Telegraph journalist Chris Knapman heads to Sweden where he learns how to drift a Corvette supercar in the snow.
In 2004, Michael Schumacher took his Ferrari Formula One car around the famous tarmac of Silverstone in a record time of 1min 18.739sec. Fast forward eight years, substitute Schumacher for me, the F1 car for a 500bhp Corvette and the tarmac for a frozen lake, and what time passes as acceptable?
Four minutes and 15sec apparently. Or at least, that's according to Mattieu Perot, who has been given the unenviable task of tutoring me in the ways of driving a high performance car around Silverstone on ice.
Perot is an instructor with Laponie Ice Driving in Arjeplog, Sweden, a place that brings a whole new meaning to the term “snowdrift”. Our playground is a vast frozen lake located about 50 miles from the Arctic Circle, which every winter is converted into a series of high octane tracks by Perot’s boss, Eric Gallardo.
Gallardo uses these tracks, which for 2012 include a full-size replica of the home of British motorsport, to teach customers the finer points of on-limit car control in a completely safe environment.
When Gallardo set up shop in 2005, he used BMW 320s to train eight drivers the finer points of on-limit car control. But as time has gone on, so the popularity of the school and the company’s ambitions have grown; by 2012 the prosaic BMWs have long since been ditched in favour of a fleet of 23 high-end sports cars including Porsches, Mitsubishi Evos and Corvettes, and the number of clients has grown to about 400.
In the meantime, the circuits carved into Laponie’s 750-acre section of the vast frozen lake have increased year-on-year so that there are now nine, ranging from circular skid pans of varying sizes to two full-size replicas of Paul Ricard and of course Silverstone.
To cope with the demands of oversteering on ice, each vehicle is fitted with a tougher front bumper and what is effectively a big ski bolted to the front of the car so that it won't be damaged should you run into a snowbank (with temperatures frequently falling below -20C on the lake, a normal plastic bumper would shatter on impact). In addition, all of the car’s fluids, including the oil, are replaced with alternatives capable of withstanding the low temperatures, and the standard tyres make way for studded versions made in Lapland.
Fancy tyres or not, we begin with a few spins on the smallest of Laponie’s handing circles as I become accustomed to the way the 600 studs in the ‘Vettes rear boots claw at the icy surface below. But then, as if by magic, I get it, and am able to judge steering and throttle to balance the car in a constant 40mph drift as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
“OK, now let’s try something more difficult,” says Perot, pointing me in the direction of Laponie’s biggest loop. At 600 metres in diameter, this test requires far higher levels of concentration, not to mention a lot more speed. But the principles are the same, and with Perot’s Clarkson-esque bark of “more power! Power, power, POWER!” it’s not long before I’m up to speed and able to hold a constant fourth gear drift around the circuit for laps on end, settling at a steady 75mph real speed, with the wheels spinning faster still. It’s a surreal experience, and hugely satisfying.
Which brings us to Silverstone, Lapland style. Laponie has carved into the lake both the pre-2010 Grand Prix circuit and the new, shorter formation, but it’s the former I know best so that’s what I opt to complete. That 4min 15sec target time doesn’t sound too daunting – the first corner is open enough to carry some speed and linking the Maggotts and Becketts complex together isn’t so different from drifting around the small circle earlier in the day.
But when I reach the Hangar Straight I realise that the one thing I haven’t done all day is drive in a straight line. And never has driving in a straight line been quite so terrifying, as the Z06 scrabbles and scratches for grip on the icy surface, wheelspinning deep into fourth gear and requiring constant manipulation of steering and throttle to maintain a straight line. It is, quite frankly, terrifying, not least because dropping off the narrow icy central section will result in being pulled into the snow.
My first run down the long straight yields 103mph before I’m back in my newfound comfort zone of a long drift around Stowe. Then it’s hard on the power again, the Corvette snaking wildly as I negotiate Vale and Club before the ultra-fast left-hander at Abbey.
The slowest corner on the circuit, Brooklands, is devilishly tricky as the weight of the big V8 motor causes the car to understeer at anything much above walking pace, despite the studded tyres. “The best way to turn here is to keep the steering wheel straight,” says Perot. What sounds confusing in theory is even more difficult in practice as my every instinct says to turn into the corner before applying the power, but doing so results in too much oversteer and a slow exit.
As I finish lap one the clock shows a disappointing 4min 25sec. I need to be more committed, especially down the Hanger Straight.
So it is that on lap two I fix my eyes on the horizon and press the throttle as hard as I dare, instinctively easing off and reapplying power as the rear wheels fight for grip. The result is a peak of 124mph, which just feels astonishing on this surface. It’s a good lap until I reach Brooklands, at which point I slide hopelessly wide once again. The result: 4min 20sec.
By lap three my concentration is fading. Precise drifting requires you to look where you want to end up, rather than where you are, but when everything - the track, the snowbanks and even the sky - is white, focusing into the distance is much harder than it sounds. Somehow my fatigued mind holds it all together, and I finally nail Brooklands, braking, turning in, straightening the wheel and blipping the throttle resulting in a neat – and crucially fast – exit from the corner.
As we cross the line I know I won’t go any faster today. It’s this lap or nothing. “Four minutes, 14,” says Perot. I whoop and holler as is if I have just won the British grand prix, the sense of achievement immense.
Technically challenging and, at times, just plain scary, extracting a supercar’s performance on ice is a driving experience like no other. It might also just be the most fun you can have on four wheels.
In a season that will most likely only last until the end of March, that’s a huge blow for what is regarded by its customers as the ultimate driving experience. But even when mother nature’s not playing ball, there are a few tricks that can help prepare the lake for the driving season. For example, any fresh snow that falls on the lake serves only to insulate it. Remove the snow and it will help the ice to freeze. In addition, drilling holes in the ice to let water reach the surface will help more ice to form, this year to about 40cm in thickness, under which the lake itself is another six metres deep.
It goes without saying that preparing all of this, let alone running the cars and employing top level instructors, is not the work of a moment, and thus the chance to drive at Laponie isn’t what you’d call cheap. Prices, including accommodation, food and flights from London start in the region of £1,200 for a three-day course. Just don’t forget to pack your long johns.