Holiday on ice

摘要

Perhaps power isn't all there is to driving at speed on ice and snow? The split-Weber powered Cooper S motor currently hiding underthe bonnet of 977 ARX certainly produced the goods in terms of power and was great on the dry stages we met at the start of this year's Rallye Monte Carlo Historique. Once we got up into the snow though, several unwelcome things began to happen. Running at number 303 meant that 302 cars had gone over the stages before us, creating a horrible washboard-type surface as the snow was compacted into regularly spaced icy 'speed bumps'. Driving over these at a 50kph |30mph] average speed for many kilometres took its toll on the suspension and the near side rear Spax damper pushed through its mounting bush and started to hammer against the wheel arch as we climbed up the Col de Menee. We had to slow down as the hammering was dreadful and the handling not so good either, with one damper loose. Ourvaliant service crew (well, Alastair Vines, actually] wedged the damper in place with a piece of rubber exhaust mounting, which stopped the hammering and improved the handling.