My winter driving story (Moderator: A+ would read again)

[Bmwguy11]

Last monday we here in the midwest had a pretty strong winter storm move through. It brought us around 10" of snow, plus about an inch of rain that fell as "ice" (imagine hailing for 3 hours, but the hail doesn't melt). It was a pretty awful snowstorm, the roads were terrible, and the plows couldn't keep up as they had not anticipated to get as much snowfall as we did. Add 40mph winds and it was quite the sight.

My M3 was parked all snug in the garage, and we were snug in our house. My M3 is our only vehicle, and I have Michelin X-Ice Xi3 tires on it. 225/45R18 with Rial P10 18x8 rims square setup. I have previously used blizzaks and nokkian on RWD and AWD vehicles for winter. I like the nokians over the blizzaks, as the blizzaks are super floaty/squishy/awful for dry performance and I also felt the nokians did better in snow/ice too. But this time around I went with a package from tirerack so I couldn't get nokians and the michelins got great reviews. Anyways on to the story...

So 10pm rolls around, and my wife who is 40 weeks pregnant says "we need to go NOW". Her water broke. Immediately I'm thinking holy crap. We have a RWD car, yes with winter tires, but the roads are 8-10" of unplowed snow and ice, we live in the country, so it's hills and backroads to get to the hospital. On a normal day it would take 20 minutes.

I get the car warmed up and ready and get my wife in, and off we go. The roads are horrendous. These are probably the worst roads I've ever driven on. The plows had been through earlier but stopped plowing sometime in the late afternoon. The roads were snow and ice, hard packed and heavy, with large drifts up to my windshield in some areas. My wife's mother was here for a visit so fortunately she was able to stay with our 2 other kids.

We saw only 1 other car the entire way to the hospital. We had to go up big hills, down big hills, country back roads, and through large drifts. While I know that the kind of tires you have make all the difference regardless of what you're driving, the M3 stayed pointing in the right direction the entire time. The traction control did its job and the winter tires did their job. Never once did we feel like we were going to get stuck, even when having to stop in large drifts for intersections, or go through snowplow embankments in the middle of the roads left after the plows gave up for the night. The car performed amazingly, and the tires were fantastic. I had full control at all times, traction every time I needed it, and we made it to the hospital safe and sound. And 5 hours later our 3rd child was born. Someday we'll have a story to tell her about the worst snowstorm we ever had to drive in, and that story will have an M3 in it to boot.

[Lups]

I love this kind of stories! Well done daddy and congratulations!

[F80silverstone]

You are brave. Glad you ended up a hero, not a zero. Congrats on new baby!

[DocWeatherington]

Bmwguy11

Congratulations on the baby girl.

[John Tanglewood]

Awesome story!!! Indeed these are fantastic cars (BMWs in general) in the snow, RWD be damned.

[CanAutM3]

Awesome story bro .

Congrats on the new girl

[Lups]

Originally Posted by F80silverstone

You are brave. Glad you ended up a hero, not a zero. Congrats on new baby!

We have myzmak as a member. If this had gone badly he would've listed his usuals including come on BMW!! . He was covered.

[SMV_M4]

Congrats! The storm was pretty intense here in Iowa as well.

[mkoesel]

Truly gripping story. Read it twice, even.

Sounds like you made the right choice for winter tires in your area, and it made all the difference. Well done.

Congrats on the new baby.

[Bch53211]

I completely agree with your comments on blizzaks, I found them really floaty as well. I have the excact same winter set up as you on my M4. I live in Wisconsin and we got the same storm with about the same amount of snow. Unfortunately I had not yet received my wheels from tire rack at that point, so I rented a car during the storm. Really happy to hear you got through safely and that the Michelin X-ice tires performed well. Great story, congrats.

[Kankles]

Congrats!! Great story

[PodDoc]

Great story and congrats on your baby! I drove through that storm too with michelin's xi3s too. These tires handled it like a champ, they are so much better than winter performance tires. Well worth the sacrifice in dry weather performance for those that only have one car to use year round.

[Chris H.]

Great Story! Congrats!

[shawshank772]

Love the story!

[Bmwguy11]

Thanks all. <3. And thanks moderator!

We are back home with our little one and all are healthy.

[Who's on first]

Pic's (car in snow-- not the birth) or it didn't happen.

JK.

Good job.

[Nachbar]

Congrats!
Our first Baby (Boy) came this December 10th. No snow here in Switzerland Zurich, but both cars were ready (M3 and X3).

[SakhirM4]

This is so refreshing to read after all the trash my BMW posts. Congrats on the new baby and successful excursion

[ronanz]

Congrats!!!


.

[Kief]

Great read
Congratulations on your baby girl! Did you chose a name to fit the situation?
Let's help him out...

[ando]

Congrats to you and your wife on your baby. Way to be prepared with proper snows.

[DrivingForce]

Great story! Congrats on the new addition to the family!