Images: Ferrari

WHEN YOU FIND YOURSELF sitting behind one the wheel of the newest, coolest, fastest, most powerful cars – a V12 Ferrari, by the way – staring down a makeshift racetrack built from ice and traffic cones, atop a mountain in New Zealand, there’s no time to think about anything else. All you can do is laugh, squeal, turn off your stability controls, grip the wheel, stab the throttle and say, ‘f*ck it, we ball’. And that’s exactly what this story is about: the chaos, glory and fine art of seeking thrills at Ferrari’s famed Esperienza On Ice, New Zealand. And if you have around $15k to spare for the privilege, I cannot recommend it enough.

Very serious business

Let’s be clear: car writing can be a very serious business. Not just because so much of the way automotive journalism is itself rooted in opinion, stemming from a sort-of technical ‘gearhead’ culture that’s often elitist and toxically masculine. Reviews written like spec sheets with adjectives, big numbers that go straight over your head, the machismo-ness of it all, which can feel less about joy and more about a writer flexing technical knowledge. There’s a lot of that, and yes, we (I) can be guilty of it too. 

But there’s also the marketing psychology, consumer needs that genuinely do call for authority and trusted expert reviews, and the car’s mythological place in the Great Australian Dream of it all. We’re talking about a global market worth nearly $9 billion, deeply rooted in economics, politics, prestige and technology, so it’s not unwarranted. But also, where are the thrills? Where is the hedonism? These are the thoughts I don’t often put on a page.  

At Esquire, we perform our own share of Serious Car Writing too, where we talk about the future of mobility, the geopolitical, the consumer choice and the sticky ways the industry, especially on the luxury end, is being reshaped and recommunicated; but even for us, sometimes all you want to do is bring back the shifts and giggles; drive and talk about cars for the sheer love of thrills. 

All this is to say, this is not one of those Very Serious Car Features. 

A frozen playground in New Zealand

During the northern hemisphere winter, automakers flock to places like Lapland near the Arctic Circle, Northern China or Inner Mongolia to perform cold weather testing and offer customer ice driving programs. However, for around six weeks of the year, during our Antipodean winter, a great deal of this happens in New Zealand, at a place called the Southern Hemisphere Proving Grounds in Cardrona, near Queenstown.

SHPG is in a breathtaking location, surrounded by ice-capped mountains and those gorgeous Aotearoa big skies, but it’s also a research and development centre and a top secret facility, where camouflaged prototypes roam the fields and where cameras and phones are banned. But for a few weeks, it becomes the home of Ferrari’s Esperienza On Ice, a customer program where anyone can sign up to learn the fine art of whipping, sliding, drifting and doughnut-ing a fleet of more than $10million-worth of luscious supercars around on ice. 

This year was the program’s third time down under. Aimed at the Asia-Pacific market, especially those customers and Tifosi who are increasingly seeking more ways to interact with the brand, which, traditionally speaking, hasn’t always been easy to access from our location. “We’re so physically removed from Europe and Italy, not everybody can go to Lapland in Finland, which is a holy ground for ice driving, and not everybody can drive on the track at Fiorano in Maranello [Ferrari’s hallowed test track],” Dr Jan Voss, Ferrari Australasia President, tells us, sitting outside our mountaintop chateau, under glorious alpine bluebird skies. 

“So bringing a bit of Maranello to the people in Australia and New Zealand is important. And at the same time, it’s really good to see the product and the brand in an environment where you can, safely, test the limits [of the cars] and get to know other people who are equally passionate about the brand.” 

He adds, “Some of the most beautiful places on Earth are here. So, we just leverage what nature gave us.” Esperienza on Ice isn’t Ferrari’s only community and customer play. In the past few years, the Australasian arm has broadened its reach, with things like the Ferrari Challenge races and Ferrari Festival at Sydney Motorsport Park, it’s engaged in bigger activations with its dealerships, car clubs and more touchpoint and hospitality opportunities at events like the Australian Grand Prix – also, some might recall the Universo Ferrari exhibition from 2023, as a major turning point for the brand’s consumer presence in Australia. This, says Voss, is all tied up with the passion that surrounds the brand, beyond ownership itself. 

