An uphill drive in an indoor snow centre organised by car selling site CarWow had a different spin on it to previous cars-on-indoor-snow tests.
The site organised for a pair of Audi R8 V10s to drive up the slope of The Snow Centre in Tamworth with the aim of seeing how the slightly-different powertrains perform under pressure.
The video has quickly gone up towards a million views
One of the cars used was a coupe with rear wheel drive and 570 hp / 406 lb-ft. The other car had an almost identical set up, except for a convertible body style, all-wheel drive, and 620 hp / 428 lb-ft. Both cars use a naturally-aspirated Audi 5.2-liter V10 and start with normal (non-winter) tyres.
Both cars start on regular tyres with a drag race style full throttle start …and hardly move despite wheels spinning at a rate that would quickly take them to 200mph on flat tarmac.
The cars then switch to winter tyres and both then ascend the slope without major issues, the all-wheel drive car performing a little better.
The test was designed to underline that driving style (including gentle acceleration) works better for accelerating and braking on snow as well as the importance of winter tyres and superior performance of all-wheel drive on snow.
There have been lots of cars on indoor snow slopes over the years including F1 cars on German indoor slopes and before the Beijing Olympics the Jamaican bobsleigh team pushing a Mini uphill at the Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead a PR stunt (combined with team training exercise) for the car manufacturer.
In Northern Finland a major indoor ice track operates year round for vehicle and tyre testing.