Merry Christmas to you all, dear friends!

Merry Christmas if you celebrate it. Merry 25th December/Tuesday if you don't

And Merry Christmas to you as well!

Happy holidays and well wishes to everyone.

I hope everyone has a great time.

I plan on stuffing my face with as much Turkey as possible, I'm not a bit Christmas person, but I have to say Christmas Dinner is hard to beat

Cheers

Cris.

Happy Holidays to all!

Enjoy your feasting and relaxing!

Merry xmas everyone! Looking forward to dinnertime already!

Merry Christmas all - and the duck is almost done. Mmmm with orange, cranberry and sausagemeat stuffing - best bit

And in the next few days I'm hoping to start cutting wires and things to get the display extender installed - I like holidays!!!

Merry Christmas to everyone!!

(you know, I've felt REALLY weird saying that this year. political correctness has beaten it out of me.)

And have a fun, safe and happy new year!

Yep, I'll add to those Christmas good wishes, now that I've finished off all the traditional courses. The only down side is that I'm denied alcohol for a long time to come after a scare that rushed me in to hospital, in the middle of the night, 10 days back!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I celebrated in the following ways:

- Turducken party last Sunday.

- Relaxing with friends and loved ones on Xmas eve, decorating Doctor-who themed gingerbread cookies. On my table is now a fully 3D gingerbread TARDIS (complete with blinking blue LED atop) surrounded by four gingerbread weeping angels.

- On Xmas day today, seeing Sweeney Todd today at the theater with a friend (my second viewing, my friend's first viewing, said friend has an extreme fondness for all broadway musicals and an equal fondness for horror films, needless to say she was thrilled with it, as was I).

- Tonight we shall devour the gingerbread TARDIS while watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Also, playing aith a two-foot tall balsa trebuchet that one of my friends got for Xmas.

It's a good year.

Edit: Oh, and it just snowed here in seattle, a perfect dusting of white for Christmas day. How awesome is that?

Joyeux Noel a toi aussi, Claudio!

And perhaps you may have a visitor from here later in the New Year (if you like).

Cheers from Canada,

Mark

Sorry for the tardy reply, but while away from the board I was with you all in spirit.

I hope everyone enjoyed their gift-giving season.
Happy New Year!

I will surely like, Mark!

And thank you all for your replies. I'm back just now from 10 day-vacation up in the mountains not far from Rome. I't good to be back. My Christmas was far from the internet, which I admit I never like, but surrounded by snow and with a burning fireplace, which I love.

So, happy 2008! I really hope to have more time to spend posting here, in 2008. We'll see. All I need is a winning lottery ticket, I guess...

Welcome back, Claudio!



Yeah, I know the feeling. We get that a *lot* around here!

That sounds perfect to me. Just give me some hot chocolate and I'm in heaven. Sometimes it's nice to get away from the net and have some peace and quiet. (*gasp* blasphemy! )

Pity we didn't have snow for Christmas itself, but it has been like this for a couple of days, which is nice!

Happy 2008 for everyone!

Does the Forester actually behave like a "proper" 4x4 on snow/ice ?

My Scooby has never felt very convincing on snow/ice, presumably thanks to the Eagle F1s.

It sure does. Feels about the same as the only "proper" (WTF?) 4x4 I've ever driven other than the Forester.

I've also climbed very steep rocky ledges, waded through 20" streams, and slopped through the odd mud hole or three with the scooby. The darned thing just likes to keep on moving.

I do use true winter tyres on it from December to March, though.

Cheers

Well sure! Add some Nokian Hakkapeliittas. If far enough north to avoid guilt, studded.

I hope you are feeling well and content in 2008, scare-wise. After serious holiday overkill (it wuz the brined, smoked, stuffed pork roasts and the deep-fried turkey whut dun it!) I should sign up for the Boxer Diet.

I have always found the F1s very bad in the dry or in snow...not bad in the wet, but not a patch on the Bridgestone SOs. My brother (who has a P1) swears by the Kumhos.

My Foz is not really a normal one, so probably can't go off road as well as Mark's, as I think some of that is sacrificed for speed:-)

Three years ago, my eldest brother died. So my father and next older brother flew in here from the east coast, and we drove the next 500Km together to the funeral, and then back again the same day.

Which coincided with a largish snow storm by local standards -- about 12-15" of fluffy-yet-sticky new snow over the day, with perhaps a 6" depth on some of the secondary highways throughout much of the day. Side streets in towns had more like 12" of it.

I spent much of the drive weaving around stopped/abandoned vehicles of many types, on flats and hills, trying to maintain a decent speed so that we could complete the journey there and back in the time available.

