Feature: Polar Precision – Porsche Ice Driving School

Porsches are among the most fun cars to drive on the road or track, but they are even more fun when you replace tarmac with ice.

Published On Mar 26, 2023 08:00:00 AM

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This is Levi in Finland. It’s a ski town miles away from anything else, so far north of the Arctic Circle that the locals are on a first-name basis with Santa Claus. At this time of year, there’s only about six hours of sunlight, and all it serves to illuminate is white as far as the eye can see. It’s -12 degrees Celsius, which the locals tell me is ‘pleasant’ and ‘lucky’, and there’s a raw, stark beauty to this frozen winter wonderland, the likes of which I’ve never seen before. But none of this is enough to break my focus from the task at hand.

“Look… beyond… the apex,” I mutter to myself, sawing frantically at the wheel while the car strays further away from said apex. It’s the first rule of driving on ice – to look where you want to go, rather than where you are actually headed – and sure enough my instructor Jon Paul crackles in on the radio to chide me for just that. This is day one of three at the Porsche Ice Experience, and I’m taking it very seriously. After all, it’s not every day you get to drive one of your favourite sportscars in an environment like this.

The deep end: Porsche 911 Carrera GTS

Well, about that. Porsche’s mesmerising 911 presents a unique driving experience any day of the week, owing entirely to the fact its engine is bolted obstinately aft of its rear axle. Yet, after 60 years of honing and refinement, it stands tall among the finest handling cars on the planet. That, however, is on the road. When you take grip out of the equation, what you’re left with is essentially a pendulum – steering up front and a lot of weight in the tail. And, to make matters more interesting, they’ve started us off in a two-wheel-drive model.

480 horsepower goes only to the rear wheels of this Carrera GTS, and if that sounds like it’ll be a handful on a track made of glistening ice, it absolutely is. But we’re eased into it with a quick slalom to help get our bearings. Small bursts of oversteer, easily caught, give us a feel for that rear weight bias, and soon we’re let loose on a simple figure of eight, where piling on throttle is rewarded with a manageable slide. Gently, cautiously, I’m linking one slide to the next with light flicks of the wrist.

That wasn’t terrifying at all; sure, the traction control was only half off, but I’m feeling confident. But then we move to a handling circuit with more complex corners – double apices and tightening radii, and that’s when the muttering to oneself begins. As do the spinouts. You see, as the corners get tighter, it’s less about power and more about balance. You have to get the weight to transfer to the front (which in a RWD 911 is already feather light) by lifting off the throttle on corner entry, or even massaging the brake pedal. Then, once the rear goes light, the car starts to rotate gently, and here’s when you apply opposite lock to control it. Hold, hold, hold, and as you see the exit of the corner, throttle once again.

Fun? Yes. But nailing that perfect drift requires concentration

Excitement, frustration, acceptance, learning, success, improvement and confidence, in that order, over the course of one day and five tracks, and I’m more than pleased with myself.

Forget everything: Porsche 911 Turbo S

Day two, and having mastered the toughest car yesterday, I stroll into the parking garage like I’m Walter Röhrl. 911 Turbo S? 650hp? Yes, please, bring it on. That is considerably more power, as is 800Nm of torque, but as every ardent petrolhead knows, it’s got the safety net of AWD. So imagine my surprise to find myself, minutes later, pirouetting wildly out of control on what was supposed to be a perfect icy donut.

Power tool: 650hp 911 Turbo S uses its power to hold its line. Clever AWD helps too

“Remember to forget everything you learnt yesterday!” sensei Jon Paul chimes in, and he’s right. Because, yes, while the 2WD car was trickier to master, it was more straightforward. Front wheels for steering, rear for power. Meanwhile, a modern AWD system is controlled by an array of sensors that monitor not just traction levels, but pedal inputs and steering angle too. And based on that, it will shuffle power between the axles instantaneously. So, the more inputs you give, the more the power shuffles around. You see where I’m going.

Punishment for putting it in the snow bank? Clean out the radiators yourself

The mantra now is smoothness. A gradual influx of power, further regulated by staying in second gear using manual mode, a measured application of steering, no more than a quarter turn at a time, and a similarly controlled unwind. As confidence builds, we’re encouraged to trust in the clever AWD and really dish out the power once we’ve found the right line; it’s remarkable how it can pull you out of even the most obtuse (pun intended) of angles.

