Máté and I had a great time at the northernmost winter tire testing center in the world, in February in Finland. The following set of 50 photos serves as a pictorial diary of a nearly one-week trip beyond the arctic circle, where Finland's snow tire makers test the hell out of all kinds of rubber.
[Full disclosure: Nokian wanted to show us what they can do at White Hell so much they flew us to Lapland to their test range, dropped me into deep snow while Máté and his test pilot drove around and around drifting sideways like lunatics. They also served us snow grouse, elk, and reindeer meat for lunch and dinner. The cold was bearable, the food awesome, and the snow just simply breathtakingly beautiful. ]
Wind built snow dunes along the way to the test center
Test car one is ready to go
We tried five different sets of tires per day
Nokian Hakkapeliitta R2 for Jalopnik
Tired of tires? Try to change them six times a day!
Petri Paananen and Máté checking the tire
240 bolts per day
Test car two
48 tires lifted per day
On the thick ice of a frozen Lapland lake, on the first test day
A quiet pine forest witnesses the ice tests
'What a friction tire can do nowadays amazed me" - says Máté.
Máté and Petri doing 70+ on ice
Steady grip
This machine clears the track before and after every tested tire
Another set of tires
No drifting, ideally
JA1=Jalopnik
Toyota Land Cruiser on charger block heater
Steve Bourassa (product manager), Petri Paananen and Máté evaluating the figures
Inside the Golf GTI
The sun sets at half past three, and the night falls upon us at six
On ice
Day two: snow testing on flat track
Doing rally stages with a Quattro Audi
After an hour the car turned into rolling popsicle
From the reindeer's point of view
Petri on the snow handling course
Every Finn is a rally driver
Petri leaving snow dust behind
Common sight
Day three: on a short but fast hillclimb track
This view never ceased to amaze me
A short tactical briefing
At incredible speeds
Going sideways
A bit more testing on ice
What time is it? Circa three o'clock so let's turn on all the headlights!
Snow is the enemy of ice tests
Day four: let's do a few brake tests inside the indoor ice testing facility!
Nokian built the longest hockey rink ever
Seems almost endless
Braking on artificial ice
On a long stretch of wide straight snow track
Petri could really start to throw the car around despite the mild blizzard
No speed limits
The black GTI dissolved in the snow every time they passed by me
High noon, our rental car
Farewell to White Hell
Photos: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo