ICE BRAKERS

Alistair Charlton reveals how drifting on a frozen lake at the Jaguar Ice Academy might just be the best driving experience money can buy

- 

More power! Go for it!” The friendly words of encouragement crackle through a walkie-talkie and fill the otherwise silent cabin of a Jaguar F-Type SVR wearing studded tyres. I accelerate hard, firing rooster tails of snow powder at my classmates patiently waiting behind for their turn.

Remembering whatever I can from the instructor’s high-speed demonstration a few minutes earlier, I turn left, right, then left again to provoke the car into a slide. Opposite lock applied, it’s time to accelerate as hard as I dare around a massive circular track carved into the icy surface of a frozen lake. The track is a whole kilometre in circumference and my goal is to match the 130 km/h I saw during the pro driver’s demonstration.

Speed rising and V8 engine howling, the car suddenly snaps further sideways than I’d anticipated. Eyes on stalks, breath held and mouth dry as my brain diverts resources away from basic function and toward what the primal bit between my ears thinks could be a life-saving steering input, I apply a whole turn of corrective lock and hope for the best. It was only a second but it felt like time had slowed just enough for me to draw on everything I had learned in the hours prior to rescue the situation.

Rewind to the previous night and I've just arrived in Arjeplog, a locality of about 2,000 people in Swedish Lapland, 60 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The town feels as remote as it looks - especially in February, when the days are short and temperatures can be as low as -12 degrees. The roads are deserted and fresh snow covers the empty pavements.