Learn How to Get Sideways in the Snow, Safely

Frozen roads can be dangerous. The learning process for driving safely on snow and ice requires time, practice, and experimentation. Figure it out, and wintertime driving becomes much safer—and, actually, a ton of fun. Think of it as drifting minus the tire smoke.

When the road surface is frozen solid or covered with snow, you don’t need high horsepower to get sideways. And an empty parking lot can be an impromptu classroom (if the local authorities don’t mind). However, the following fun-loving and fully sanctioned venues embrace slipping and sliding on closed courses for educational purposes and racing.

Winter Driving Schools

Most driving schools don’t include loose surface car control in the curriculum. As a result, drivers new to wintery, slippery stuff rely on friends, family, and YouTube videos to learn how to safely get from A to B.

If you’re looking for professional loose surface driving instruction in the Northeast, the Team O’Neil Rally School in Dalton, N.H., is like a shivery Disneyland. O’Neil’s winter driving classes are the place for mastering the fine art of handbrake turns, left-foot braking, and the Scandinavian Flick in the snow.

If you know of other winter driving schools, please let us know in the comments below.

Four Wheels on a Frozen Lake

Studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta 10 snow tires

While snowy parking lots can be fun, they pale in comparison to a frozen-solid wide-open lake. For over six decades, the Adirondack Motor Enthusiast Club (AMEC) has raced on the frozen lakes of northeastern New York.

Nine grassroots competition divisions span from no-contact street-legal classes to radical tube-chassis ice racing monsters. The affordable entry-level classes start with stone stock two-wheel- or all-wheel-drive vehicles running a good set of snow tires. Bridgestone Blizzaks are a safe bet.

For the next step up, bolt on studded Nokian Hakkapeliitta tires. As speeds increase, class requirements rise: roll cages, safety harnesses, and fire suppression systems. The Super Modified Open cars run gnarly race studs and humongous wings like a dirt track sprint car.

Stage Rally in the Snow? Oh Yeah!

The American Rally Association’s (ARA) legendary Sno*Drift stage rally kicks off every winter with a two-day event in Montmorency County, Mich., between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. The event was first run in 1973 and, since 1997, has run every year like clockwork.

The ARA offers a range of divisions for two- and all-wheel-drive street-legal cars prepared for stage rally.

Read this: Racing Styles – Pro Street vs Pro Touring vs Stage Rally

Every vehicle has to pass an extensive tech inspection. While some winter stage rally events allow studded tires, they are forbidden on Sno*Drift’s closed forest roads. Rally fans are hardy souls, and Sno*Drift is a frosty treat.

Nitro Rallycross Amps Up Racing on Snow

Rallycross has a long tradition of winter door-to-door racing in Europe, but it was unavailable in North America until Travis Pastrana’s Nitro Rallycross series rewrote the script. The 2022-23 season includes events in Trois-Rivières, Quebec and Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Shaved Yokohama Advan A006 with race studs.

Nitro’s purpose-built FC1-X Group E electric rallycross cars are insanely fast purpose-built monsters. The FC1-X’s four-motor system cranks out 1,055 horsepower and 811 pound-feet of torque. Yowza. The four-wheel-drive system hooks up to deliver 1.4 second zero-to-60 times. Yet, amazingly, Nitro’s winter prep is minimal.

Yokohama is the exclusive tire supplier for the series. The FC1-X’s Advan A006 racing tires are specially prepared for ice races. The prep work starts with the technicians shaving off the A006’s tread. Then, at its facility in Sweden, Biltek installs 250 12mm bolt-through studs in each tire.

The finished tires are remarkably grippy in the slippery stuff. With the studs, the A006s deliver as much traction on ice as a racing tire on dry pavement. In addition, the FC1-Xs have heated windscreens for the cold climate races and are kept in a toasty 60-degree-Fahrenheit service area between races.