Usually it is the police who stop to help a stranded driver. In this February 2014 video from Hazel Park, Michigan, the roles are reversed: a local driver named Bobby uses his Subaru WRX to pull a police officer's Charger out of the snow on a residential street, while the uploader films the whole thing.
The Hazel Park snow rescue
The clip was posted on YouTube on 5 February 2014 by the channel KB Media under the title Subaru WRX pulls out stuck Police Officer (Original). In the video description, the uploader explains that their buddy Bobby helped a Hazel Park police officer whose car was stuck, and that the WRX pulled the Charger free on what he called "some not so good all season tires". As the uploader put it, it isn't often you see someone help a police officer.
Hazel Park, Michigan
Hazel Park is a small city in Oakland County, an inner-ring suburb on the north side of Detroit. 8 Mile Road forms its southern border and Interstate 75 runs straight through it. Incorporated in 1941, it covers just 2.82 square miles and had 14,983 residents at the 2020 census. For decades the city was best known for Hazel Park Raceway, which opened for thoroughbred racing in 1949, switched to harness racing and closed in 2018.
Why the Subaru WRX grips in snow
The WRX began in 1992 as a rally-bred version of the Subaru Impreza; the name stands for "World Rally eXperimental". The WRX is an all-wheel-drive sport compact powered by Subaru's turbocharged horizontally opposed "boxer" four-cylinder engine. The Impreza-based WRX ran through 2014, the year this clip was filmed, before becoming a standalone model for 2015. Subaru's factory Impreza rally team won six world rally titles.
All-wheel drive sends power to all four tyres, which helps a car pull away and tow on a slippery surface. Braking and steering, however, depend on the tyres themselves.
Winter tyres vs all-season tyres
- Winter tyres are designed for temperatures below about 7 °C (45 °F). Their rubber compounds and thin slits called sipes give extra biting edges on snow and ice.
- The three-peak mountain snowflake symbol marks tyres certified for severe snow use, tested to beat a reference tyre in straight-line traction on packed snow.
- M+S (mud and snow) on the sidewall indicates a tread better suited to mud and snow than a standard road tyre, but without the snowflake certification.
- All-season tyres sit in between: quieter on dry roads, less capable on snow and ice.
Pull a stuck car only with a proper tow strap fixed to the manufacturers' recovery points. For bigger winter recoveries, see a larger recovery at Upper Klamath Lake, or learn how deep snow is measured.
Related reading
- A Car Recovered from an Opening in Lake Ice
- A Snow-Covered Car and the Window That Changes the Joke
- The Canadian Ice Truck: Construction, Driving and Melting
- Fire and Ice: Ross Cohen’s Reverse-Playback Porsche Film
- Ice on a Car Window: A Winter Clip, Not a De-Icing Method
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