You want to go faster? Learn it on the ice.
The Country Club of Augusta, Georgia, is less hospitable to novice drivers than a race track.
This is evident at any track in the U.S., where tire smoke mingles with gas and dirty asphalt, welcoming newcomers with a strong slice of confidence-shattering.
There is one exception: a warm welcome at the icy circuit. From now until sometime in early spring, ice tracks across the country offer drivers young and old the chance to enter the world of performance driving.
Even the term "performance driving" sounds intimidating; it's more akin to advanced driver education, save for 9th grade social studies teachers working overtime and sticking chicken brakes on their worn-out minivans.
Performance driving is a solitary sport, like golf or boxing, requiring concentration and repetitive practice. Remove the smoke and gas fumes, and each lap becomes a course for concentration and constant improvement. Going too fast on a dry course can be debilitating and costly. That's why the fluffy snowfields of Crested Butte, Colorado, are the ideal place to start driving.
Maserati, like other automakers, hosts an annual winter driving school for its customers and clients - those who want to safely push the 2020 Levante GTS' 550-horsepower V-8 engine to its limits.
Crested Butte couldn't be a better setting. Located in Colorado's East River Valley, north of Gunnison, west of College Peaks, and in the remote southern part of the state, this small mountain retreat is one of the last great mountain towns to remain pristine, even as its secrets are becoming known.
Weight, weight, don't tell
Near Colorado State Route 135, sheets of ice are spread up to a small hill, and a white blanket of fresh snow covers the fields. The 1.5-kilometer-long circuit has only six corners: four left turns and two right turns; four left turns and two right turns lead to a straight that is wider than the Champs-Élysées, with a wide sweeper.
This seems deliberate.
Winter driving school proves to be as much right-foot steering as steering wheel maneuvering. Putting the nose into a corner and blowing the fan pedal of the Levante GTS can push the SUV wide enough to brush snow off the rear wheels. It makes you smile. From there, the driver finds a more graceful way around each corner, and by the end of the day, the car cuts through each corner cleanly with a precision that is difficult to master on a dry track. Careful throttle control. But faster. Much faster.
Despite his height, Ryan Hall is also adept at handling smaller cars. He is a champion in the Mazda MX-5 and has been behind the steering wheel of race cars for 20 years. He has mentored other drivers for the past 15 years and lives 30 minutes from Lime Rock Park, Connecticut, the spiritual home of grassroots road racing in America. He knows what he is doing, and his driving proves it.
"Everything we do here is magnified, good or bad," Hall says.
Car control, he says, is what happens when a driver runs out of grip. On a high-speed, high-stakes road course like Lime Rock, losing car control can result in a spin in the grass or worse. On a low-speed, low-stakes winter course, losing control can result in a chain on the rear tire and a tow from a Ram pickup, only minutes away from getting back on the track. Egos are quicker and cheaper to fix than sheet metal.
"We use the same techniques here as on a dry course, only the limits [on a dry course] are higher," Hall said.
If you cut down on speed, he says, racing is just weight management. Depressing the brake pedal shifts weight forward on the car, making turn-in sharper and more precise. Depressing the gas pedal shifts the weight to the rear, back to the wheel that usually accelerates the most. At each corner, these two dances play out, front to rear and inside to outside.
On snowy roads, speed is reduced, but weight transfer is more obvious and important. Snow Sliding. It looks good, but it's mostly for show. Control of the rear end of the car is essential to overall control, and the slides on the snow are more exaggerated, but mostly mimic what happens in the real world.
Hall praises over the radio the driver's "Jackie Chan hands" on the corners as he skillfully circumnavigates the circuit. As it relates to the speed of the hands, the slower they are, the more important every movement is in the corners.
"The reason you can't be fast on the track is because you lack car control skills," Hall says. 'You have to get your feet wet driving and then practice on the skidpad.'
On ice, the skidpad becomes a crucible for car control. Too much throttle or too much steering wheel and the tail will wag faster than a Labrador can appreciate. Turn after turn, cone after cone, even the 550-horsepower Maserati becomes supple and predictable.
Crested Butte would not be on many racing drivers' lists of places to drive.
It's better than any country club and much friendlier.
Maserati provided accommodations for Internet Brands Automotive to bring you this raw report.
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