I've wanted to do this since I moved from the south to the midwest five-ish years ago.
Last night, I registered for an Ice-cross event two weeks out. Now that it's real, and I'm going through steps to be prepared, I'm realizing I don't know everything I need to.
I have no experience actually driving an actual car on actual hecking ice. I mean, a little patch when parking where the snow has been melting next to a curb, but never have I put four tires on ice and tried to make the car go or stop or turn.
My class in the event is rubber tire FWD.
I'll be driving my Honda CR-Z. It's about twelve years old, has a bunch of city dents and dings, but is in great mechanical shape with about 65,000 miles on the clock.
I'm going to be running the 3-peak-mountain-snowflake-rated Vredestein Quatrac 5 all weather tires I've had for a while. I don't drive much, so the tread is still pretty good. Worst I've had (it's pretty urban here, and plowing is handled well) is crunchy hard-packed snow on pavement, where they were more than usable. I'm a little worried that the actual ice will make these suck below the point of usability, and at the same time, I can't see buying a set of tires for a type of driving I've never tried. My confidence is only buoyed by having seen a few other events have specific classing for each of all-season, winter, and studded.
I'm posting in part out of concern for unknown unknowns.
Known unknowns:
Tire pressure + TPMS + traction control. My car allows traction control disable, but only if the TPMS system is functioning and pressure is sufficient to not set the light. It's pretty sensitive, so I probably can't get below about 28 psi without triggering the light. I'm not sure how to set that up, and by golly, the googles are doing nothing.
I have a hitch, and it ties into the factory rear recovery hook. I'm thinking I want to get a 1¼" receiver shackle for the mandatory rear recovery point. Does that sound sane? I've never had the front screw-in recovery eyelet. Dress-up hooks seem to have drowned out functional units, so I've gone to the dealer and ordered the OEM part new. I actually already have a woven nylon recovery strap, so I should be good to go there.
You need to be able to drop pressure into the teens.
Pull the abs fuse?
In reply to kevlarcorolla :
I'm a little wary, but the forum suggests pulling the yaw sensor plug defeats the VSA/TC system. I may try this close to home tomorrow to validate.
Yep pull the ABS fuse if there's no other way to disable traction control at low pressures, lots of ice racers run without it and seem to just let the brakes lock up a lot for braking...also bring shoe cleats for walking around or you might find yourself slipping constantly. If you walk onto glare ice, it's like oiled teflon and you will probably fall super hard without cleats, ask me how I know...
Based on the ice driving school I went too (driving down a boat ramp is a novel experience), you may need to be tapping the brakes to get enough momentary weight transfer to start a turn.
Have fun, and you won't be going fast no matter what you do.
Jackie Stewart's advice that it is far harder to get rid of too much speed, than it is to add a bit of speed mid corner has never been more appropriate. Having said that, if you are turning nicely on ice in a fwd car, and you add too much throttle, you will stop turning very quickly.
Locking brakes is useless on glare ice.
Think of Max Verstappen in the rain. Look for unconventional lines. If there are no studded cars, the corners will be polished, so finding rougher ice off line may help. Studded cars may chew the corners, but will also throw loose snow off line. Adapt to what is available.
Slow in, fast out.
Weight is probably your friend in this case. When I did the Lime Rock Wintercross in my Miata, I put two or three bags of wood pellets (40 pound bags full of tiny pellets with low individual levels of potential energy) into the trunk. If I were in your boots, I'd drop two bags onto the passenger side floor.
There aren't a lot of places to buy lunch in the middle of a frozen lake. Bring food. Preferably something hot, or better still, a small source of fire like a Jet Boil or a rocket stove. A lot of lakeside restaurants are seasonal and closed during the winter. The first time that I went to an AMEC ice race, I had to buy a couple of cans of Chunky soup at a gas station, and heat them up on the turbo of my WRX.
Ice racing is more fun than just about anything else that you can do. It's one of the primary reasons why I'm moving further north when I retire.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
As a guy that's built a bunch of different dedicated ice race cars over the last 2+ decades with LOTS of experimenting I wouldn't add any weight to a fwd street car.
They are already too heavy for the grip level provided,my 90's tercel coupe was down into the 1500lb range and ran it with the awds once.
Damn Subaru's were all in the way and silly slow in comparison.
