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?