Photography courtesy Toyota
First gear, second gear, then off the gas to get the weight onto the front wheels.
Hard to the right to load up the left-side tires before a quick, tight turn to the left.
Now to let the car slide.
As the GR Corolla’s nose swings back toward where it came from, downshift to first and back to full throttle, all four tires emitting rooster tails of white snow as the hot hatch rockets back up the hill.
Snow?
Yes, welcome to the Bridgestone Winter Driving School, held just a short drive from Steamboat Springs, Colorado. It operates from mid-December until early March on miles of its own tracks carved from frozen, hilly fields.
“Why snow?” you might ask. “I live in [insert warm climate here].”
Here’s a good reason why: Physics are physics.
Physics don’t care if the road surface is grippy or slippery. Weight is still going to transfer. Here, though, things just happen at slower vehicle speeds–and with that comes a lower chance of major damage to the car, its occupants or some combination thereof.
Another reason: Whether autocrossing, lapping a track or even driving on the streets, conditions constantly change. In the snow and ice, though, those changes can occur drastically and quickly. Blame the sun, blame the ground temps, blame the other cars in the group compressing relatively grippy snow into slick ice. Whatever the cause, it forces quick decisions: Where’s the traction, and how can you best navigate the places it’s lacking?
One more reason: It’s simply fun. It’s a chance to live out those Sébastien Loeb fantasies–even if lacking the factory ride.
The Bridgestone Winter Driving School has operated for more than 40 years, and as the name suggests, it’s committed to Bridgestone’s famed line of Blizzak winter tires. No studs necessary here.
The school’s other big partner: Toyota. The bulk of the classes use Camrys, Highlanders and 4Runners, while the new program, officially named the Fastest Ride on Ice featuring Toyota Gazoo Racing, breaks out the brand’s performance cars: GR86, GR Supra and GRCorolla. That’s the school we attended, and the staff handles instruction plus full car prep. The school’s introductory classes start around $350, although add a zero for the Toyota Gazoo Racing program. A full menu offers other options.
Our learning started with the basics–the all-important classroom session–before those first tepid laps in Camrys. Yes, it’s slippery out there, and yes, 28mph never felt so frightful. Relax. Breathe. Look ahead.
A simple lane-change exercise reinforced the basics: Look ahead–way ahead–while always keeping an eye on the exit. Stare at the cones and you’ll likely hit them. Lock onto the exit, though, and your hands magically guide the car to safety.
The other challenge we faced: When setting up for that lane change, what should we do when one side of the car enjoys more traction than the other? Reread that line about looking ahead and focusing on what you’d rather not hit. Other seemingly simple exercises–like driving around a frozen skidpad–reinforced the effects of weight transfer on grip.
With confidence, though, came speed. And with speed came faster machinery, as we soon moved to the GR86 and GR Supra. While similar in mission–both are rear-drive coupes–the longer wheelbase made the GR86 easier to manage. That just made the higher-output Supra more challenging: easier on the gas, easier on the steering inputs, easier on the brakes. As before, look ahead–no, farther ahead.
The second day of this two-day program placed students inside a GR Corolla: 300 horsepower, nearly 300 lb.-ft. of torque and all-wheel drive. The school offers both automatics and manual transmissions.
By the end of the second day, we were lapping the course well into third gear and had worked on left-foot braking, Scandinavian flicks, forward 180-degree turns and those all-important reverse 180s–those of a certain age know that last maneuver as a Rockford. The basics remained consistent, though: Transfer weight to increase or decrease traction.
A Scandinavian flick looks magical from outside the car. When you’re behind the wheel, though, you encounter the physics involved: Initially steering toward the outside of the turn loads up the outside tires so that transferring spring energy can then aid traction through the actual corner.
After seat time in the GR86 and GR Supra, we spent a full day sliding around in a GR Corolla. Despite the differences, all three cars rewarded smooth inputs plus looking ahead.
One last exercise to tie it all together: a timed one-lap competition that started with a reverse 180 and employed all the lessons learned during those two days. How’d GRM do? Well, we collected top hardware that evening.
So, why are we discussing winter driving when summer is just around the corner? The winter season only lasts so long, and there are only so many hours in a day. Classes book up, we’re told.
This looked like a ton of fun. Brings back memories of when I lived in Rochester, New York.
I think I'll add this one to the bucket list, if for no other reason than to drive on some snow for a few days.
(A novelty for someone like me who's spent most of their life in Florida.)
J.A. Ackley said:This looked like a ton of fun. Brings back memories of when I lived in Rochester, New York.
As someone who currently lives in Rochester, this pretty much sums up how I drive in the winter. Lately my car control challenge to myself has been to get good at pushing the E38 into a subtle, power-on 4 wheel drift such that DSC doesn't intervene because there's no significant under or oversteer and not enough wheelspin for it to consider it a problem.
In addition to being educational, totally fun, too.
The ABS/stability control can be disabled on some of the cars, too. Also very useful as a teaching tool.
The biggest lesson/reminder for me: Look at where you want to go!
I spent the two days paired with Brad from Jalopnik. We talked nonstop.
I got us totally sideways during the lane-change exercise–like, we might have been going backwards at one point.
Yet we never stopped talking.
“Hold on,” I said, while eyeing the exit of the maneuver, “I got this.”
Didn’t hit a cone and made it through. :)
I grew up (to the extent that I grew up) in Upstate NY. I'm sure that I learned most of my car control skills hooning around in the snow. Sure stuff happens faster on the racetrack but the concepts involved in controling the car when it's not pointing in either the direction it's currently traveling or where you want to go are the same regardless of the speed and the surface.
On a slightly related note. I had an HPDE student with a GR Corolla last weekend. What a fun car!
In reply to APEowner :
Very fun car and even felt great at altitude.
Supras needed a light touch in the snow. The GR86 felt at home there.
That sounds like fun and a great opportunity to learn.
I learned so much about driving, handling, general vehicle dynamics, weight transfer, and my limitations, by learning to drive in the snow with 1960's-70's front engine/rear drive cars that produced gobs of torque compared to horsepower, running on bias ply tires, drum brakes (and later, wildly unbalanced front disc/rear drum combos), open differentials, and the generally rudimentary suspensions of the day. Just driving from the farm into town on unplowed roads could be an adventure.
In reply to Coniglio Rampante :
You know, sometimes I feel like I take for granted just how easy-to-drive modern cars have become.
I used to live in eastern Canada and instruct at the winter driving schools hosted by the Audi Club of North America (ACNA) and the Motorsports Club of Ottawa (MCO) up there. We often used the Team O'Neil facility in Franconia NH. Also did some ice racing events with the BMW CCA: like auto-x on frozen lakes.
That experience has definitely made me faster on track. You get used to the car sliding around and doing unpredictable stuff on the limit. Makes driving at the limit in the rain and (eventually) in the dry a lot more comfortable.
To this day, I still tend to dominate wet races even though I'm mid-pack at best (often a back marker) in the dry.
I remember a race at Pittsburgh years ago where it was a total washout. You literally couldn't see where the track ended and the grass began: just a big old lake of water. When the race started it was overcast but dry. We were all on slicks ... and halfway through the race it turned into a Noah's Ark situation.
I was at the back of the pack (maybe 27th out of 28 cars) in my old Mercedes 190E. Ended up vying for first overall after passing just about all the heavy hitters in their megabuck cars. Slicks on standing water was a first for me, but I was able to pull it off without much drama.
There's GoPro footage of the race but all you can see is a wall of water. This is before the BMW CCA mandated headlights and FIA rain lights, so it's just a screen full of gray nothingness.
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