6 minute read
Fire & Ice
No experience comparable to this is at all possible in Australia. We have barely enough skiable snow over a few months in winter, so the chance to drive on an icy surface holding a Porsche in your hands while you slide and glide is hard to pass up. Team that with professional driving instructors and the opportunity of visiting a remote, unspoilt and stunning location and it’s not surprising that a group from Porsche Centre Brighton made the journey.
Ice whisperers
When the first snow carpets the Porsche driving area in Levi, Lapland, when the upper levels of the ground are frozen, Levi is transformed into a fascinating winter landscape. Then it is time to turn this icy idyll into a polar hotspot with ice tracks as smooth as glass.
For the ice whisperers, this means preparing a 280-hectare swamp area to be used as tracks covering around 310,000 square metres.
Once the tracks have been planned, the base layer must be strengthened and expanded. After all, the drift tracks have to withstand a weight of more than 10 tonnes. Only then will the ’driving layer’, boundary walls and connecting paths be built.
After any snowfalls, the white flakes must be removed, as snow would insulate and warm up the ice.
By the time the engines are started, the Porsche driving area has been perfectly prepared with special sections and handling tracks. To keep it this way, the ice whisperers will be constantly on duty until March.
Imagine the fascinating experiences that await Porsche enthusiasts in the pine forests of Lapland. As soon as the roar of the first powerful Porsche engine is heard, an almost magical peace is swept away and transformed into an adrenaline-packed suite of excitement for drivers training on icy tracks. g
Where is Lapland?
Before heading off on this adventure, Australian participants attended an evening in February at Denmark House in Melbourne’s Little Bourke street to get a taste of what’s ahead both in terms of the itinerary and with an array of food they would likely taste again in Levi, Lapland.
Lapland is an extreme northern region of Finland lying on the Arctic Circle, hence beating Australia hands down for snow and ice. The land is pristine and dotted with fjords. Apart from sliding around in Porsches, the area offers the Aurora lights, husky sledding, magnificent scenery and the midnight sun in summer. According to reports, it is the official home of Santa.
What’s on Ice?
Instructors and training sessions are par for this course and focus on the principles of handling a vehicle on snow and ice, albeit packed with adrenaline-rich experiences of driving to the limit on mirror-smooth ice surfaces. Alongside extreme driving is a host of other exciting things to add to the joy of a stay in this remote part of the world, including snowmobile tours.
The driving program includes learning the basics as well as feeling that intensive driving experience on specially prepared sections and handling tracks. All behind the wheel of a diverse range of Porsche models which call for different driving techniques.
Alongside the theory, the schedule includes driving safety, driving dynamics and, above all, driving practice. The dedicated and highly experienced instructors are always there.
The feeling of mastering a Porsche under control even in these difficult situations, with special drifting techniques on specially prepared handling circuits, is simply indescribable. You just have to experience it.
The training areas embrace a series of paddocks, circles, figures of eight, an oval and flick squares. As participants move through, they move up one level to the next with new and exciting challenges guaranteed every day. Ice Experience, Ice Force and Ice Force Pro sessions are held in these areas called Area North and Area South.
On the second day of Ice Experience, after the theory session, participants are transported for roughly 25 minutes to the Porsche driving area to start to feel the adrenaline rush and the sheer joy of driving, tackling drifting, slaloming and testing their braking skills. All of this experienced in outstanding scenery in exclusive sports cars and under professional guidance in complete safety. Here Porsche drivers push their boundaries ... and exceed them. g
Ice Experience to Ice Cup
The amount of specially prepared training sections and handling courses as well as practical individual tips and theory all go towards developing a better driver and an even better driving experience. And if you can’t bear the thought of leaving the ice after the Ice Experience, Porsche can offer more choices to go further in your personal driving development.
With different focal points and objectives, the range of Porsche winter programs build on each other, each taking a step forward. They challenge every Porsche driver to explore their personal limits under professional guidance – and to expand it.
After the Ice Experience, with plenty of new techniques under their belts and a whole host of fun, participants have laid the foundation that will allow them to participate in other Porsche winter programs: Ice Force, Ice Force Pro and perhaps Ice Cup.
Ice-covered circuits. Adrenaline-fuelled driving pleasure. Lots of curves. These are the ingredients of the four Porsche Ice Experience programs.
Porsche’s Ice Experience focuses on basic driving skills on icy surfaces and challenging driving exercises. That alone is worth the journey from Australia, where this sort of driving is not at all possible.
The second offering is Porsche’s Ice Force, which lets you feel the limits of driving physics.
Enquire now regarding Ice Experience events in 2021. Limited space available. Contact Pike Peters Ph: 03 9536 1918 E: Pike.Peters@porschebrighton.com.au
With load change responses and the alternating interplay of accelerator and brakes, participants learn, up close, how it feels to manoeuvre a Porsche safely around a curve with exciting lateral acceleration under these extreme conditions.
In the top-level Ice Force Pro, experiences from previous training sessions are fully utilised (skilfully of course). And with one goal – perfecting your performance and keeping a cool head even under the most challenging of handling courses across different Porsche models.
Ice Cup is a different experience, offering motorsport enthusiasts the opportunity to master the ice tracks in GT race cars while experiencing adrenaline-charged motorsport in wintry conditions. Unlike Ice Experience, Ice Force and Ice Force Pro, which use Area North and South,
Ice Cup participants use Area X, which is specially prepared for the Ice Cup training, extracts the best from every race car and driver. Long and complex handling tracks ensure a high proportion of driving is completed. These areas don’t just push the participants to their limits but also allow them to grow as drivers.
The Porsche Ice Experience team has secured the talents of one of the most successful long-distance drivers in the world, Richard Lietz. He is participating at selected training events in Finland during 2020, allowing participants to benefit from his experience and specialist knowledge. This is only possible during Ice Cup training.
