The article was originally produced on March 9, 2011, some facts and prices may have changed since then.

Mazda MX-5 ice race

The conditions are the best imaginable, we are on Lake Kallsjön at the back of Åreskutan and it is brilliant sunshine and minus fifteen degrees. Parked in the pit area are 20 identical Mazda MX-5s with race-spec, full cage, race exhaust system and fully studded rally tires. The track we will drive on is a winding 4.9 kilometer stretch that offers both straights but also sharp turns where you have to keep your tongue in your mouth and brake in time.

On site are 160 people from 26 nations who will share the 20 cars that are striped according to nation. The car we drive is shared with 2 other Swedes and 3 Polish drivers. Everyone has different driving experience, some better others more inexperienced. The first day is therefore devoted to practice laps so that you have an opportunity to feel the car and how it behaves on the ice track. And of course you have driven on ice quite a bit in the past, but going out in a full-fledged competitive race against a bunch of other high-octane semi-professionals is not part of everyday life. 

The first lap goes very calmly, the MX-5 however feels incredibly calm and well-tuned, it's the first time we've driven this among rather poorly addressed small open sports cars. The MX-5 was primarily developed to compete with European sports cars such as the MG B. It was also the MG B that the sound engineers at Mazda tried to imitate when designing the exhaust system. And of course it must be admitted that the MX-5 never felt so appealing but more than often felt like "the grillar number ond". But after a couple of laps I start to understand the opposite and why Mazda has now sold more than 900,000 MX-5s, so many they even entered Guenni's record book.

Each car has a team of mechanics to help with whatever happens, the most important thing is that all the cars roll and they actually do. Although there were more than 60 departures on the first day alone. In our team, it was the Poles who accounted for most, while I kept a clean sheet. But of course it must be admitted that it is absolutely not easy to drive on ice and at the same time be fast, it takes so little for the car to suddenly start to understeer and go straight to the edge and then nothing helps. And even if the edge is only a couple of decimetres, you are stuck as soon as you are in those areas and exploring. So the best tactic was of course to stay on the track as it could sometimes take several minutes before the tow truck came and pulled you away. So even if you weren't the fastest, you won a lot by staying on the track.

The MX-5 is an incredibly easy-to-handle car, the steering is so direct and the car is incredibly well balanced. Since it is rear-wheel drive, you just put it in second gear, hang out the rear trailer and then just steer the car where you want with the gas pedal, absolutely fantastic and exactly how it should be when it's the most fun. And because it must be real, all the cars were driven with the roof down, which meant that you could get a proper shower of snow when you either caught up with a slower car or were overtaken. But the charm of it all is to hear the wonderful song from the two end pipes and the 2 liter four which in standard version gives 160 horsepower. 

Day two was serious and we had gone through the setup the night before. The Poles thought we Swedes should drive faster and we thought they should drive less. We managed to keep this partly with a few small mishaps. The heats consisted of two two-hour sessions where each driver would drive a minimum of 10 minutes and a maximum of 30 minutes each session. What took time was the driver change which took place according to the true long race type, the driver who was going to jump in the car was the only one who had to help the driver who had been driving. So it was a matter of keeping an eye on the belt and settings and not forgetting to switch off the anti-skid system which, when switched on, acts too much, in some cases maybe it should have been switched on to keep the car on the track.'

With each lap, you got better and better control of both the track and the car, which of course meant better times. Despite this and zero runs, it was not enough for victory, the Russian team deservedly won. The days on the ice have really given insight into the insane fun of driving on ice and considering the amount of MX-5s that have been sold, perhaps this is just the car that fits so well to buy and have as a toy car during the winter months. Because if the winters are going to continue like this, at least I have to make sure to have fun until the summer is here and it's dry. And guess what, an MX-5 is perfect for a track day at a track near you.