Ever since the car was created, people have wanted to race each other. In majority of the world it was on tarmac roads, but in places like Norway it was on the pebbly paths which make up a lot of their roads. The professional racing like rallying and Formula One owe their origins to these pioneers of tarmac and gravel motor racing. In places like Canada and the Alpine areas of France the motor racings were not possible because of the cold weather which covered any road in snow, so they started racing on the icy lakes and rivers and the motorsport of ice racing was invented. The reason why, in these areas of the world, why they did not begin racing on the roads was because they were too hazardous, as racing on ice is extremely tricky. When you get it wrong you are going to hit something and when that something is a large immovable tree it’s going to hurt a lot. So by moving their racing onto icy lakes, where the wind tends to sweep the snow off the lake and pile it up round the sides, this means that when a mistake is made, the vehicles tend to slide off and hit a pile of snow which is a lot softer than a tree.
Ice racing has mainly remained an novice motor sport, but there is a warm professional championship called the Andros Trophy in France. In this professional championship they use custom built ice racing automobiles, but in the world of novice racing this luxury can rarely be afforded. There are some rules of the motor sport to try and make sure everyone is competing on an level playing field. They are four type of motor vehicles, and they are all limited to a maximum engine size of 3000cc. Class1 is for all rear wheel drive and short wheelbase motor vehicles, class2 is for front engine motor vehicles with front wheel drive and short wheelbase, class3 is for front engine motor vehicles with front wheel drive and a long wheelbase, and class4 is for four-wheel-drive motor vehicles. There are two types of races that these classes of vehicles can run in. There are rubber to ice events and metal to ice events. Rubber to ice tyres are rubber road tyres with no stance, and metal to ice tyres are rubber tyres with tungsten steel studs in them that seriously enhance grip on the ice.
Any type of car from saloon to small 4×4′s are allowed to race in these ice races, they can have either a manual or automatic gearboxs. They do need to be slightly modified for safety reasons and for the rubber to ice races all that needs to be done is any plastic fittings around the outside of the car need to be removed, and the bumpers converted so they will not hook together. Also, the back of the car is painted with patches of high visibility paint, as visibility can be low when ice racing. With the exception of a race helmet, these are the only modifications required to race in rubber to ice races. To race in the metal to ice races your car must be fitted with a roll cage and a 4 point seat belt, this is because the studded tyres produce a lot more grip and therefore speeds are much higher.
Although not a requirement, it is recommended that you fit a high quality wiper blade. There are numerous types of replacement wiper blades on the market that would meet this requirement. The best replacement wiper blades to fit are flat wiper blades made from silicone, and this is because silicon wiper blades will work in temperatures as low as -60
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