Icetrackmeet 2024; There is (a) room behind the sauna

[DaBoom]

Here we are again. Most people have made it home, so let the picdump (and hopefully story time) begin.

Still hosting guests here, so I'll just leave few photos here (that hopefully stay without breaking) and hope to keep motivation to add more later.

Like many others, I got to experience The Fog, while picking up @nicjasno from the airport.

Hang around areas at the cabins were very inviting, if a bit small for our whole crew.

Many cups of Joe

Friday weather was rather perfect

So it was nicer for some to jack off. A bit of weight distribution is recommended when jacking on ice.

DX was out for this year already, so I was planning on attending track action on two wheels. But KTM be doing KTM things and when a stop to a repair garage was in the plans, I opened the engine to see what's happening and the news were bad enough for this plan to fall through as well.

Saturday was a lot more snowy, but cleared towards the late afternoon. Some dashcam footage was finally recorded from the beater, as I almost forgot the whole thing (and my earlier outsourcing was left a bit halfway). And for the final hours I cycled around the track to get some artsy shots, mainly due to limitations of my old phone. There's a couple tolerable ones still, but apparently they're too shy to show themselves on the forum, so you have settle for a synthwavy Merc for now.

There was also some dicking about happening in the pits (or whenever cars were stuck in snowbanks).

Don't have too many pics, but some dashcam footage and short clips. And hoping others will contribute too, instead of letting all of it sink to various Telegram channels.

 

[Galantti]

Here is my set, and no i did not take photo of the room behind the sauna ;_;

Starter with getting some kinetic rope for the people from 4x4store on tuesday:


those did get used multiple times!

Met with @DaBoom the same day to test some Whiskeys at Pikkulintu while we waited for @nicjasno to land and get himself to us, and for @frankiess to join the mini-meet.

After people were together we continued to the Cursed Shoppingmall of Tripla to have end of the evening meet with @Dr_Grip and then went to see some fancy cars in underground parking in Pasila.

From there we left towards east, and i was dropped of by @nicjasno and @DaBoom while they headed up to Kouvola.
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Continued on wednesday to pickup @Adrian from the Helsinki-Vantaa airport, and then continuing to burgers at Mullikka (the sweet potatoes were good btw) with @Lastsoul, @Der Stig, @Brotan, @Dr_Grip with Jules, @DaHitch and Henri. :


@Adrian left with @Der Stig to sleep for the night.
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On Thursday I met with @Adrian to pick up our rental from Sixt at Redi and we managed to get upgrade from C-class to E-class, BUT with the caviat that it needed to be picked up from Helsinki-Vantaa airport (we tried to get the convertible e-class, but everything was gone, thanks union strike!!!! *curses*).

After we picked up the merc, we wend to meetup with the German reinforcements with some new shocks for the Volvo (god damn the Motonet online store is shit):


After that meetup the teams started their drive towards Nilsiä!

On the way we found out that the E-class can have its dash to be in low-spec mode:


Drive was eventful, we did swap drivers on ABC Juva and i drove the rest of the way while Adrian slept.

At the cabin we were welcomed by the West coast team with heated up sauna!
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In the Friday morning i woke up to make a some toast to me, with the usual mug of coffee:


Cabin nr.5 kitchen was spacious and i sorta liked the layout, though diswasher could have been on another place:


The livingroom was spacious, and the big sofa was my sleeping arrangements with the beadsheets from the cabin (thank god i have only 1 bag to carry):


Looking from the sofa towards the kitchen then layout of the common areas was good enough:


View towards the Lake Syväri from the deck:


Outside the parking situation was mostly for German brands:



after most people woke up, we went to the ice track on lake Syväri where people from Cabin 8 had gone earlier.
Where we found the beater Merc being hacked into:


Place was pretty big, wiht the amenities rural:




Track had ample parking:


Enought to use the place for beating down the cars, and looking under the bonnet:


Here is a Volvo Driveby in 3 pictures (while we were unditching the merc):




Germans brought the calibrated G-force-meter with them:


Afterwards we went to Nilsiä to invade a Kebab pizzeria, where i got myself a spicy pizza:


and saw some of the local tuning scene:


After returning to the cabin, we could not get the sauna to wam up in time, so here is patiently waiting @DaHitch


The drinks supply had the usual Long drinks, beer and then there was this:


We even had @ninjacoco analog with us:


Evening went mostly by drinking in/out of sauna and having great time, i think @Anesthesia can confirm how his night went
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On Saturday morning i still had the same breakfast, and gave one ibuprofein to @Anesthesia, since he ahd to leave that day back (curses at MP fair at the same weekend).

