I have been lucky enough to go driving on ice several times, whenever I get the chance I snap it up, and do so for two reasons: Firstly, it really is the most fun you can have in a car, the god like feeling of holding a drift in a car is highly addictive. Secondly you will learn more about car control in a short space of time than any other form of motorsports or teaching method.
When that golden moment comes it is magical, the understanding that the weight has stopped transferring to one side and will shortly be coming back the other way and you need to be ready to control that using either steering inputs or the throttle.
Sliding an old BMW or similar is a great starting point for your journey to becoming an ice driving hero and at Lapland Ice Driving they can build you a bespoke course or recommend one of their many packages that will see you get plenty on time behind the wheel with an instructor next to you.
That’s a key point, many ice drive courses will simply have an instructor parked up just commenting when they can see you, but at Lapland Ice Driving your instructor will be sat next you giving instant feedback to help you get up to speed as quickly as possible. And while it might be an ice circuit, you will still see speeds of up to 200kmh!
There’s 14 circuits spread over almost 3000 acres of frozen lake making it the world’s largest driving centre. Five of those tracks are exact copies of legendary F1 circuits; Silverstone, Yas Marina, Nurburgring, Paul Ricard and Sepang.
Once you have decided which circuit you want to become a master of you will need to choose a car. There are packages to ease you into things from 2 series BMWs upwards. Or you can choose to go straight for the Porsche GT3 and Ferrari 488GTB. There are also 4WD supercars and even some rally classics to perfect your Scandinavian flicks in.
The seven different courses offer one or two days of driving, with each day seeing you on track for 4 hours, split up in to 8x 30 minute sessions. I would certainly recommend a course the first time you try driving on ice as you will then find your time behind the wheel of a Lamborghini, Porsche or Ferrari so much more rewarding. But, if you are a little impatient then you can choose ‘The Persuaders’ course which will see you straight out in the GT3 and 488GTB.
Having attended a few different courses myself, I would be very keen to create a bespoke package that I would feel the benefits of when translating back into what I drive every day which is always rear wheel drive and sometimes classic. As such I would probably choose to split my time between the Porsche Caymans S, BMW M4, Porsche 911 GT3 and the Opel Kadett GTE Gr2 rally car for some old school sideways action!
Of course, this is a very seasonal activity with the programme running from January 8th to March 25th. I would recommend booking for January so you still have time to come back in March as I guarantee you will have the most fun in a car you have ever had!