The Blog of ROBROB8

Day 2 with my Challenger. A 370km drive through the mountains, from my home in Kamloops, BC to Vancouver, BC. Total drive time 4 hours.

I don’t know if you’ve ever had to drive through a blizzard, complete with slushy roads, 1300 meters above sea level, in the mountains. If you have, you know the true terror of the drive.

And driving a brand new car that you just bought the day before adds it’s own particular type of freaking out to the mix. At least I had the firesight to have snow tires put on.

The 2011 Challenger SXT Plus is a rear wheel drive car. This means that, despite or maybe even including) the traction control, you only have the rear wheels propelling the car forward. If the front wheeels get turned by a ridge in the road, well you have to drive/steer out of it quickly. I did leave the traction control on for the duration of my drive.

As I hit the summit of the mountain, at 1330 meters, the show was intense allowing only 8 to 10 carlengths ahead visibility. The snow on the road had iced in places and turned to slush in others. the outdoor temperature ws 32F, right at the freezing point. After a little while of driving at 20kph for a while, the car behind me disappeared into the ditch. After another 10 minutes I had caught up to a car that was driving a bit slower than me; he was following a snow plough. I was safe now, or at least safer than I was because now I was on on a freshly ploughed snow surface.

I have to admit that not being behind the wheel of a rear wheel drive for a long time made getting used to the driving technique was a bit slow in relearning. I fishtailed twice but both times manage dmy way out of it (don’t force the steering wheel, let go of the gas, don’t slam the brakes and steer into regaining control).

I was behind the snow plough for about 40 minutes, then he turned off. At that point of the drive the road wasn’t as bad and within another 15 minutes the road started to go downhill, I had passed the high point of the mountains. From this point thw weather turned from blinding snow to driving rain. One storm to the other!

The handling of the Challenger in the rain was awesome. No slipping or sliding even through pooled water in the roadway.
And I did make my drive safely tp my destination, no paint chips that I can see, no cracks in the windshield from road rocks (they don’t use sand on the road here, it’s thumb-sized rocks that won’t freeze into the surface snow/ice of the roads).

Today is the day I bought a new 2011 Dodge Challenger. I absolutely love this car!

I have the Redline color, and it’s a Challenger SXT Plus model. Full entertainment touch panel system with Garmin navigation. Sirius satellite radio, the upgraded 8 speaker system… simply awesome.

I’ll keep you posted for any new Challenger events!

And if you have one too let me know, maybe we can drive together… If you’re not sure what I’m speaking of, or you’d like to see more info about this great new muscle car, go to the Dodge site.