After breakfast we went back to the icetrack to continue track'n'field and more snowing:



At 2pm the locals had a track snowplow session, so we went to have a lunch, mine was mostly green:


After lunch we went back to track to ditch the merc multiple times (even had local tracktor pulling):



And dicking around with the G-force -meter on top of the Merc's sensors:


Evening continued like on friday, sauna with drinks.
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On sunday morning i had yet again the same breakfast and helped with some of the cleaning.

Had to refuel the merc at the Manliest fuel station ever:



Continued the drive as usual towards Helsinki, and @Adrian left me at home and continued towards Helsinki-Vantaa Airport.

 

[93Flareside]

My drive started with a very @loose_unit at Casa Unit.

But not before adding the important stickers.

And we're off 30.01.2024

Joe nearly died after opening a Wunderbaum air freshener, didn't even leave it in the little bag.

First stop after fuel and snacks would be Berlin to pick up a friend of Joe's. But first long drive with the Volvo and it did well. Has a bit of driveline vibration, which now coming back home and driving my E-Class is like a switch between a Harley and a Goldwing. Fuel mileage was at first 13.5l/100km as expected since this really isn't meant to do more than 120km/h comfortably. Once we were driving normally through Poland it went down to 11.2l/100km.

Somewhere between Latvia and Estonia, we decided to check if the LED bars work.

Arrived sometime 7AM thursday morning for the Ferry to Finland.

The rear of the volvo started to sag more after some shenanigans in Poland, it was suspected a shock broke so we acquired some through @Dr_Grip, picked that stuff up in Helsinki and convoyed with the Kadett for Destination Icetrackmeet 2024.

Apparently, the ferry is great and breaking the ice in these situations.

First stop for some dinner some cardboard removal and a shot of Private Kadett, yes @Dr_Grip really took this up to Icetrackmeet. O_O

Morning at Icetrackmeet.

But first:

View attachment 1707321671286.jpeg









After a breakfast of things we go to the icetrack and first binning of the Volvo goes to Karlos!

I wasn't far behind that day.

In-cab action!

View: https://youtu.be/eUr9zZT3kKg
It's ok, we had roadside assistance come by with a tow rope and yank us out, this Mercedes was crashed a few times and seems to take it well.

@Dr_Grip managed well on the track too! A few spins, but never any ditching, a great success.

Had to wait for the local Zamboni to make the track nice for us at some point.

After, The Master @public took to the helm and did some tests, after the first day, the Merc lost 1st, 2nd, and reverse, turns out it was just a cable coming off, fixed and there was a test needed.

With that going well, Timi went Full Send mode and dug a new ditch.

@public showing us the correct way of exiting a vehicle when the door doesn't open fully.

After that, the Merc was abused a few times and I did my last run by finding a snow wall, but then just powering through it somehow, was such a funny moment.

View: https://youtu.be/herYmv63uQE

Then of course we had deep discussions and sauna-ing.

After this, my thirst got the better of me after I lost my phone in @frankiess' car and he ended up driving home with it. During which, I had to occupy myself on the ferry rides. First one between Turku and Stockholm was fine, as it was the last time before trip end to bullshit with Team Sweden. After that the ferry to Rostock was that weird long, but not long enough for a good sleep, so I got an lego set. yay.

Through the magic of FinalGear, @DaHitch picked up my phone, flew home to Belgium and I drove over and picked it up. Sadly, all of the return trip was missed, but other than laughing really hard leaving the boat, we look over to see a guy in his work van had the same air freshener.

Didn't expect that in SWEDEN of all places.


All in all, I am very glad I made the effort to go and experience the wonders of Icetrackmeet. Some may say it's better, than Ringmeet, I would be democratic about it and think they're good in their own ways. With that said, now that I've experienced both, this will be on the list for future visits. There's something so good about this trip that even if I didn't go snowmobiling or see the Northern Lights, it was still so awesome. I probably won't do the drive up again, it's just ridiculous. I managed this year to check off Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, Finland, and Sweden to the list. Sweden needs another visit as well, just driving along the highways proved itself, so I will plan for that. As a person who loves cars and driving them (why am I still visiting a forum that focused around a now dead tv show) I cannot imagine having more fun with a car. Plus the fact that this is just what some Finns do. The track we rented was purpose made on the lake, had a sign out front saying the prices and a bank account number to pay. Under 18 you were free to go out there, what the hell is this freedom?

 

[93Flareside]

One last thing, smalltown Finland kebab/pizza place, What the hell?

