Driver training and driving experiences are big business for luxury brands.
BMW, Audi and Mercedes-Benz all offer days that allow owners to experience a variety of high-performance vehicles without speed limits, often with a trained instructor on the track to share knowledge.
Practice and test days are popular, but what if you want an experience that’s less about neatness and order… and more about controlling a sled on ice?
After a five-year hiatus, the BMW Snow and Ice Experience is back to deliver just that.
Held at the Southern Hemisphere Proving Ground outside Queenstown, New Zealand, the program is designed for drivers to “learn not only how to conquer icy terrain, but also how to free [their] “full potential at the wheel”.
Prices start from $4450 per person for a one day experience and expand to $6500 per person for a longer package that includes two nights’ accommodation and helicopter transfers to the test site. Scenic action doesn’t come cheap.
Both include the opportunity to control things like BMW M3, X3 M40iand members of Mini Countryman scope, among other things.
Snowmobiling, skiing, speed racing and riding with a professional are part of both experiences, which have similarities to equivalent programs in Switzerland and Austria.
BMW isn’t the only carmaker offering the chance to test drive its cars in New Zealand; Lamborghini has also announced that its Esperienza Neve will be coming to a similar testing ground outside Queenstown in 2023.
