Snow rally courses are popular activities during winter in most parts of the world, mainly in Europe and the U.S. But what people don’t know is that snow rally driving can be the ultimate training for car control.

Each snow rally center differs from one location to the other. Some centers focus on car control training while others focus on rally racing techniques. At Juha Kankkunen Driving Academy in Finland, the following are to be expected in their Sport and Fast driving training courses.

Car Control in Demanding Situations:
* Control of a car at high speed, driving on slippery land, driving skills of four wheel drive cars, optimum use of electronic car aids at high speed such as ABS, ASR and EPS.
* Basic of race lines
* Turning and braking points
* The chance of practicing competitive driving on ice and snow track and the techniques needed for rally racing.

Aims for Each Training Session:
* The right use of braking assistance in snow driving
* High speed snow driving
* Avoiding obstacles at high speed
* High speed emergency braking
* Controlling oversteer and understeer
* Countersteering techniques
* Optimum driving position and steering

For serious rally drivers, Juha Kankkenen Driving Academy offers high level training courses aimed for active rally drivers who to improve their skills.

Another world renowned rally training school is Team O\’Neil Rally School and Car Control Center, based in Dalton, New Hampshire. The center is unique for using rear wheel drive cars with regular road tires. The school is also an authorized center for Ford Racing rally experience and the Fiesta rally school. Team O\’Neil Rally School is famous for being active with Ken Block and Travis Pastrana training and campaigns.

There is a video from my week long course, driving a BMW 320 with road tires. Find it at the bottom of this article.

I personally like their type of training. I think it can be easily tailored to anyone who want to improve their driving skills. Whether an average motorist, a rally racing driver, or a person who competes in any sort of car racing. The use of rear wheel drive at snow rally stages requires a great deal of skill and car control. As you have seen in the video, the car was always going sideways even at slow speed. This will teach snow rally driving and control at low speed in comparison with four wheel drive cars which require higher speed to start loosing traction on ice covered surface.

Team O\’Neil school run their training on many types of roads. Many of their training are done on courses that are similar to actual rally stages. Usually very narrow and bumpy roads in the middle of New Hampshire forests. They also do training on specially built courses such as Skid Pad, Slalom Course and Obstacle Avoidance.

Snow rally courses are fun activities, but they are also important. Basic training will give the average person the ability to drive safely on public roads and avoid hazardous situation by applying easy to do techniques. Professional racing drivers who perform well on snow will be able to perform even better on dry surfaces. It is the reason why racing drivers who grew up in heavy snow areas became successful drivers in many aspects of motorsport. Drivers such as Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen, Heikki Kovalainen and Tommi Makinen.

If you enjoyed this article, please share. I would also like to hear your feedback. Thank you. Fahad.

Author Bio: Fahad Hizam is a racing driver and a tuner. He publishes articles at ME Tuners Tuning Forum and runs Meezer Group, a Tuning and Motorsport Company. Snow Rally Training Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcvNAa4IOTY

Category: Automotive
Keywords: snow rally, ice rally, snow driving, ice driving, rally training, winter driving