Little Budget, Big Balls

Hello Carmrades!

Last week I went to do a winter thing with a Russian touch to it, make sure to check out the video first before proceeding to the eye candy stills below later ;)

Between the two capitals

The whole action was taking place at Vyshny Volochyok a small city between Moscow and former capital Saint-Petersburg. Or to be precise on the frozen lake of V V.

I want to give a big shout out to da real MVPs who made that day possible: local citizens of Vyshny Volochyok, who created the 8.3 km (5.15 miles) track with just a tractor,

were pulling us out the snow (with their Lada)

and were cooking delicious food the whole day! Unfortunately, usually the people in the suburbs of Russia spend their time by contributing to the stereotype of a Russian, which I guess that requires no explanation.

The cold never bothered me anyway

The cars we brought with us were the e36 M3 (first gen) prepared especially for this kind of activities.

And a NC Miata MX-5 which is built for Russian MX-5 Winter Cup.

The day before I got there, there was also a 997, although I have no footage of it, I still want to show you this gorgeous picture shot by Denis Zarubin

///Melt my heart

The first car I drove with that day was a specially-prepped e36 M3. With specially prepped I mean adjusted Öhlins suspension, so big it didn’t fit under the hood. I presume this upgrade alone costs just as much as the car.

The benefit of ice driving however is that you don’t need to spend any money on brake upgrades. Do I need to explain why?

Other noteable upgrades you can see in the video, that were mainly safety upgrades. As for the engine, it was a stock 6 cylinder 286 hp M3 motor. Which is not little, although there are territories where such numbers won’t impress anyone. However, this is a perfect number for driving on ice.

Obviously, you need studded tyres to have any level grip and the extra lighting is for the late hours

The perfect car?

As mentioned earlier, the second car was the Miata MX-5. And although even I make fun of it in my video for entertainment purposes, I must admit it impressed me even more than the M3.

The car packs almost half of the M3 with 160 hp and has a stock Bilstein B4 suspension under it. Basically it is a stock car,

Yes, it does have the necessary safety upgrades like seats, harnesses and obviously rollcage, but other than that it is a completely stock car.

And having said that, I guess we can agree that the MX-5 is a perfect out of the box track car. But still, Ladas are the one that pull them out of snow. With only 75 hp. I guess the less you have, the more you can do with it.

I hope you’ve enjoyed the article and my video!

Also follow the creator of those wonderful pictures Denis Zarubin Also check out my previous article about Ferrari 458 GT3 where I also used his pictures!

Drive safe out there!

Bonus pics to show how cold it was:

That poor exhaust

Edit: Forgot the most important!

And DYI and “this applies to bikes also”: