Ok, maybe there is something I am missing here - I will admit because this was the first time I have ever seen DSC engaged on my car and I can tell you that it was not a pleasant experience - not at all.

I made a run to Reno, NV on business yesterday and honestly, never gave weather a second thought. About 3/4 of the way through the trip there, I was presented with some winter weather and although it was a bit of a surprise, it was fine and I got there without issue. The problems started that afternoon as I was set to head back. Weather was deteriorating quickly and the roads were getting bad - at least for a Jag that has never seen a lick of snow in its entire existence. After a lot of deliberation, I decided to take a stab at heading back and one after another, I saw signs about the roads requiring chains. I had none and kept pushing on. I finally got to a rather long upward hill climb and got about 500 feet up the hill when the rear started stepping out. DSC started flashing (good - that means it actually works) and I decided to call it for the day and figure out how to do this properly. Road was very sparse with vehicles and I was concerned that if anything happened, I would be stuck out in the middle of nowhere. I slowly backed down the hill and found a spot to flip around and head back to town. I immediately went to an autoparts store and bought myself a set of chains for the rear tires, got myself a motel room for the night and got a decent nights sleep before heading out again this morning.
So I am a transplanted Canadian and winter weather is just something we all grew up with but I can say that in all my years, I had never been forced to put chains on my tires in Canada. I guess there is so much snow there, so frequently, they assume that everyone knows when and where to use chains. I just never felt the need to. So here is this 57 year old Canuck, standing on the side of the road - trying to figure out how chains go on lol. OK, I did figure it out pretty quickly and I was off into the weather. It got pretty bad really and the first few miles were slow as I got used to the constant shudder of having rolling pins wrapped around my rear tires. My big issues came when I caught up to a couple of guys in a van that were obviously petrified of being on snow. 20mph was the common speed behind these guys and there wasn't an opportunity to pass. The ugliest part was that when these guys got to an incline, they basically stopped in the road before ascending. Anyone with any experience in the snow knows that this is the worst thing to do going up a hill. You need a little rolling momentum to give the tires a fighting chance to keep you moving forward. Getting stuck half way up a hill is no fun. So, this is basically what happened to me today and I was nearly dead stopped before these guys started to puddle up the hill. As I got a little (and I mean little) forward momentum, the rears started spinning with the chains on and I started getting DSC flashing on the console. I thought this was good but it wasn't. As the rears kept spinning trying to find some grip, the DSC kept cutting back engine power in an attempt to claim some traction. Ordinarily, I would consider this a good thing but the more the rears spun, the more DSC cut power. I ended up with a motor that felt like it was dying as I was trying to keep moving forward - spinning or not. I was almost to a dead stop on the hill and there were cars behind me so I couldn't do much. In a last ditch effort, I decided to go old school and turned DSC off on the console (thankfully, you can do this on the fly). So away I go - a bunch of spinning and some sideways action like the old days but I WAS gaining speed and I was able to feather the throttle to keep moving without stepping out to far. I caught up to those idiots again eventually and they kept doing the same thing - super frustrating. After the second occurrence, I decided to keep myself enough distance approaching any hills so that I could roll some to keep momentum up.
I did finally make it back home and cracked out the manual to get an idea of what this was all about. No mention of DSC when in the snow or what to do if you encounter something like this. Totally the reason for writing this post.
For anyone with little to no experience driving in the snow, this would be absolutely terrifying. It had me for a but and I was convinced that the engine was simply giving up the ghost at the worst possible time but nope - every time I got to an incline, I switched off DSC and went old school up each and every hill - and there were a lot. I did switch it back on on level roads and going downhill because I wasn't certain about what assistance it might provide while descending.
Would love to hear the wisdom of others who have had the opportunity to let the cat pounce in the snow. I am definitely not looking forward to ever doing that again but if I ever do, I know what to do and what not to do.

 

Ill say i like having "the peace of mind" of dsc when driving in the rain, but ive had several times when i went to pull out "half fast" from an intersection and it kicked in and i was really close to cussing! I know that had i turned it off the wheels might have spun a little, but at least I would've kept moving and not been "that guy" that "jumps out in front of someone and doesnt go". Smh. I dont usually go when i dont have room, but there are some fairly blind intersections around here, where when you go, youd better go type deal

 

I am still trying to "picture" an XK8 with tire chains!!!

 

That is so frustrating in snow or slick roads when the idiot in front of you slows when coming to a hill or grade. Similar to when coming to a freeway on ramp. I try to wait until they get some distance ahead, if possible, and then hit the go pedal. My DSC will sometimes come on when accelerating too, which can be a pain. On some of the hyper cars you can adjust the "sensitivity" of it (or you can always just turn it off).

 

my first driving experience in an XK was a 400+ mile drive from the sellers home in Iowa to my home in Oklahoma. It was dead of night by the time I started out, cloudy & with no moon. An early January, cold as hell, and the roads were 100% ice and snow all the way home.

The only modification I did to improve traction was to add two 50 lb bags of sand in the trunk / boot as close to the rear wheels as possible.

the car performed with impeccable manners, and the cars rear end stayed where it belongs for the entire journey.

Since that maiden voyage, the car has been driven daily in all types of weather, both snowy frigid and tropical hot. I do try to start each winter with a somewhat fresh set of A/S tires. Have even dispensed with the sand bags.

My only concession to the winter driving is to throughly wash off the undercarriage after a snow event. So far no signs of corrosion other than a light rusting of the exhaust manifolds, which was already there when I purchased the car nearly 5 years ago.

Z

 

Use of snow chains is covered in the DSC section of my XK8 hand book, as shown here

 

Ah - there it is!
Does make me wonder what the difference is between losing traction on chains vs losing traction with just rubber?
I suspect the results would have been the same if I didn't have the chains on.
The little mention of it doesn't give any details as to why you would turn it off when running chains - which would be helpful
Thanks for digging that up - Couldn't find any mention in my handbook

 

As an old-school stockcar racer, we were trained to respond to 'drifting' by listening to seat of your pants and responding at the steering wheel accordingly. DSC, for me, is counter productive. I am trying to do its job and it is trying to do mine (steer the car). I routinely turn it off !

 

^^^^^^ +1

I turn off traction control, and would turn off other safety systems if possible. Many modern automotive safety systems are there to help people who never learned the basic skills of driving. Especially how to drive in less than optimal circumstances. I see people every day who can’t figure how why they lose steering control after locking up the brakes. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Z