and probably most importantly accelerating around a turn. I let my friend use my 4Runner with 4WD with All-Season tires this weekend in Lake Tahoe and he almost spun out twice taking turns. The car and its abilities are useful, but the driver and his brain/abilities are most important.

One thing you can do is use 1st to just get you moving, then immediately go into 2nd. You don't need too much torque. Traction is more important. Use mostly the bottom end of your tach and do not feel like you need to race anybody up to or off the mountain.

Most importantly, if you find yourself in an empty parking lot. Turn off all nannies and be sure to have tons of fun testing the limits of your FRS. :thumbup:

If chains are not required you will be fine IF you drive slow and carefully. There will likely be patches of snow/ice particularly if you leave early or late and the road temp is below freezing. Trust me, I've spun and rolled due to ice and I had studded tires. The problem is that you find a speed where nothing happens and you think you can go faster, but you cant. Just go slow.

Will do :thumbup:

If you are on stock tires, forget about that trip. You need good snow rated tires to be comfortable on snow. Even then driving in the mountains would be hard - mainly problem with start moving. I would get 4x4 SUV if you need to go there.

Personally I wouldn't do it without snow tires.

Not sure if it was my wrx or my brz manual, but I read that you cannot use chains with the car. Could anyone validate this?

Since the WRX is AWD I could see how if it put extra resistance on one axle and not the other it could cause harm.

You guys on the west coast have a Bear Mountain too?

This thread reminds me how we can surf dirtbike and snowboard all in the same day. Man I love California.

Yeah man me and the wife just got back from big bear and we had a snow storm on sunday, took us over 3 1/2 hours to get from the base of the mountain 22 miles to our lodge. People were slip slippin all off the freakin road thinking the side was the best place to be like idiots. I wouldn't recommend you have the FRS up there def not with stock PRIUS tires.. and either way you will need chains its the law i guess?

You might be able to get away if you ask how the roads are now, cuz as we were leaving they were OK just icy in a few spots and dirty as hell.. But you're pulling a huge risk if it snows again and you think you're making it down :-P

I rented a crappy SUV to go to Tahoe for new years. The weather wound up being nice and clear the whole time, and the FR-S would have fared fine. It's looking like clear skies for the next week or so, and you'll have no difficulty getting to the Bear Mountain area from SoCal. The only thing is that there will be tons of sand and rocks on the roadway, so be ready to thoroughly clean the car off when you return, and just hope that no big rocks get flung your way. Despite the clear weather, I was happy to have been in a rental after seeing the condition of the car upon return.

Im almost certain they have to be wire chains. You cant use traditional chains on this car.

Your good was up there boarding today and the streets weren't bad at all.. I was in a dodge ram 2500 diesel 2wd with no problem.. The twins will be fine the next couple days there

By the way summit was on point today... And I just checked its clean the next ten days according to weather channel.. You'll be good

i'd always wanted to take the frs up to bear mt. once i got comfy driving manual... but i hadn't had the chance since last weekends weather was pretty bad and required chains. You plan on fitting all the boards in the trunk? or do you have a rack on top?

You will be fine, boards fits fine in the trunk w/the back seat down. It's not going to rain/snow this weekend. I'll be driving to tahoe this morning.

I'm debating that too actually on the 11th ... Honestly I don't think its a good idea though
The manual says no chains unless using smaller rims :X

Maybe drive in reverse so you'd get some effective FWD? ... Kidding.

I've been to big bear lake are twice in my FR-S and both times got minor paint damage.
1st time was late summer and a scrapped the bottom of my front lip coming up a steep driveway. 2nd time was for NYE, we went up on stock rims and tires. The roads were icy and chains were mandatory. It was fine driving on the main roads but lots of the smaller side streets are not maintained and were really icy. The cabin we stayed at had a slight incline coming out of it, and as i was backing out on the icy driveway even with chains I slide into a bunch of snow which scrapped a bunch of paint on the driver side bumper. :mad0260: Sitting in stop and go traffic with a manual on the side of the mountain during inclines wasn't fun either. Once you get there though, driving on the windy mountain roads was a ton of fun i have to admit. If you do decide to go up just be really careful and you should be ok. Anyone out there have a front lip kit they want to sell :bonk:

Keep in mind that before front wheel drive and four wheel drive all cars were rear wheel drive and a lot of people were driving where you're going. It only requires using common sense. Just take it easy.

I live right down the street from Mountain High. I suggest getting chains/cables and using them as soon as you start feeling that its getting too slippery to really control. Better safe than sorry.

Snow is forecasted for Saturday night and Sunday here. Probably same for Big Bear.

The Thule CG-9 chains are fantastic and I recommend them if you don't mind the price.

Generally, though, I plan to use my Corolla when it really starts snowing. FWD is easier in ice and snow.

Just got back from Yosemite with a rental V6 Mustang. I think you'll be fine if you're careful, but the reason I didn't take the BRZ was that I was concerned about the road salt.

I took my RX-8 up Big Bear the first week it had snow, no chains just the BFG KDW tires, a bit tail happy but it did well in snow. Ideally, snow tires are recommended on a RWD specially on a light weight car, it handles better than having chains.