Supercars of London Host Does Mercedes’ Ice Drift Challenge in Sweden
AMG chose a location near the Arctic Circle for its ice drift training courses and it’s a blast!
Finding a frozen lake in the arctic region of Sweden is fairly easy, and naturally, that’s where Mercedes- AMG prefer to host winter and ice driving events. Supercars of London’s Paul Wallace tried his hand at a two-mile consecutive ice drift challenge in the above video from the Mercedes-Benz official YouTube page. His driving coach, Wolfgang Muller of AMG, made sure he was properly trained.
Wallace and Muller set off in the C43 AMG first, getting used to its all-wheel-drive, and special studded tires. “This is important that you get the feeling of how much throttle you need,” said Muller, giving him initial pointers. Wallace, within the first few minutes of sliding around on the ice, notes the key to car balance, saying, “I got in here thinking it was going to be all steering, but it isn’t!”
All the Right Angles
He discovered that you must find the right steering angle, and then use the throttle to adjust the car. Once he got the hang of it, he started to put in some serious effort, and his driving coach could tell. “I know you’re concentrating because you’ve stopped speaking,” said Muller.”Now we start getting serious. We change from the C43 AMG to the C300 coupe.”
The less powerful C300 requires higher talent levels, because it also has two fewer drive wheels. However, the technique is the same for car balance, and Wallace warmed up to the C300 quickly. “I really understand how to find that sweet spot in the steering,” said Wallace.
Practice and Final
After extensive practice, and some extra night-time sliding around, Wallace pulls up to the circular part of the track, which is exactly 0.2 miles around. “We want to do two miles, which would be 10 consecutive laps,” said Wallace, feeling pensive. It took him one attempt to establish a good rhythm, but he gloriously accomplished his mission on the second.
Beside himself with excitement, he was all smiles. “I really cannot believe I just did a two-mile long consecutive drift on ice,” said Wallace.
We think his enthusiasm for AMG is now as solid as ice.
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