Hot cars on ice!
Drivers flex winter driving muscles in redesigned 2012 Porsche 911
(Courtesy of Andrew Taylor)
“Driving on ice requires very little input from the steering wheel and a lot of input from the accelerator pedal“
Drifting sideways in the all-new Porsche 911 Carrera S is a great feeling.
It’s Porsche Camp4. 30 Pfaff Porsche enthusiasts about to learn all about oversteer and understeer on ice–in brand new Porsches.
(Courtesy of Andrew Taylor)
For the uninitiated, Kai, the German Porsche Factory driver, explains the differences between oversteer and understeer.
“Ven you understeer, you zee vot you hit. Ven you oversteer, you hear vot you hit.”
Kai,the German Porsche Factory driver explains that a car handles on ice just as it does on tarmac.
The difference is that you reach the limits of adhesion on tarmac at speeds in excess of 150 km/hr. On ice you reach those same limits at 30 km/hr.
(Courtesy of Andrew Taylor)
Professional driving instructors coach you the entire day. Drive around racecourses carved from ice, swinging cars through slaloms, learning how to drift in large circles on a skid pan.
(Courtesy of Andrew Taylor)
Driving on ice requires very little input from the steering wheel and a lot of input from the accelerator pedal. When you get it right, you are effectively swinging the car sideways from corner to corner, like the pendulum on an old grandfather clock, in a constant state of oversteer.
The drivers spin out of control more times than one would care to admit, as the instructors stand at the corner exits laughing and doing pirouettes like clumsy ballerinas as drivers slide around the course.
What a blissful day for everyone left smiling. A great way to make fast friends who share a unique understanding of how Porsche cars behaved when driven to the limit.
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