Following Chris Harris’ recent ice driving video, I thought I’d share with you a recent trip I took to Norway. Purely for pleasure, of course – although the price of alcohol took some digesting!

I stayed at Pers Hotell in Gol, which is about 120 miles north west of Oslo. Every year the owner (Per Rustberggard) and many of his petrolhead mates get together for the ‘Winter Challenge’. Basically it involves people bringing their cars – both old and new, battered and beautiful – to a circuit cut out of snow on a frozen lake.

This was my second visit and the diversity of metal was staggering. This year some brave soul brought an old Corvette, complete with supercharger and sultry female painted on the bonnet. It sounded magical although looked a complete animal on the ice, unsurprisingly.

Somebody else had brought a 997 911 Turbo with a smattering of Ruf carbon fibre addenda and drilled brakes from a 911 Cup racer. Being four-wheel drive it wasn’t the most dramatic through the bends, but you never doubted its pace!

At the opposite end of the scale was a pesky red VW Passat, a 4Motion I think, which was difficult to shake off. And then there was the Audi 100…

Running 1.4bar, the twin-turbo diesel block was putting out around 500bhp, transmitted to the ice via four-wheel drive. In summer, its owner whacks up the boost pressure to 2.2bar and achieves around 750bhp with 1000Nm of torque. I’ve seen the video and on dry tarmac, this thing will out accelerate a superbike and beat it in a quarter-mile drag race.

In a similar fashion, there was also a twin-turbo Mercedes 190, running one of the last Turbotechnics conversions the company ever made for that car. In full DTM livery it looked as good as it sounded!

The white Ford Sierra lacked the visual drama of the 190, but certainly gave it a run for its money in the power stakes, it also packing a twin-turbo motor that made its (admittedly very skilful) pilot work very hard to keep it on the circuit.

Per Rustbeggard’s car is a tribal patterned 560SEC, which I’ve driven previously and goes like stink! It’s been stripped of all unnecessary cabin gubbins so it feels very nose heavy, or rather tail light, which makes long, long drifts a piece of cake. Its studded tyres look puny, but you need to feel how much grip they generate to believe it – braking performance especially, is tremendous.

There’s so much more to say about these cars, their owners and Norway itself, but I’ll just let you enjoy some more pictures that I took.

Great story / pics.

So you didn't have a car with you?

That looks epic .

Thanks!

Couldn't wing my own car this year, but did get to drive the 560SEC. One owner who took part in a W124 300E last year budgeted just £500, so I've got no excuse!

I want to play!

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Ben
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"you don't look like a fussy eater" // Mazda 3 MPS For Sale

Love it
What dates is it normally on?

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In my day we called that medicine.

Nice!

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This ^

Bloody brilliant

Nice pics too, particularly the top one.

Updated February 21, 2013 at 7:06 PM

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You Sir, are rude, arrogant and selfish. And so is your son.

Great write up and pics! What a fantastic bunch of machinery.

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Looks fantastic, thanks for taking the time to write it up and post the pics.

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Cheers,

Mike.

Great write up

This just looks so at home in the frozen landscape

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"I've never driven a BMW that I've really loved, except for perhaps the first M Coupe. That was a proper hooligan's hot rod"

David Yu

That is fantastic. The 911 Turbo looks superb in those surroundings.

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"Drink, drugs and driving a black Porsche Carrera what a big brave man he is, also a father and husband, HOW SO VERY SCARY!!!!!!!"

nuttinnew said...

Love it
What dates is it normally on?

It's been around February for the last couple of years. Search 'Winter Challenge Norway' on Facebook for the group.

love the corvettes homebrew bug catcher warm air intake system. Something I have never seen before

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cheers,

Harry

Too many old sheds.

3dr Sierra would be a rare beast in the uk

Enjoyed reading that cheers.

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BMW Car Magazine