Porsche has just announced details of its ice driving courses for 2012/2013. The modern Porsche ice driving experience is held in Northern Finland, around Ivalo and Rovanemi: two places that will be well known to anyone who has ever run cold weather testing for car manufacturers. This is where much of it is based.

The winter offers of the Porsche Driving Experience give beginners and advanced drivers the opportunity to develop their driving skills under the guidance of experienced instructors, and to build their driving style, step by step, thanks to coordinated theoretical and practical training. Skills such as driving safety are enhanced by appropriate braking, avoidance manoeuvres, or controlled drifting on specially prepared ice courses. In the far north of Finland, participants will learn to gain even more control over their vehicle in three progressive levels of training – Precision, Performance and Master – in icy, but controlled conditions.

For fans of classic 911s, Tuthill Porsche has just announced a rebrand of its ice driving camp, including a move to Sweden. Now called Below Zero Ice Driving, the training courses runs Tuthill FIA-spec 3-litre rally cars, similar to those used in Safari rallying and marathon rally events.

Tuthill’s ice driving camp employs experienced rally driving instructors including rally winners and UK/European champions. Previous visitors to the school include Adrian Newey and a surprising number of other motoring ‘celebrities’.

Neither of these courses are cheap, but feeling the car flick around underneath you on a low-friction surface is the holy grail of Porsche car control. While Porsche have low friction water courses at their experience centres, it’s not the same as kilometre-long stretches of snow-lined ice road with a bundle of run off, driven in someone elses’ cars. What could be better!