Danoff
Premium
- 34,058
- Mile High City
I've been doing ice autocross on a frozen lake for the last 3 years in a row, and I went snow driving on a snow track last year. I've done RWD manual, RWD auto, AWD auto, and FWD (snow only) so far. The way it works is that some kind folks go out on the lake and drill cones down into the ice. Then a bunch of guys in their cars try to set fastest lap times. There is also an area of the lake set aside with one cone for doing donuts around.
Not only is it fun, it's a great way to learn how to control a sliding car in a very slowed-down environment.
Snow tracks are quite a bit faster environment, and have the potential to be much closer to real-life, but it's hard to find a good snow track. When you do, there's a hefty fee to use it generally. I also wasn't allowed to use my own car on the snow track, which was a bummer.
At the lake, last year was the 330i, this year was time for the FX-35 AWD. Infiniti makes it tough to disable traction control completely (which is the only way you'll go anywhere on the ice). I had to remove the shifter, open the center console, and unplug the vehicle yaw sensor to get things mostly turned off. Even then I could still hear the anti-lock brakes and weird times during acceleration, but only occasionally.
The FX on the ice was a very different animal than the 330i, requiring a completely different throttle input to maintain drifts.
If you're ever in Colorado, or somewhere with a frozen lake, I highly recommend trying this.
Not only is it fun, it's a great way to learn how to control a sliding car in a very slowed-down environment.
Snow tracks are quite a bit faster environment, and have the potential to be much closer to real-life, but it's hard to find a good snow track. When you do, there's a hefty fee to use it generally. I also wasn't allowed to use my own car on the snow track, which was a bummer.
At the lake, last year was the 330i, this year was time for the FX-35 AWD. Infiniti makes it tough to disable traction control completely (which is the only way you'll go anywhere on the ice). I had to remove the shifter, open the center console, and unplug the vehicle yaw sensor to get things mostly turned off. Even then I could still hear the anti-lock brakes and weird times during acceleration, but only occasionally.
The FX on the ice was a very different animal than the 330i, requiring a completely different throttle input to maintain drifts.
If you're ever in Colorado, or somewhere with a frozen lake, I highly recommend trying this.
