Mazda MX-5 - On Ice

The Mazda MX-5 Ice Race 2011 has been run and won under bright blue but frigid skies -- by the sort of national team you'd expect to do well... The Russians. The really big news is who came within seconds of beating them... Too right, the Aussies!

Lifting the lid on the plot
First some background... Mazda's MX-5 is quite simply the most popular roadster of all time. Just weeks before we hit the ice track carved from the frozen waters of Lake Kallsjon in Sweden's far north, braving temperatures that at night dropped to around minus 30 degrees C, Mazda celebrated the building of the 900,000th MX-5.

Now in its third generation, the soft-top two-seater may have gained some size and mass since it was first launched in 1989 but it has remained true to its concept... Indeed, it's the qualities and the properties of the MX-5 that Mazda can largely thank for cementing the concept of Zoom Zoom. Some might argue the point, but without the wee roadster Hiroshima's own car brand might be just another Japanese carmaker.

But in a world where 400kW is becoming passé and where limos and even some so-called family hatches now have near-supercar performance, it's not easy to keep a simple, modestly-powered two-seater top of mind. So how do make sure a car that is your undoubted brand icon gets its time in the sun?

You stick it where the sun don't shine... Well, not for long in February, this close to the Arctic Circle, anyway.

The MX-5 Ice Race 2011 is not the first time Mazda Europe has taken its fleet of race-prepared MX-5s to the track. Last year 20 European teams competed for the honour of winning the initiative's first outing on a streaming wet Adria race circuit near Venice in Italy.

Not content with making the teams compete on wet bitumen, Mazda Europe's PR and marketing department thought they'd go one better in 2011 -- and hit the ice. In fact, they went two better -- they also invited the Aussies!

Internationally renowned for our ice driving ability, Australia was obviously a logical choice to join the fray (that's irony kids)... Not the Canadians, not the Yanks or even a hometown team from Japan... So you can imagine the gnashing of teeth and those smelly cigarettes and mini cigars the Euros love so much when the six-man Aussie squad (all full-time Aussie motoring journos) put the kangaroo adorned #21 car on pole... And by an almost 6-second margin...

The most obvious changes are wheels and tyres, and safety equipment. The latter includes a bolt-in rollcage, racing seats and harnesses, and the removal of a bunch of ancillaries like CD player and the like. In our upcoming video coverage of the 2010 event there's more information on the preparation of the cars for their first outing at Adria.

The cars also scored a more vocal centerline exit big bore exhaust. It's hard to say if it freed up any power but the sound of 20 of them buzzing around the frozen lake won't be forgotten for a while

For the ice race spec Engstler also raised the ride height and fitted specialist ice/snow rally rubber complete with 5mm spikes -- 320 of them per tyre. High profile with aggressive V-shaped tread blocks into which the spikes are screwed, the Black Rocket branded tyres hail from Finland. They look like something your granddad would have had on his FB Holden. Whereas the very same MX-5 might use a 200mm wide tyre on the racetrack, the 16-inch ice racing rubber is just 130mm wide.

Oh, and completing the FB analogy, they are retreads!

The process sounds simple -- get a tractor and move the snow out of the way to expose the ice to form the track. But that's not the full story -- the expertise comes in knowing exactly how much snow to leave and, of course, the layout of the circuit itself.

On paper the layout of the Mazda ice racetrack is daunting -- 4.9km long it has more than 40 corners. In reality the thing was a hoot -- thanks to smart design many of the corners flowed into one another allowing good drivers, in theory, to switch from lock to lock with graceful precision... Mind you, we didn't see all that much grace or precision on raceday...

And given that there's more than one possible racing line on a surface like ice -- almost a different fast line every lap -- there's more passing opportunities... Many more than you'd expect on a road circuit of the same design. That means that though the track is in most cases between 10-12m wide, there's room enough for two or three cars...

Well again that's the theory. In practice things were a little different...

