VIDEO: my frozen x5 likes to drift in the snow!! :) driving impressions....

[crosvs]

so i took my gf up to tahoe on dec 26-28, and while up there, we got a chance to test out the x5's capabilities in the snow! i should say, it fared far better than we did lol.

anyway, the last time i had the x5 in the snow was last year and it was with the stock michelins which were, well, useless. this time, i had the pirelli scorpions and they were vastly superior: i never once needed chains, and under normal driving, the pirellis + DSC worked together very nicely.

HOWEVER: i tested REPEATEDLY -- and my gf concurs -- to see whether the ABS was better at stopping the car than i was, and the answer is a resounding NO. repeated testing demonstrated that if i applied brake pressure juuuuust beneath the threshold of ABS activation, the car would definitely stop SIGNIFICANTLY quicker.

i guess this should come as no surprise: constant braking force >> frequent intermittent braking force. i guess i just didn't expect ABS to be THAT bad.

here's one pic and one mediocre drift video that was taken before i really got the hang of it. enjoy

here's the vid: http://www.intriciti.com/temp/x5_tahoe_drift.wmv

Because i never had enough open space to try faster left-right feint- and throttle-off-induced oversteers, i found a quick jab of the handbrake did the job nicely.

also found the car EXTREMELY predictable and easy to balance using the handbrake to make sharp 90* turns round corners. granted, i probably never went over 20-25 mph lol but it was still tons of fun

the only "problem" with the car was that the front doors -- actaully, the locking mechanisms -- got frozen shut the second morning. Forcing them open only prevented the doors from closing again until the front desk of the hotel suggested leaving the car in the sun to thaw out lol -- and that did it!!

and here's the pic: