I went on a Ski weekend a few hours away from here. Great times, quite boozy and fun. Skiing and conditions were great.
The place where I stayed has a long driveway and it gets drifted over easily with the wind. I of course wanted to show my car's superiority....
The first morning we were 3 cars and the 2wd car could not get through. It got a little stuck, and I was able to pass beside it to blaze a trail. After I had gone by, we pushed the stuck SAAB back onto the road, and we were able to carry on. I had remembered to switch off the DSC for my charge through the deep drifts. Snow was deep enough to fly over the hood, and there were long moments of not being able to see where I was going.

On the way home it was a similar story. I charged into the new drifts with confidence. The snow flew. It was dark, and the window was totally blocked. In the haste, I forgot to switch off the DSC, and as I powered through the drift.. the damn computer just killed all power and I simply could not make it through. It was as if the engine was switched off at the worst possible time.

I was stuck but good.... car sitting with its weight on the belly, and 4 wheels happily throwing snow front or rear.

No so bad really, the neighbour across the road is a local guy that was supposed to keep the road clear anyway. He has a big tractor with a huge snowblower on it. We had to interrupt his Friday evening beers to ask for a pull out of the drift.

That was of course met with rounds of laughter, I mean can you imagine the local guys who were hanging out a country side workshop (wives in the house cooking)? Dressed in coveralls, car and various partly assembled farm equipment everywhere, they were in the middle of planning next summer's ATV 24 hour race down in BAJA..... and some city slicker with a JAG, is stuck. It could not be funnier for them. Thankfully I have spent most of my weekends and free time doing exactly what they were doing and we were able to laugh together.

So as the tractor warmed up, we gathered a tow rope, and some shackles to attach to the Jag's rear tow hook.
I know there is an access panel in the bottom of the bumper and I really hoped that the screw in hook was with the spare tire. At the car, (good thing I was still in ski-wear) I got down and under the bumper and got the cover off and the tow hook out, and proceeded to screw in the towing eye.

After a few tries and cold fingers, I declared something was wrong. I poked in the threaded hole with my finger and closely inspected the threads on the eye hook. I could not get it to thread in. I went to get a flashlight from the glovebox, and then my buddy who owns the place gave it a try.
Now remember I am the mechanical genius guy.... as far as all my friends are concerned. THis friend of mine is good, but he is really a financial guy - spends his time managing mutual funds. In a matter of seconds he declares all is ok and the hook is IN.
I said how the heck did you do that? he said he just turned it both ways and it went in....
DAMMIT>> That hook has left hand threads.. why on earth I cant imagine, but sheesh.. Not looking good for the Jag guy from the city.

so that is the end of the story. here is the car after extraction..

 

there is a button behind the shifter, you press it to deactive the DSC... then you can keep full power when the wheels are spinning.. which you need in deep snow.

 

All cars have traction control, DSC is an option. If you have DSC then you have the button behind the shifter. Non DSC cars have little slots there instead of the button. The red flashing LED for the alarm is also part of the button/slot thing.

 

Yes was an option for auto and manual cars....

 

once you are underway on twisty roads.. the DSC is worth its weight in gold.. I saves you way more than it hurts you.

 

I think the a-hole is the person who has never tried to do that and ends up blocking traffic one day. It is terribly important for everyone to test their car in snowy conditions.
If there was any A-Hole stuffin the vid it is the loud mouth camera man hooting and hollering like an american tourist (hehe) or the driver for the high RPM spinning, the viscous coupling and the transfer case must have gotten quite hot..

Overall - that is the kind of stuff that makes you a good driver, the open parking lot.. and not another car in site. I think they dida good job.