After receiving this and realizing there are 2 #29's on the menu, I was both too hungry and too embarrassed to say something. So I just ate it. Smoked salmon and Lemon are great together, but on a Pizza is just so weird, so I can't recommend.

 

[Matt2000]

I had to do a double take when I saw the Kadett. I suppose with no salt on the roads there isn't much to worry about, apart from crashing.

Also does the E46 have a tiny steering wheel or does Davetouch just have massive hands?

 

[DaBoom]

There's salt on main roads, but it's not an issue with thorough enough cleaning. So occasional use in the winter is perfectly fine.

And to the latter, a bit of both.

 

[nicjasno]

Let's see.. as i approached Helsinki i felt like the ground.jpeg did not fully load. Quite a bizzare sight.

After landing onto a fully rendered runway, i quickly hopped into a train and met with @DaBoom @Galantti and @frankiess and we quickly headed to the tripla mall in Helsinki for some food, where a cheerfull @Dr_Grip joined us for some chit chat.

He then proceeded to show us some hidden gems in his buildings underground garage.

Me and @DaBoom headed to Kouvola, where i did some work the next day and we tried to fix some stuff on the DX, only to make it worse.

The evening was concluded with the awesome public sauna expirience.

After sauna, we went shopping for supplies for the meet.

When arriving , we had 2 cottages. I immediatelly fell in love with the way they looked and had to make many pictures of the interior.

After breakfast it was time to head out to the track.

Upon arrival the W203 was already beached and required some involved extracting. We disabled the abs on @DaBoom 's sprinter, to allow for some sideways fun.

@loose_unit 's Volvo required some work, because the rear shocks were fuckedy fucked.

We had luch both days in the typical local Pizza/kebab joint.

As it often is with cars being driven hard, some mechanical faults developed and we headed to a friend of @public, who happens to be a finish motorjournalist and recently bought a really cheap workshop, where we could "fix" volvos exhaust, the W203 gearlever and adjust the valves on @Dr_Grip 's Kadett. Sadly @DaBoom discovered that his dirtbike has some rather terminal engine issues.

Upon our return to the cabins it was time for sauna and drinks.

Next day @MXM arrived with his Jaaaaaaag

The rental merc grew a BBC and proceeded to poke everybody and everything remaining on the track

At the cabin the gang split. Some of us decided to do the usual sauna thing.

And others decided to go to the local town into a bar.

Suddenly a very drunk @loose_unit appeared. And told us some wild stories.

After the rest of the spelunkers returned, slightly less drunk than @loose_unit , he decided to shift into 1st gear, only to discover that he's dealing with a dogleg gearbox.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oFgR-C89ctQ
This was a very fun evening.

All in all i think this ranks as one of the most fun meets we have had. I am very much looking forward to next year, where hopefully the W203 will make another appearance, joined by some other shitbox and maybe some new faces. I think @93Flareside as a first time Icetrack participant has already confirmed that it is most excellent.

So, here's a small video i put together of the footage that i managed to make, hopefully able to somehow put across the overall vibe of the track action.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WNw8IPYiW0
And here's a link to all the pictures and separate videos i made:

FG Icetrack 2024

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[public]

Yes! I agree that this year's meet went very well. It took several tries to find a place and then just keep fingers crossed that we could have a frozen track, but luckily weather was on our side. Though this weekend would have been far colder than the previous one and subsequently also tougher on car bumpers.

I'm very happy that it was such a good time, and for next year plans are already afoot. I'd like to return to the same track, but maybe gather everyone under the same roof, closer to the track and find a bigger sauna. And since the Merc survived it already makes finding a beater much easier.

 

[Redliner]

I really should attend the next one.
Rebeca expressed intentions of attending as well, but this might be too much of a sausagefest for her.
Carlo, on the other hadn, is really interested in the "frozen lake driving" part, since he never drove a car before and this seems like a good place to learn.

 

[public]

The ice would be EXACTLY the place for that!

 

[DaHitch]

I really should attend the next one.
Rebeca expressed intentions of attending as well, but this might be too much of a sausagefest for her.
Carlo, on the other hadn, is really interested in the "frozen lake driving" part, since he never drove a car before and this seems like a good place to learn.

The Mercedes is currently sitting with a dude who suggested buying it for his kid. "4 years old so about time to start learning".

 

[Matt2000]

"4 years old so about time to start learning".

That's the most Finnish thing I've read this year.