Our team consisted on six journalists -- five Aussie-based and the Carsales Network's Italy-based correspondent, Michael Taylor. Drive's Toby Hagon, Unique Cars' Nathan Ponchard and CarsGuide's Mark Hinchcliffe joined our (non-driving) Mazda host, Steve MacIver, yours truly and Top Gear magazine's James Stanford to wave the Aussie flag... And wave it we did -- right from the opening laps of practice.

It was Stanford who set the fastest time in qualifying but five of our six drivers posted times that would have been good enough to take five of the eight top spots on the grid. As it was only the fastest time from each team was used, Jimmy's fastest lap grabbed us pole -- by around six seconds (he would later trim even more time in setting the fastest race laps).

There was muttering aplenty -- in several languages. In fact, more than once we were asked if we were ring-ins... Or European phrases to that effect. In fact, it was another (slower) team that had drafted in a national ice racing champion -- but harping on about that would be just sour grapes... Wouldn't it, Oleg...

It goes without saying how much fun it was driving the MX-5s fast on the ice. But I'll say it anyway... Forget about Zoom Zoom -- this was more about Yee Haa!

Most of the teams tended to lap the track mainly high in the revs in second gear... After a lap or two of familiarisation the driving didn't seem to be all that different from doing the same thing on dirt -- only the slip angles were even more pronounced. So we applied some Aussie circlework nous and reckoned we'd be faster and smoother using third for much of the lap. We were and as speeds rose further as we found our 'ice-legs', fourth gear came into play as well.

Unlike on dirt, braking needed to be kept to a minimum but flow remains all important. It paid to turn-in early and get the car sliding, keep the nose pointing at the apex, keep the power fed in just so, and... Oops, bugger -- I've spun again...

Seriously, it's almost impossible to describe in words how you are supposed to do this... When it's all going well it's fingertip simple -- an ever-so slight flick away from the corner to get things light, then pitch it in early and feed on the gas, hold the drift angle and when the car hooks up and you see the exit you're ready to wind off the lock. Or if you want to change direction again, then momentarily lift and repeat... About 40 times every lap! My face ended up sore -- not from the cold but from smiling...

Though it all sounds simple, the difference between slow and fast was manifest -- like most things motorsport. Suffice to say with a background on dirt and penchant for rear-wheel drive cars, this was one pursuit that seemed to suit the Aussies.

Things started to get tougher in the race itself -- visibility was terrible at times (20 cars kicking up fine snow that hung in the air); throughout most of the racing 15 or more of the cars were lapping slower than ours and the surface became bumpier and bumpier... Rough to the point where the MX-5s were bottoming out hard, just like a fair dinkum rally stage.

F1 great Rene Arnoux competing with the Swiss team said he'd not experienced a track like it in his other ice outings. With nothing to prove his lap times were mid-pack...

Like Rene, I reckon it's hard to fine tune slip angles when the car's jumping a metre sideways on a big frozen rut... Well, that's my excuse why I hit one of the Pommie cars! (Did I mention I hit the Poms... Oh, it must have slipped my mind)

As mentioned above, it wasn't always the cleanest racing, but given the general low level of prior experience and the closeness of the racing, the fact all 20 MX-5s finished is testament to the good spirits in which the entire event was conducted.

Still there were some pretty stony faces and plenty of nervous tension at the pre-race briefing. When Team Manager MacIver was summoned to appear before the race director a rumour went around that we'd been docked our pole position for some infraction. In reality the head honcho wanted James to be clear on the procedure for the single-file rolling start.

Team Manager MacIver devised an excellent strategy that would see our two fastest drivers, Stanford and Hagon, bookend the driver line-up for the first two-hour leg. Yours truly was third driver out, handing over to penultimate wheelman, Taylor.