Forget everything (again): Porsche Taycan Turbo S

I’ve surely earned my amateur rallyist badge now. I must have. I’ve managed, after all, to commandeer the mighty 911 Turbo S on ice with reasonable finesse. My confidence comes crashing down as the garage shutters open to reveal 761hp and 1,050Nm, in the aerodynamic shape of a Porsche Taycan Turbo S. “Today, again, we forget everything from yesterday,” says Patrick, Jon Paul’s colleague, confirming what I’d feared.

2,300kg, instant torque and a long wheelbase make the Taycan a handful on ice

Now, granted, we’re using just 625 of those horses (no launch control here), but this is an EV, so they’re all released instantaneously. Moreover, this is a large sedan with a 2,900mm wheelbase, and worse still, a huge 93.4kWh battery pack that drives the total weight up to 2.3 tonnes! I hope the ice doesn’t crack underneath us.

The slow sighting lap of today’s handling track is enough to tell me this is unlike anything I’ve driven yet. The Taycan’s huge mass and volume feel immediately wieldy around every bend, with a much smaller window of traction that it breaks with little provocation. My first real exercise is one of frustration and self-disappointment – a simple, wide left hander that the Taycan simply understeers away from. Aggressive steering doesn’t work, neither does piling on power and the car reacts to your inputs several seconds later; this needs a different approach.

1.5mm spikes on tyres the right size for the perfect mix of grip and slip

Enter the Scandinavian Flick, a technique far easier to talk about than actually execute, and one which, thus far, we didn’t need on the slippery ice. The idea is to forcibly unsettle the vehicle by steering slightly away from the corner, and then sharply into it. This initiates both, rotation and weight transfer, and is the only way to get the leaden Taycan to have a little fun. That’s only half the job, however, as without the freedom of a rev band, the power is a lot harder to modulate.

After a whole day out, and one unfortunate slide into the snow bank, I did finally get the hang of it, which was very satisfying. But one thing’s for sure, in the niche case of ice driving, EVs are not the future.

The sweet spot: Porsche 911 GTS AWD

Yup, ICE rules the ice, and on our final day, it’s a welcome return to good old petrol power. It’s another 911 GTS, but this time with AWD. Not as powerful as the Turbo S, 600kg lighter than the Taycan and not as snappy as the 2WD version – could this be the perfect storm? It certainly seems so, as myself and the rest of my batch of seven almost immediately settle into a rhythm of near-balletic chain drifts, cheered on by an audibly proud Jon Paul and Patrick. The Carrera 4 GTS has completely won my heart and I’m convinced it’s the sweet spot in the 911 range. It’s got enough power, a wonderful lightness and balance, responsive steering and rear-biased AWD to get you out of a pinch. I hope they launch it in India.

911s regularly topped up by a mobile petrol tanker so we can keep sliding

Also soon apparent is that we’re going significantly faster today even than in the way-more-powerful Turbo S models, all the while carrying ridiculous slides through the corners. Yup, now our training is complete. All our learnings about controlled turn-in, weight transfer, opposite lock and measured throttle are all coming together, and driving on ice now feels like second nature. Different corners call for different techniques and we know how to tackle them all. Against this surreal background of snowed-over forests bathed in the orange glow of what feels like perpetual sunrise and sunset at this time of year, the overall sensation is indescribable.

And it turns out I’m not alone, as it’s a sentiment echoed by the 40-plus Porsche owners from India who have come here for the Ice Experience, with whom I’ve reconvened at the post-drive dinner. It’s the first time an India-only batch has been booked, and you can bet everyone who paid to be here did so because they enjoy driving. The experience extends far beyond the drive, of course, with gourmet meals, a snowmobile ride and even a lucky sighting of the Northern Lights.

An avalanche of Porsches

Is learning to drive high-performance cars on ice relevant? Strictly speaking, no, and especially not in the Indian context. But it does teach you some valuable things about car control that could potentially save you on a slippery road. Let’s face it, though; that’s not why people fly all the way to Levi to do it every winter. It’s because it’s a setting like no other, with the freshest of the Porsche fleet, and some of the best instructors on the planet. Most of all though, it makes you feel like a driving god.

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