So I'm on way back from a customer in Phialdelphia yesterday. I had been going back and forth for a couple of days avging about 2 hours each way from my home in NW NJ. I left at about 4pm yesterday hoping to beat some weather that had been predicted for the northeast. Well I left too late.

As I was walking to the parking garage the storm hit and by the time I retrieved Merlin from the garage the stuff was starting to stick. All was ok until I got on the PA turnpike then BAM several inches of ICY crap on the road and what traffic there was slowed to 15-20 miles per hour. While going up one particualry nasty section Merlin and I ran accross a line of cars that were extremely slow due poor visibility and I thought.....hey since there is no one and front of us and very few cars on the road at all lets try the mini lights.

So we slid in front of the pack and I threw my high beams and the mini lights on. What a difference that made we could see the entire highway (which ordinarily would be bad since we'd be blindning people too) wouldnt you know all of these people followed me the entire way up the PA turnpike and when I stopped at the Allentown rest stop several of them followed me in and asked how much loghts like that were and could they get them for there respective cars. They also commented on how excellent my car seemed in the snow since I barely lost traction the entire way.

Overall it was a fun and somewhat intresting experience which somewhat made up for the 6 hours it took me to go approx 100 miles home.

The other funny thing was that the storm was so bad that my car was one big sheet of ice when I got home. I took some pictures for anyone who is interested. I had ice convering the bonnet, quarter panels, roof, and tail end. Basically Merlin was one big ICE cube.

I defintely give Mini 2 thumbs up for snow and ice handling (of course I do have the 15" wheels on there so thats helps)

I also must admit that so far I have loved Merlin more and more for every one of the almost 2500 miles I have driven him since I picked him up in Nov

 

Wow, what a horrible storm! Even up north here in Alberta I haven't really seen a car ice up like yours!

 

Great story! I bet that $400 (or whatever those lights cost) is looking like not such a bad deal!

In college I drove from New Jersey to western Mass once in a storm like that (to visit my girlfriend... as if anything else would make a trip like that worth it!), and I had an '88 Integra with the flip-up headlights. By the time I got to Northampton, there was literally about an inch of ice completely covering and surrounding the lights, so that they wouldn't go down when I turned off the car. Apparently the car tried all night to put them down, because the next morning my battery was dead.

 

Nice story, this is the first time I'm using my Mini in the Winter and it is doing awsome. Used my 17'' rims and put perelli 240 winter sport tires on and it's fun sofar Going to get the JCW 18'' rims when summer rolls around and keep these tires on these rims!
Anyway, random question but are the fog lamps xenon bulbs, or just the regular bulbs (I'm assuming regular)?

 

When you say "mini lights" are you talking about the fog lamps or the driving lamps on the grill?

 

When I say the mini lights I mean the lights on the grill. My car doesnt have the fog lights although I am going to have them installed.

To answer the other question, as far as I know they are standard bulbs.


Yeah it was a horrible storm, I probably should have stayed in Philly but it didnt get bad until I was already on my way. It was funny, I stopped at another rest stop and everyone's cars were iced over. There were people practically chiseling the ice off their car. When I got home my wifes entire Honda Odyssey was iced over too. Glad I dont still have my old Sentra SE-R Spec-V that thing sucked in the snow

It's real testament to the heat shield on our cars that the Merlins bonnet iced over at all.

 

I have been driving in that kind of weather all week.

My Poco just hauls through everything

Ice covered drifted over roads are just one more thing that make these little cars shine, IMO

 

I hate ice 200x more than snow! I remember one 'ice cube' drive where when I got home, I was frozen IN the car. Finally got a door open, but it was bad.