CAR CONTROL... WITH CATIE
#1 DRIVING ON ICE
Extreme E driver, TV presenter and British rallying star Catie Munnings shares some driving wisdom
THE ROUND, BLACK THINGS
This one was pretty apparent as I was hurtling down the long straight of the GP ice race in a factory Bentley Continental GT3 with skis tied to the roof running on wide 2mm studded tyres. It turns out 2mm studs on the tyres weren’t enough, and a narrower choice of tyre would have been ‘optimum’. To say less grip is more fun has a limit, and I think I found it in the braking zone to Turn 1. Top tip: Choose a narrow tyre, with huge ice studs.
LESS STEERING, MORE PEDAL
The true art of driving comes when you control the car’s direction with the pedals, not the wheel. When you accelerate, the weight and force goes to the rear wheels, when you brake they go to the front. Picture a slalom – get into the feeling of accelerating between the corners so you’re moving fast enough to break into a slide when you lift off. You’ll find the steering angle is minimal, but the slide is effortless. Hello lift off oversteer.
REAR-WHEEL DRIVE IS CHEATING
I worked as an instructor in the Arctic for a couple of seasons... we saw it all! With RWD, the power oversteer that people pick up quickly is huge fun, but isn’t real driving skill. The joy starts when you play with weight balance and get the car to slide under braking as you throw the weight to the front which releases the rear wheels to ‘dance’ on the ice. My advice would be start with a front-wheel-drive car – it’ll teach you all you need to know.
EYES ON THE LINES
One of the easiest ways to improve your skills behind the wheel is to lift your eye line, look as far ahead as you can see and your body will do what it needs to do to get the car there. You have to remember actions take longer on ice, so you need to make the moves earlier. When you have a narrow range of vision, you’re always a step behind, reacting rather than preparing. As with all things in life, look ahead and things are less of a surprise!