On piste with Porsche

Being towed behind a performance vehicle while wearing skis sounds, if we’re honest, like the invention of some dudes in a Colorado college town (and the vehicle a Roush re-modded Ford F250 or similar).

Turns out though, that the possibly fatal pastime has pedigree and a name. And the Scandinavians started the whole thing.

Skijoring, as it’s known, began as a winter sport in Norway many decades ago. No internal combustion engines were present then; daredevil skiers were instead towed along by horses or athletic dogs.

By the 1930s, however, the automobile had become a firm part of the skijoring experience.

And in the Austrian resort town of Zell am See, enthusiasts became particular about their favoured marque for slicing across the top of snow: Porsche. From the 1930s until the 1970s, the Ice Race was a semi-regular event, involving many different cars, but lots and lots of Porsches.

We presume a swept-underthe-carpet incident might have put an end to things (no one is saying anything on the matter that we’ve been able to find), but for Porsche fans who want to see snow tyre-wearing 911s (and other models) towing skiers across a lake in the middle of winter: you’re in luck.

The GP Ice Race will return to Zell am See in January.

As well as traditional Porsche skijoring, there will be other rally cars skidding around on frozen lakes, towing fluoro ski-suit wearing extreme sports types.

There are, of course, plenty of horse-based skijoring events held around Europe each winter, too. That aspect of the sport has never gone away, despite it looking possibly even more dangerous.

But the sight of a Porsche 911 towing some maniac on a set of Rossignols at speed — and being able to claim that it’s in tribute to a historic event — seems like too good an opportunity to pass up if you happen to be in Austria in January.