In reply to kevlarcorolla :
My thinking was that for a fwd car with such a short wheelbase and on non studded tires, 40-80 lbs. of weight way down low on the passenger's side floor would bring the center of mass back a bit and help the car rotate. I will admit that I neglected to take into account the fact that this is a hybrid that already carries its batteries down low.
In reply to Woody (Forum Supportum) :
When I 1st started I also assumed weight to be an advantage,afterall pickup trucks were better in the winter with added weight in the bed right?
I built sections of square tubing filled with concrete that was the width of the car and mounted under the floor starting at the firewall.
Didn't do that well,wouldn't slow/turn or accelerate off the corners worth a damn.
Started removing a segment(there was 3) before following races and the car got better each time and moved up the finishing order.
After that max effort in lightening and adding minimal ballast way up front at the bumper to just help with the standing starts was the proven way to win races wether it was fwd or awd(hundreds of race wins between the 2).
I tried to be competitive in rwd with an AE86 and I made it up to the quickest of the front engined cars but couldn't hang with the Mr2's.
I wouldn't overthink it. I did a bunch of ice racing and winter driving schools when I lived in Canada. Good snow tires inflated to a reasonable pressure was all I bothered with in terms of hardware. Left-foot braking was a useful skill. See if you can practice a bit of that before the event.
If the E Brake is between the seats, release the little button at the top so it's a momentary brake that can be handled with gloves on, or duct tape it "pushed in". Ala Drift cars.
It's cold, you'll have the heat on, get in the snow drift blowing off the pack in front of and you're blind. Run a copper tube from the windshield washer tank to the hood, but have it loop around the top of the engine once, warm squirters!
The stock class may not allow it, but I've seen people swap the rear tires for something bologna-ish, no traction. You're just a small trailer pulled around by the engine up front.
Don't over think it, Have FUN!!
Edit: AMEC and NYSIRA in my area require a fog light facing aft and down so you can be seen by drivers behind you, I didn't see it in your rules, even the crazy class. I would ask someone before heading out. Even if it's a suction cup light plugged into a cigarette lighter. =~ )
I'm sure the organizers are verifying this but make sure the ice is thick enough...there have still been vehicles in recent days going through the ice around here.
I appreciate the advice, everyone.
A few things that came up:
Here's the CR-Z layout. It kinda has a bag of sand in the trunk from the factory with the battery positioning.
The event I'm in is run like autocross, so it should be one car at a time, or at least, spaced out enough that cars are never close during the run. I think that's why they don't have as many equipment rules.
I will give left foot braking a shot around here this week. I'm honestly worried about managing the chunky snow boots more than moderating pedal pressure. I'll see.
I'm still intimidated, but all this definitely helps.
Definitely bring boots and driving shoes... Do NOT try to drive fast in mukluks, haha.
Most of my ice racing has been of the studded dirtbike type, but the cars we see around here typically are very minimally set up, with the goal to just have good, honest, slip-slidey fun and not necessarily chasing tenths. It is very much the antithesis vibe to competitive tarmac autocross.
Oh yeah my AE86 ice car lol.
Slow in fast out!
I haven't done a dedicated ice event but I have done winter rallycross and the one year it was ice under snow which quickly cleared away. All of us "experienced" drivers were trying to do scandanavian flicks or using weight transfer to get the car through some of the tighter sections and no matter what just kept losing time to some new drivers who were just taking it easy. By my last run I finally figured out the fast way through the worst section was to just push in the clutch, coast through those corners, get the car pointed in the right direction and then get back on the gas (awd Subaru).
You'll be at a tire disadvantage but who cares as long as you are having fun. Make sure you figure out how to turn off all the nannies ahead of the event.
Not something I could do here in FL, but fun to read about.
My grandfather was ice racing stripped model Ts a century ago. Seat on a bare frame, ancestor to today's carts.
Probably looked something like this.
I used to ice race (really ice autocross) a bunch with the Boston Chapter BMW CCA until the lake we used in NH stopped freezing sold (that, and the guy who plowed our courses passed away - RIP Stan "Iceman" Jackson).
For first timers, I wouldn't do anything to the car until you get a handle on what it feels like. There are so many variables in one of these events - conditions can change from run to run depending on temperature, sunshine, the number of studded cars out there chewing up the course, etc. - that it's hard to give blanket advice. Take it easy and have fun on your first couple of runs.
On days where we had big soft snow banks, we used to charge a tow fee (for charity) to pull people out when they got stuck...