Now, ice driving itself does have a serious side – you learn car control in tricky situations, get a better understanding of the physics of high-powered machines. Ultimately, thanks to the guidance of expert coaches, you learn to become a better driver. But it’s also a totally unhinged and adrenaline-fuelled rush. The kind you cannot get on asphalt.

Enter the Ferrari 12Cilindri

This year, the hero car was the brand new Ferrari 12Cilindri (pronounced ‘dod-ee-chi-chill-indri’) super grand tourer, Italian for 12 cylinder, because yes, it’s a 6.5-litre naturally aspirated V12, slated to be the very last of its naturally-aspirated kind. Available in a spider and a hard-top, this beautifully elegant, long-nosed GT is magnificent and incredibly powerful, with 611kW (or 830 horses) of power and 678Nm of torque sent to the rear wheels (perfect for drifting) and the ability to scream up to a redline of 9500RPM. It’s a lot of car, on a very slippery surface.   

We’re ferried up to the mountain in a Rosso Corsa-coloured, Ferrari-branded bus, and the single-day event begins. Our first few tasks are getting to know the very basics of ice control: small slides, feathered throttle, and the very delicate manoeuvres needed to keep the 12Cilindri where you need it. With all electronic stability controls switched off, we’re on our own out here, so composure is key.

Then, come the doughnuts and into figure-eight shapes. Sharp stabs of the throttle are required to unsettle the car, forcing it into a slide and then carefully holding the steering and loosening it ever so slightly, followed by a feathering of the throttle, which all helps to send power to the rear, drift it around our orange coned track. It’s incredibly delicate but hard work, in a very low gear, that can go wrong very quickly. Too much of anything and you’ll spin. In pairs and split into teams of four, we each take turns in our cars, as the V12s echo across the mountain in a beautifully raw, internal combustion symphony. 

As our skills evolve, so does the course. Next are slaloms where we learn to weave between cones, again, ensuring our steering input is delicate and we’re using the throttle to help steer that big rear around each turn. By now, the track has been cleared of snow and over time, has become pure ice in some sections, thanks to the 300 studs screwed into the 12Cilindri’s tyes for traction. Wits and car feel are needed. The introduction of a race where we are to link everything we’ve learned increases the stakes. Madness ensues. Rev limiters are screaming. Digital dashboards are flashing like fairy lights and chaos takes over. 

Controlled chaos

Track-driving habits and speedy intrusive thoughts threaten to throw the whole day’s work out the window. My co-driver and I, by this point, are squealing and clapping in joy, the other customers are doing the same, and I am working the wheel overtime in the full course. I snap a nail correcting a slide. But if you allow me one self-indulgent flex, I do manage to take home the prize, so it was worth it.

I recall a coach at a different ice driving course once telling me that the art of ice driving is a great revealer of patience and humility. He told me that, like rally driving, it’s at once complete and utter chaos and adrenaline-soaked fun, yet also deeply logical and highly technical. The ice doesn’t suffer fools, because it’s not just about going fast, but staying controlled and composed at speed. And when you get it right, there’s nothing quite as satisfying, or addictive. Remembering that you’re behind the wheel of one of the most formidable machines in the world? That’s the cherry on top. 

After the rush

As the sun starts to go down and the icy wind comes up, soon enough, the day is over. A trio of helicopters await us to take us back down to earth, mentally and physically. That night, a communal dinner with the customers and their guests, Italian cuisine, of course, takes place as we all gather around the content captured by the Ferrari content team, share stories of the day, and make new friends. As a cosplaying Ferrari customer for the event, I am also told, its at these events where business deals also go down, naturally.  

I’m sure to many, learning to dance one of the most elite cars on the planet around an icy mountain test track is a frivolous exercise, but, you know what? Sure. But it’s also so. stupidly. addictive. If you’re blessed enough to have the means, take this as a warning: you’ll be hooked. Very rarely do we get permission to do the crazy, unhinged, surreal stuff in our cars, let alone safely, in a breathtaking environment and in such incredibly, powerful, precise, beautiful and legendary machinery.

In the days that followed, the high of the drive lingers, and I drive past my local Ferrari dealership where I catch the 12Cilindri in the window and long for it again. Alas, I am faced with somehow returning to seriousness, wondering how ever can one top that for a thrill.  


For more information about Ferrari Esperienza On Ice, contact your local Ferrari dealer.

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