Carlos Sainz smiled at me. He understood what I’d just experienced. So did his son.
And so can you. Right now, you can start your realization of the dream that is driving studded tires on ice.
For me, it’s just after 10 in the morning, one Tuesday in February, 2013. And it’s freezing. Like genuinely freezing – a good thing given that we’re standing in the middle of a lake in the very north of Sweden.
Sainz senior has just watched me manhandling a Porsche 911 around the snow-ploughed track. It was like an automotive version of Bambi’s first steps. Not my fault. I was on the ‘button’ stud.
“You never really drive the rally under these circumstances,” the two-time world champion told me. “The grip is really poor, but you learn. Wait until you take the proper one…”
I’d learned and I was waiting.
After reporting on winter rounds of the World Rally Championship in Sweden and Norway, I was fairly well versed on what was coming my way.
Sainz Jr was deeply impressive on the ice
On hearing that I was heading for the ice, Marcus Grönholm grinned.
“You won’t believe the grip,” he said.
He would know. Nobody has won Sweden’s WRC counter more times than him – but the great Stig Blomqvist sits equal to him on five each.
“When the condition is right,” Grönholm continued, “you will take more grip than on the gravel. You have to look to the corner and then take a gear higher. Push, you must push to make the stud work in the ice.”
I’d definitely pushed – and pulled – for much of the morning. I pushed the Porsche I was driving, and Richard Tuthill had pulled me out of the snowbanks. That was on the short studs.
Now for the proper ones.
“You want to ride with me?” offered Sainz Jr.
Go on then.
Who won? Carlos, of course...
I’d been fortunate enough to sit alongside Sainz Sr a couple of times and I was more than curious to see how the then Red Bull Formula 1 test driver fared. Predictably, he was beyond impressive. The car control was stunning, as was the ridiculous amount of grip from those studs.
“I had done about 70 laps of the circuit,” said Junior. “It was a racing track, so I am in my territory and I had my reference points.
“But then, we turned the lap around and went in the opposite direction and my father was setting exactly… exactly the same time. But I was three seconds slower. I wanted to check the difference between a racing driver and the rally driver and I can be happy with my car control, but for the eye, knowing what to expect… his experience is amazing.”
Sainz’s understanding of driving on studded tires was uncanny – as was his grasp of the need for the right one.
“I remember one [Swedish] recce,” he said. “I was at Subaru and we were using some different tires. It was a disaster. On the recce, Colin [McRae] and I were going off all of the time.
“He went off maybe 14 times and me, maybe 11 or 12. To start with it was a joke, it was like a competition. He would be on the radio: ‘Carlos, Carlos, please come back…’
“Then, five minutes later I was on the radio: ‘Colin, please, wait, wait, wait, please come back…’ In the end, Colin and I – in the middle of the recce – went to find some Nokian Hakkapeliitta (Finnish-made winter tires). And then we finished the recce.”
By now, the father-son rivalry was in full swing with stopwatches being produced and pressed into action. Who won? Carlos, of course…
And Grönholm’s prediction? Absolutely on the money. But don’t take my word for it: get yourself to Dollar Lake, Wisconsin and be one of the very few people in the world to enjoy the sensation of sideways on ice on a full stud.
Off the line, the acceleration’s impressive – but not mind-blowing. Blown minds are saved for lateral grip, braking and context. Step outside of that Subaru and you can’t stand up, yet you’ve just exited that last left-hander looking out of the side window, arms crossed chased by your own cloud of snow dust.
It’s magic, so come and do it.
