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> Hmm. Interesting. My dad taught me some ice driving techniques as well (Lesson number one is don't drive on it unless you have to, but lesson number two is what to do if you DO have to). Of course, very few people I know can do that very well, and I am very out of practice-- we don't get much ice in Calgary. Basically, driving on ice can be summed up in one key concept: Don't fight inertia. If your car starts sliding in the wrong direction on ice and you try to turn the wheel and go the right way, you'll just keep sliding. The key is getting the wheels to move in the direction of the slide at the speed of the slide until you're not sliding anymore, and then VERY gently shifting direction until you're back on course. As you can imagine, you have to go pretty slowly as a general rule, because if you go too fast, you're going to be off the road before you can even start to regain control. I know this sounds obvious, but with all the training we get on how to regain control when fishtailing and such, it becomes very counter intuitive to try to do this in a real situation.
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> Well, that's the ice driving lesson for today. Practical experience does far more than one typed lesson based on vague recollections, but I don't think there are ANY RinkyDinks who get enough ice to actually go practice this stuff. I myself have only used this knowledge once or twice since I learned it.
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> Don "Didactic" Monkey

We don't get snow or ice here, but my boyfriend (Dean) uses the same principle when we're off roading. He's discovered that if you're on a dirt road that's quite corrugated, and you get the 4wd up to around 80kmph, the car only hits the top of the corrugations and slides. He LOVES it! I generally hold onto the side of the car as tightly as possible and close my eyes.

Btw, he's a racing driver, so he's pretty good at keeping it under control, and it keeps him in practice off season. He uses a similar technique by steering into the slide, but he also swings the wheel from side to side to get it to catch. I believe that's a technique he picked up on the speedway track. I can't tell you much more because my eyes are generally shut and I'm probably moaning or gibbering in terror, so I miss all the details.

He is very good at it, however.

ding"slowly going grey"dong