DriveTribe sent Henry Catchpole to Sweden’s Below Zero Driving School, where they teach you how to drive rally-prepped air-cooled Porsche 911s on ice. Everything about the phrase “rally-prepped air-cooled Porsche 911s on ice” sounds like paradise to me. Holy crap, I need this in my life.
Catchpole mostly made funny faces while trying to concentrate very, very hard, but he also goes through the unique cornering style he had to adopt to make the very tail-happy 911 turn and not keep turning into a full spin. You have to be aggressive on turn-in and corner exit, but mid-corner, you’ve got to be painfully patient and let the car shift its own weight around so it doesn’t spin.
But when you get it right and nail it turn after turn, you’ve really accomplished something. They’re a driver’s favorite kind of car: a true challenge to drive fast.
DriveTribe later grabbed footage of rally nut and builder of Below Zero’s cars Richard Tuthill in his reproduction of a Group B Porsche 911 SC/RS on some icy roads nearby, and it sounds incredible:
Tuthill was involved with the original Prodrive 911 SC/RS builds at Prodrive, so he knew what to add. He took a 1984 Carrera with the Turbo-look package to base the car on, and then faithfully reproduced the original, according to The Drive. That’s right: you could make your very own rally 911 out of a regular old 911, if you have lots of money and build talent.
If you do, let us know. I don’t think words can explain how much I need a rally 911 in my life. Going to Porsche’s own ice driving school with modern 911s and Caymans didn’t help. All those videos of Leh Keen’s Safari 911 really, really don’t help. Nor do the crazy off-road 911 builds the Porsche racers at Kelly-Moss tend to bring to big race weekends.
I have but one need in life, and it is to hoon an off-road Porsche 911 build.