RS ROAD TEST

When it comes to a once-in-a-lifetime adventure, driving a 203mph McLaren GT across a frozen lake in Lapland takes some beating…

- NIGEL RUSSELL

If there’s one place on earth where a supercar would be an unexpected sight, it’s Ivalo in Finland, 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle and just 30 miles from the Russian border — much closer than feels comfortable right now. Here, amid fresh snow piled high, magnificent pine trees and seemingly endless horizons is Jávri Lodge, my accommodation for the next few days and once home to Finland’s longest- serving president. 

I have come to enjoy McLaren’s Arctic Experience, one of several amazing trips McLaren offer as part of their Pure McLaren programme, where drivers learn to drift the £165,000, 203mph McLaren GT around a number of circuits carved onto one of Finland’s famous frozen lakes, safe in the knowledge that there is very little to hit if it all goes wrong.

With a set of studded ice tyres, a perfectly balanced chassis, a low centre of gravity and awesome performance, the 612bhp midengined supercar is surprisingly right at home tearing across a frozen lake in the Arctic.