The scooby is the only car I've ever driven that could have done this safely. Much to the amazement of my family, who are used to owning/driving "proper" trucks with 4WD.

The scooby lacks their ground/snow clearance, but makes up for it in its smaller size and greater maneuverability.

And having Hakka's on all four wheels certainly doesn't hurt.

Cheers

At this time of year, driving down off of Snoqualmie Pass on I-90, it is not uncommon to see vehicles gone ass-over-teakettle off the road. It is remarkable, but my unscientific sampling finds that 4x4 and AWD vehicles -- Jeeps, SUVs, Subarus -- are over-represented down in the ditches. My conclusion is that the folks driving SUVs and Subies too often think that they are somehow not subject to the laws of physics.

All that being said -- and speaking as somebody who has driven all sorts of vehicles on snow, slush and ice for about 40 years -- I can't think of another vehicle that I would rather drive in winter conditions than my Subaru. In the past 5 years I have driven the WRX in a decent number of gravel/mud/slush/ice/snow TSD rallies up in BC and elsewhere and I have been completely wowed by the balance of the Subaru's AWD system. I like to stay out of ditches so I drive somewhat conservatively but I have always been impressed with the Subaru's agility and the ability to power out of near-death "Oops! I am being too much sideways!" situations.

My Hakkas are pretty beat. Might be time to chat with the Kal Tire folks in Cache Creek about some Hakka 4s.

We have F1s on all our cars, as they have always impressed me in all conditions except snow and ice. Since we rarely see any snow or ice that isn't much of a problem. But as you say they are very, very poor on snow.

I haven't tried the Bridgestones, but in every detailed tire review the F1s have always come in just behind the Bridgestones in the dry and been significantly better than them in the wet. I will happily trade a little dry performance for much better wet performance...

I had Kumhos on the Scooby when I bought it, I thought they were horrible. Maybe they weren't the same Kumhos as he is using though (as I know some Ultima owners who use Kuhmos that are effectively race slicks for the road).

Do you not invest in winter tyres ? I would have thought it was worthwhile living in Scotland ?

I know a couple of folks who do use winter tyres, but they live well up in the highlands, with long dirt tracks up mountainsides to their homes.

Even when Aviemore was closed a couple of years ago due to snow (with the family and I stuck in a hotel in Aviemore) we were the first car that could leave as the roads were cleared. And this was the Impreza with Bridgestones. Okay, so it took an hour or two longer to get home, but even without the high/low ratio selector that you get on the non-WRX or STI spec Scoobs you can get safely through an awful lot of nastiness as long as you take it steady.

Andy - I'll check which Kumhos Craig has on the P1 (he's coming round later) and I agree on the F1s - which is why I have them on the Impreza as it is now Claire's car. I just don't like their grip level when near the limit. Bridgestones always held a lot longer and had a gentle breakaway, whereas F1s have a more snappy break at lower force.

Are they still around? I swore by studded Hakkapeliittas back in Finland 20 years ago, when they still were "Nokia" and not "Nokian" ("Nokian" meens from or by Nokia, they had to change the name after the management buyout from the now-mobile-phone company). And yes, I know that they are not the same tires as 20 years ago

The biggest problem I have found with F1s and snow is braking. Obviously you avoid braking if at all possible on snow with unsuited tires. But as soon as you find you have to break on the F1s they turn into ice skates, no matter how gently you apply the brakes if you aren't going absolutely dead straight then you're headed to the kerb in a sideways slide.

Having ABS that you can't switch off doesn't help.

Still, at least the Scooby on F1s deals with snow better that the MX-5 on F1s does. Every roundabout ends up being taken with the car at 70 degress from the direction of travel, whether you like it or not.

Well, heck, yes. In the US, you might have to look around a bit, but I got mine at a very typical tire outlet (Les Shwab) and they had some in stock when last I was in the store. In Canada, Kal Tire keeps stock (a compatriot got a couple off the shelf in Inuvik, NWT after shredding a couple in a crevice in the McKenzie River).

I have 5 studded Hakka 1s with some life left. I'll put them on next weekend to go north for a little MLK holiday lake driving....and then take 'em off the weekend after I get back. Studs are still legal here November to April but the stud ruts on sections of Interstate 5 are profound, so I can't keep 'em on the car for long without severe guilt.

Studded of unstudded, though, the Hakkas are awesome combination snow/slush/gravel/mud tires.

Andy - seems like it is the latest Kumho Ecstas which are good. The older ones were 'pants' apparently:-) Been for a good hoon in the P1 and on very wet reoundabouts it digs right in. It will get the tail out with some prompting, but only under inducement!

The retailer TireRack tends to have pretty good reviews of a large number of tires. Yeah, it's a US retailer, but I imagine that the same models are sold worldwide.