Winter driving the RX-7

I drove my RX-7 today for the first time in about three months. Tough cookies with this much snow on the ground I tell ya. First of all, it was buried in the Mainway Mazda compound, with about six inches of snow covering the whole thing. It was also surrounded by about four inches of snow all the way around the car. I knew from the get go it was going to be a bitch to get out of that compound.

So, after snow-brushing the crap out of the car, to pop the hood. We jumped it and it came to life instantly. Not bad for a car with no block heater, that hasn't run in over a month. I let it run/"warm up" while I took off to an SGI broker to get a 24 hour permit on the car. I came back, and the car was still pretty much frozen solid. Not cool.

So I started to move the car, and on the first shot with no assistance I moved it about three feet. Then I, of course, got stuck. So I went inside and got one of the wonderfully helpful service agents - Bryce - to give me a hand. He grabbed a shovel and came out.

We shovelled around all four tires of the car and gave it a shot. Still couldn't move the car at all. Tried reverse, nothing... and I stalled the sum-bitch. So we boosted the car again, and Bryce tried pushing me forward. Didn't happen. We tried backwards and got somewhere.

After moving back to the original location, we cleared a path with the shovel and with a slight push I was on my way.

Thankfully, the majority of the trip was on main roads that were for the most part clear. Coming onto Circle Drive, I got a bit sideways. Not because I wanted to, but because my rear tires are almost bald, the roads are frozen and covered in snow. Not cool. So I drive down Circle drive, keeping it under the posted speed limit, until I can get to the exit at Idylwyld.

I hit the exit, and tried to accelerate a little bit. Back tires broke out instantly. Damn. So I hobbled along Idylwyld at around the speed limit, turned on to 33rd and then on to a side street.

The real fun began when I got to my mechanic's parking lot. His shop is in a big warehouse that is also the office/warehouse for a couple of shipping companies. So the majority of the parking lot is full of semi tractors. Needless to say, there has been zero snow removal in this parking lot since the beginning of winter.

Braking resulted in flat-out slides coming dangerously close to semi trucks and trailers. Accelerating at all resulted in fishtailing/360s, etc. until I was finally able to negotiate myself into a parking stall.

I'm going to be doing quite a bit of work from now until spring time so I'll have the car ready to go. I can't wait for the first day of spring. I can't wait to really drive the car again!