Ice Lake Driving in Finland?

[BH1]

Hello guys,

after tackling the Transfagarasan last year I am very interested in trying ice lake driving with my own car this season somewhere in Finland.

I hear that this should be possible during late February and March in Finland.

I was wondering if there are suitable lakes for this in south of Finland or are they only in the north?

Can you recommend me any lakes, preferably in the south where I could try this?

Maybe you can even recommend me some Finish ice lake racing forums?

Is there a need to pay anything to be able to drive on the lake? I don't need a driving instruction course or anything like it and would also use my own car.

Are there any elemental modifications necessary to my car to do skidding on a frozen lake? I don't plan to do any grip driving but I should be able to achieve enough forward momentum to keep going sideways.

Can I use normal winter tyres or do I need these Nokian studded ones?

I am very thankful for any help regarding this matter.

[Puppetmaster]

Hi!

I would say a normal set-up works just fine for an ice track for less than serious racing purposes.

Tyres... If by norman winer tyres you mean studless ones generally sold in Germany and other central european countries, you'll be in for a slippery ride. Those are not optimized for slippery ice. Nordic studelss tyre are a bit different. They are of lower speed rating (usually R or Q), and designed more with icy and snowy roads in mind than wet highways. Still, on an ice track studded tyres are recommended. Not neccessarily Nokian, even though they are among the best out there. Proper spiked racing tyres would of course the best, but are not legal for road use.

I'm not saying you need different tyres, but with central european type winter tyres you'll be sideways a lot and actually moving forward pretty slowly. This means also that sliding around corners fluently is not that easy...


To drive on a lake you pretty much need a track, because there could be quite a lot of snow on the ice. Not neccessarily though. And you are only allowed to drive on ice if you are not disturbing anyone unneccessarily. Also general 80 km/h speed limit applies on ice when not on a closed track. I have to say I don't know where to find ice tracks to drive on these days. Hopefully someone who knows, will reply... There used to be more ice tracks back in the day, but now environmental permits are required, and the number on tracks has dropped.

[Puppetmaster]

I found a track located in Kouvola, Southern Finland: http://www.tervarumpu.fi/genuineoutdoorl...pi/jaarata


I guess there's many tracks you can go driving on, I just don't know them...

[Insane]

No more ice lake driving in Finland!

[Tero-75]

The winter is over but if you are still in Finland next winter keep an eye on the page http://www.radalle.com. They had several ice track events this spring around southern Finland open for every one starting from January.