As a Canadian, you might consider going south to be the ultimate winter vacation, and the number of travel deals available to places like Florida and Vegas suggest we're not the only ones who regularly entertain such thoughts.
But there's another kind of winter vacation worth considering, at least for gearheads: British automaker McLaren is the latest sports car manufacturer to get with the winter driving program... program, with the Pure McLaren Arctic Experience. Participants here will get to fling the company's 570S model around on the ice and snow of northern Finland.
The brand new program kicks off in January 2017 in Ivalo, Finland, a tiny town located about 300 km north of the Arctic circle where we suspect it's dark and cold more of the time than it is anything else.
But for roughly $18,000 Canadian dollars, McLaren will fly you there, dress you in suitable winter wear and then set you loose at the creatively named Test World, a facility that specializes in cold-weather testing of vehicles and tires.
Oh, and it's worth mentioning you'll stay at Javri Lodge, a resort you know is seriously upscale, because they don't list their room rates online.
At this point the car almost feels secondary, but we'll tell you about it anyway. The 570S is a slick-looking exotic that takes its name from the European 570 PS power rating of the twin-turbo, 3.8L V8 that lives behind the car's two seats. That translates into 562 hp and 443 lb-ft of torque, which is put to the rear wheels through a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission. McLaren quotes a top speed of 328 km/h and a zero-to-60 mph (97 km/h) acceleration sprint of 3.1 seconds.
Not that much of that matters, because if all goes well, you'll spend much of your three night stay learning how to make the 570S -- a relative bargain amongst European exotics at its ~$220,000 Canadian starting price -- go sideways on ice and snow.
