How Car Folks Survive Winter “Up North”
How Car Folks Survive Winter “Up North”
– by Randy Stern
Living in the Northern Climes is a challenge for the car enthusiast. When the weather is warm, you can take out your special rides to enjoy in the sunshine. But when the air turns colder, it is time to put them away from the winter.
It appears that you might end up with many vehicles to drive year round.
It is a reality for us here in Minnesota. Some enthusiasts do have multiple rides for the summer and winter. We call them daily drivers, winter beaters, car meet specials…and so forth. Names are not important here. It is their purpose that matters.
This idea of multiple cars is indoctrinated when you are born here. You never ask “Dad, why is there a lot of cars in the driveway?” You are shown which ones are for which times of the year. It is perfectly OK to be driven to school in the winter beater before the streets get plowed after a few inches of snow dropped overnight.
But not everyone has multiple cars for seasonal purposes. Some try to get through year round in one. Enthusiasts will say “that’s what separate us from them.” Them – being normal, everyday people. They need the one car to get to work, school, dates, hospitals…life.
What is a winter beater? The term says exactly what it means. It is the kind of vehicle that one does not care if it gets stuck on the ice or ran into a snow bank. It may have six digits on the odometer and is probably fixed with duct tape and bailing wire. You do not get full insurance for a winter beater, unless you really want the truth about what happened when you slid into the ditch during the last blizzard.
For the rest of the year, an enthusiast would have something real cool. The project car is something you might find in a garage somewhere in the Northern Climes. If it is not torn apart with parts strewn all over the car, it may be almost complete. Almost being the operative word. A project car is never done. There is always something else that either needs work, to be replaced or added on. They have to be just right to take the local meet or trek to the nearest motorsports venue.
Come late October and early November, the project car needs to be “put away.” Some people have a storage unit that is protected from the climate where they can drive them in and leave them alone until the next spring. Others improvise. Significant others grumble. Kids are banned from going near the “ugly thing out there.” Besides, it had to be moved to make room for the snow blower.
Enthusiasts will tell you that if you have to live with one vehicle – get one that is truly made for all seasons. Does it require all-wheel drive? Not necessarily, but it would be advantageous to consider it. Do I need all-season tires on it? At the bare minimum, yes. It is recommended that you consider getting a second set of tires and wheels for the winter and having them stored when they are not needed. This is actually required in a few places across North America.
Surviving winter up in these parts requires a little imagination when selecting the vehicles to get you through it – and year round. However, there is one thing to consider: Your driving abilities. It is not about skill, as is it about being patient, judging speed and distance in varying conditions and knowing how to use your vehicle when road conditions are less than ideal.
Of course, one would think that after a decade or so the whole winter routine becomes easier. It does not. Because of climate change, we have winters that are relative mild one year and the next one becomes completely brutal. There is no such thing as a winter that is consistent anymore.
This is life in the Northern Climes – in particular, the Upper Midwest. This is why we do our best to get through the year with our cars – plural.
