Ice Driving Training near Ivalo, Finland
I thought that this beautiful picture of a Porsche 911 C4S sitting next to some pines near the lake in Finland where Porsche teach the skills of Ice Driving, was very apt especially as most of the UK has had a covering of snow this weekend.
A couple of years ago, Colin Wilson (a fellow Porsche Driving Consultant) and I had the good fortune to go to Finland for five days and play with this car on a frozen Lake deep in the forests near Ivalo, which itself is some 200 miles above the Arctic Circle.
We enjoyed sliding around in figures of eight and drifting along tight twisting tracks on the ice and the highlight was when we drove Panamera’s with over 200 studs in each of their four tyres. The tracks are marked out on the lake and kept clear with a snow blower on the back of a four wheel drive tractor that is driven by Finish friend of mine, Vasant, who I met years ago in the goldfields near Sarraselka quite by chance on one of our adventures that pass through this part of Finland.
For me seeing these forests and lakes in the grip of winter’s white hand was incredible, especially as in the summer when we pass through on our way to the Impala Adventure in Russia, all is green with an amazing abundance of life-you cannot imagine this wild landscape would ever be shrouded in snow and ice then.
This year I am there for three weeks instructing-awesome!!