When blizzards strike around the metropolitan world, there are plenty of drivers who panic and tighten their grips on various steering wheels. To them, snow and ice mean slippery turns and certain collisions.
That’s not the case on a distant Swedish lake just a tick below the Arctic Circle. Their professional racers and their crews gather to educate driving enthusiasts on the finer points of winter driving at speed through the Jaguar Land Rover Ice Academy.
Student drivers take control of the Jaguar F-Type and Jaguar F-Pace – both former winners of Car of the Year Awards at the New York International Auto Show. From slaloms courses to skid paths to full-length racing tracks, attendees spend three days improving their abilities to rotate and slide cars skillfully on slippery conditions that would send most drivers spinning off into disaster.
The instructors are top-notch. Each an active, professional racer in his own right, the teachers remain positive, encouraging and instructive even with the most challenging students.
The Academy outside the small town of Arjeplog opens as soon as the lake ice freezes thick enough and stays open until the stubborn Swedish spring brings all the fun to an end.