Here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota, we are experiencing our usual brutally cold winter temperatures but we haven't had a snow fall over an inch yet this winter...something that hasn't happened here in something like 100 years. Anyway, while flying remote-controlled airplanes on a nearby frozen lake with my son, it suddenly occurred to me that it would be great fun to see what the MINI could do on the ice. The ice is over 18" thick, virtually no snow cover and just a slight coating of sleet that seemed as though it might give just a touch of traction...perfect. So, after crashing the airplane, we headed back to the house excited to get the MINI out of winter storage. Soon we were back at the lake, down the boat ramp and out on the ice. Our BRG MCS has been modded by Randy Webb so it's pushing something over 200 hp and is equipped with all season tires so I expected that getting the power down might be a problem. Not as bad as I'd thought. With the DSC on and the pedal to the floor we were quickly up to around 50 mph. No slipping at all...the DSC just doing its job by allowing smooth and relatively quick acceleration. Interesting, but not quite what I had in mind. The fun really started once I turned off the DSC. Once again quickly up to 50 mph, crank the wheel hard and spin. Fun, fun, fun! I hadn't seen a smile like that on my son since he got to ride along on a test drive with Randy W. in Colorado last summer! Still learning the tricks, I decided to include the use of the parking brake. Up to 50 mph, crank the wheel hard, full parking brake...360 degree spin...release the parking brake and continue in the original direction but now down to about 35-40 mph...just like in the Italian Job! 180's, 360's, 540's...whatever you wanted. Fearing that anything this much fun must be illegal, we decided to take a breather and get off the lake. Later, I returned several times...with my wife, my daughter, the neighbor... What a blast!

 

I would be scared the ice would break....

 

That does sound like a blast!! Can I have a ride too?
We don't have any lakes here in Ohio to try that on. I guess I could try lake erie but I'll pass.. Hmmmmm...Maybe a few buckets and a large parking lot could meet with the same results...

have fun and be safe.. BTW how big was that skating rink?

 

I caught 5 minutes of some crazy Ice Racing from Europe on the speed channel once. I didn't have time to watch much and I haven't tried to look up more information. Man, was that fun to watch, though. It was a little like sprint car racing, but the slides were quite a bit longer.

Next time you go to the lake, maybe a friend could video tape it?

 

ah man!!!!!! i would LOVE to be able to do that. My wife and I have been back and forth up to Lake Tahoe 3 times this week just to have fun with our MINI S in the snow doing 180's and such in the Casino parking lots good times!

 

At 18" I wouldn't be too worried. You'd be surprised what a relatively small amount of ice will support:

Ice Thickness and Strength for Various Loads

 

Get an MPEG up for us.

 

I wish I had taken some video or pictures. Unfortunately, the weather is changing and we are getting snow now. Anything over 4" of snow and the MINI becomes a snow plow instead of an ice rocket. We just lucked into some fortunate conditions that may not occur again for some time. I wish I had tried this a few weeks ago! If the weather holds I'll see if I can get some pic's or video.

MINI's on large sheets of ice are incredibly fun...I can hardly wait to try this again. If you ever are fortunate enough to get a chance to try this, make sure you know the ice is safe for vehicles and watch out for ice fishing houses and old fishing holes!

 

Me, Me, I'm next oh oh oh me me me.

Earl

 

Can you say Vacu-Cam??? Time to put that into action! What a blast that video would be for all of us.

 

That would be cool The lake here has 2 feet of snow on it and 10 foot drifts
so the MINI is not going to head out on it,but the snow pack on the back roads are a blast