A Day On Ice: Subaru Winter Experience

When I heard that Patrik Sandell of Subaru Rally Team USA was bringing his Flatout Sweden ice driving school to a frozen lake near me, I was already looking at my calendar to see when I could make it.  All that stood between me and spinning studded tires on ice was a 10-hour drive from my home in Nebraska to Eagle River, Wisconsin.  Game on!

The Subaru Winter Experience featured a day-long driving school held on Dollar Lake in Wisconsin.  Carved into the iced-over lake, 5 different courses were set to teach drivers in BRZs, WRXs, and WRX STIs how to handle these machines in frozen conditions.  Instructors from DirtFish Rally School in Snoqualmie, WA were also on hand to run the event alongside Patrik and his team from Sweden.

I took Friday to travel up to Chanticleer Inn, where the event was being hosted from.  Night was falling as I reached the snowy town in my STI, so I pulled up to the lodge to get an idea on where to go the next day.  It was easy to see where the Subaru Winter Experience would be based out of.  BRZs, WRXs, and WRX STIs clad in Method Race Wheels and studded ice tires lined the entrance to the lodge.  Inside I found drivers who had just completed their day on the lake.  They had nothing but praise for the course they had just completed and were excited to share their stories of Subarus out on the ice.  Talking with them got me even more excited for my chance the next day, so sleeping was a little difficult that night!

That morning I spent a good hour driving through snow-covered back roads around the area.  The scenery was postcard-worthy and my STI was loving the conditions with my snow tires.  After my morning joyride, I met up with the drivers and instructors at the lodge.  Once we were done with breakfast, they gave us a brief explanation of what to expect and sent us out to a fleet of Subarus to drive to the lake and start the course.  I jumped in a WRX STI with another student and followed the caravan through the narrow road to the lake.  Upon arriving, we jumped right in to some driving courses.  The WRXs and WRX STIs we were in started things off with accelerating and braking to feel out how the cars handled in the slick conditions.  I was surprised at how much grip these cars still had until I learned that 400 studs on each tire were likely responsible for keeping us glued to the surface.

Each run we made was followed by feedback from the DirtFish instructors who were keeping a watchful eye on us with each pass.  Radios in each car made instructions for our class easy to follow every time, so the course ran smoothly and efficiently the whole day.  I was impressed with their attention and observations made, even without being in the cars with us.  Everything from driving position to the movement of our hands on the wheel, they were able to pick up on all the details so we could make adjustments quick and make progress with every run.  It was great to have such insightful advice throughout the day as we moved from course to course.

As the day progressed, we changed from All-Wheel Drive courses for the WRX and WRX STI to rear-wheel drive courses for the BRZ.  Slalom courses and technical turns helped us dial in our tail-happy BRZs and open flowing courses let us put the AWD to the test with the WRXs.  There was plenty of time driving all of the vehicles, letting us make more adjustments each time and start mastering the basic skills we had started off the day with.  During the runs, we were also invited to explore the different traction control settings in the car not only from a safety aspect, but also to let us learn the limits of our cars without being towed out of a snow bank if we got a little too confident!

All the while, as we got to know our Subarus more, we also go to know each other more.  The camaraderie between the students and instructors made it feel less like a class and more like a good time out with friends.  Sharing the wheel with our fellow classmates, cheering each other on, and laughing at our mistakes kept the atmosphere light and fun.  Regardless of our driving backgrounds, our class collectively improved with each pass and it was rewarding not only to see that first-hand, but to feel your own skills getting dialed in with each run.

The last course had a bit of everything.  As such, we were invited to drive all three cars through as often as we liked.  Certain areas of this 2-mile long course favored the BRZ while other sections let the WRX and WRX STI shine, so we could appreciate both types of drive systems that we had been learning through the day.  My co-driver and I had been working our way toward turning the traction control nannies completely off to complete this monster of a course, so it was rewarding to make it through on skill alone.  Little did we know that we were about to go from feeling like Driving Gods to bed-wetting babies with the instructors parting gift.

Patrik Sandell rounded up the students and instructors one last time on the lake.  It was time for them to show us how it was really done!  One by one, each student got the ride of their life in a WRX STI and a BRZ with one of the instructors.  I managed to jump in with Patrik in a WRX STI and was absolutely floored at how effortlessly he drove through the course.  At a spot where I had managed to hit 52 mph, Patrik passed the same point doing 64... and he was sideways through most of it!  If that wasn't enough, Michelle Miller from DirtFish took me through the course in a BRZ and made poetry out of the course, transitioning each corner flawlessly.  It was a humbling experience in both cars!

I can't think of another time when I had so much fun and learned so much.  It was so easy to understand and feel the cars on ice, so I'm hoping the skills I honed on Dollar Lake will make their way into my rallycross driving at home.  More than that, it was such a great time enjoying a day of driving with my fellow classmates and our instructors.  The Subaru Winter Experience really lived up to it's name.  It's an experience I'll never forget.