As luck would have it that line-up also meant we only had to let the four-point harness belts out at each driver change -- saving valuable time (Note to J Craig: thanks, despite my formerly even more rotund proportions I was now in the middle). Fat bloke jokes aside, driver changes are key in an event like this. Amazingly we were the only ones practicing them during qualifying.

In the first leg James stormed away from the rolling start and established a strong lead ahead of the combined might of Hungary, Slovenia and Turkey in car #10, the Russians and the UK #2 team (the Poms entered two teams and the Germans three). When the Russians spun a few laps in it looked like the pressure was off.

The rules required all team members to drive a minimum of 10 minutes but no more than 30. We played it safe and brought Jim in after five laps (about 25 minutes with an in/out lap), then Mark did two, Ponch three, yours truly and MT four and Toby five to finish.

Offsetting our pit stops from the rest of the field also threw the cat among the pigeons. The Russians stormed back from their spin after an ultra fast pitstop, thought they had us, but then realised we'd already knocked over four stops to their three. And that was the clincher -- 23 laps completed and a 1min 38sec win in the first race.

A last-minute offtrack excursion for the kangaroo car, and tough tactics from the Russians that saw car-to-car contact only narrowly avoided a number of times, meant a fairytale finish was not to be for the Australian squad.

James again established a lead but it was very tight between us and the Ruskies from mid race. Our opposition incredibly grabbed around 17sec on us in just one pit entry and after yours truly was held up by the Poms (despite a couple of love taps, and one hit that was considerably harder!) we lost some more ground.

MT and Toby then set about bridging the gap and within a few laps from home the #21 Aussie car and the opposition were level pegging. V8 Supercars' driving standards officer might've had a word or two to say to Team Red but in the end a minor mistake from our camp saw the Flying Kangaroo beached on the edge of the track and the win was gone. To rub salt mines into the wounds, the final margin in the second leg was 1min 10sec.

Finishing second in our ice racing debut is nothing to be sneezed at. The Belgium team was third and only four teams in total finished the two-leg four-hour event on the lead lap.

The winner on the day was racing... Actually, it was Mazda. In one fell swoop it had reinforced the abilities and durability of its iconic MX-5. With most teams bouncing their cars off the rev limiter every lap of practice and during the racing, amazingly there was not a single mechanical retirement. Not so much as a duff clutch...

Twenty cars started and 20 finished despite being pounded around what became an increasingly bumpy track for two days. If that wouldn't make all 120 of us ambassadors for the little roadster that could then the vice- free handling and sheer drivability of the things (even on ice) did...  

In the end we can talk about the ifs and the buts... Fact is we went, we saw and we very nearly conquered.

Mazda Europe boss Jeff Guyton officially proclaimed Australia as part of Europe during the award ceremonies -- the embrace was heartfelt. We appear to have won the respect, the hearts and the minds of most of our fellow competitors, now we just have to make sure next year the silverware's on the list as well...

The Kalls Auto Lodge (KAL) on the shores of Lake Kallsjon was the venue for the Mazda event and organised the track and competition logistics for the MX-5 Ice Race 2011. But when it's not organising Mazda-only events, the lodge hosts individuals and groups and offers a range of ice driving activities and training courses. The courses run for one, two or three days and can be included in packages that include other activities such as snowmobile tours and even ice fishing...

Established by a group of motorsport enthusiasts including the late, great Colin McRae, KAL features 42 five-star rooms and even has conferencing facilities. It often plays host to WRC and other top grade rally teams when they are winter testing.

Many of its instructors are rally drivers themselves. As such the lodge even offers courses for rally co-drivers.

KAL is also close to Are, Sweden's top skiing area -- where much of the larger-than-life MX-5 Ice Race 2011 contingent was accommodated -- over 200 people in total. For a holiday with a difference, three days of ice driving, fishing for arctic char through a hole in ice and a couple of days of skiing would take some beating in my book...

For more information check out the Kall Auto Lodge website or email: info@kallautolodge.com.  And tell them the Carsales Network sent you...

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