 

[DaHitch]

My travels started Wednesday morning with a train to Brussels Airport to catch a plane to Helsinki by way of Munich.
Even though I had been through Helsinki Airport a few times before I'd never actually made it out the door. As I was taking the train into the city I had to go down a set of the longest escalators I'd ever seen.

Escalator 1 of 3.
View attachment IMG_2793.jpeg
Very Brutalski.

After 40 minutes on a very nice train I was dropped off at Pasila station, where I quickly ran into a Prisma in order to buy an SD card.
I then spent the next 30 minutes trying to find the exit. That place is fucking cursed and none of the signs make any sense. Why are the arrows for "follow corridor" and "go up escalator" the same?
After finally finding the exit and a short tram ride later I made my way to Mullikka where the rest of the finnmeet contingent had gathered for food and beer.

I didn't stay long as I was quite tired and knew I had an early start the morning after as I was expected about 400km North the day after to collect our ice track equipment. And since that meant catching a train at Pasila station I figured I needed to schedule plenty of time, in case I got lost again in the maze.
Fortunately everything went smoothly and at 8:30 I was on a train heading North where I was sat at a table with a young Finnish couple across from me. Over the entire 4 hour journey they spoke no more than 4 sentences to each other. I suppose they'll say what they need to say at the altar. Until then, not shou emousshiöns.

At around 12:30 I stepped off the train in Kokkola where I was greeted by @public and this:

View attachment IMG_2806.jpeg
A Mercedes W2 something whatever. Same age as the Corolla next to it, but with a lot more rust and fault codes.

After a quick inspection and some instructions on its little quirks we set off towards a supermarket where we grabbed a quick lunch and I also learned none of the brake lights were working. eek However when adopting an economical driving style the use of the brake pedal is limited anyway, and so with Antti leading the way I was in good hands.
A few more stops were made along the way and at about 19:00 we arrived at what would become the quiet cabin where we claimed our beds before making our way into Nilsiä for some dinner.

Our cabin in the woods. An exact mirror image of the party cabin.

Antti seal of approval

Not long after the others started to arrive so eventually most of us congregated in the Party Cabin for sauna(,) beer and Hobbs and Shaw on the TV that (un)fortunately didn't support Chromecast.

View attachment IMG_2829.jpeg
Stay classy.

And thus concluded the Thursday activities...

Icetrack day 1:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiSqiDclYxY
The video pretty much sums it up.
The Volvo dropped its muffler so it started making funny noises and after some mild abuse one of the Mercedes' gear shifter cables became undone mid-shift leaving the car stuck with only 3rd and 4th gear and, crucially, without reverse gear making recovery after every minor spin impossible.
With the Mercedes being out of action, it already getting late in the afternoon and everyone getting hungry a very late lunch/early dinner was had in town.

Food arrived eventually. Clearly they're not used to 18-ish people barging in at once.

After food we retreated to our respective cabins. A message was sent out that the sauna in the party cabin was warm so I headed over there and got into my racing suit. However I was lied to and the sauna was only at a paltry 40°c, I sat down to await the sauna reaching an appropriate temperature and pretty much fell asleep. I missed much of the rest of the night as a result.

Dawn of the 2nd day:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDwCKOptyzk
After the days activities everyone got back to their cabin, and while the Quiet Cabin was making arrangements for going into town to visit a bar, I went over to the Party cabin for more sauna(,) beer and good times. Much drunk was had.

On Sunday morning it was time to start heading South again, though not after taking a few aerial pics of our accommodations, it was all quite picturesque.

The Quiet Cabin with Party Cabin in the background.

Same as above but vice versa.

Good times were had, thanks all.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv-e4YYAQ5w

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GQj-NzJni8
Here's a link to an iCloud album with all photo's and videos I made.

iCloud Photo Sharing

iCloud Photo Sharing lets you share just the photos you want with just the people you choose.

www.icloud.com

And here's a link to a playlist with all drone footage and a few edited videos. There's a 15 video/day upload limit by Youtube these days so the playlist will be populated as time goes on. If you want any of the videos for your own use, HMU on Telegram and send me the file name of the clip you want.
Finnmeet 2024 Video Playlist

 

[93Flareside]

Suddenly a very drunk @loose_unit appeared. And told us some wild stories. *PHOTO SNIPPED*

View: https://youtu.be/QkeL3t1tKuk?feature=shared

 

[Alasondro Alegré]

Somewhere between Latvia and Estonia, we decided to check if the LED bars work.

View attachment 3571760

It works!


Round of applause everyone, great stuff.

 

[Perc]

Great plate on the rental Merc. IRC

 

[93Flareside]

It works!


Round of applause everyone, great stuff.

It always brought out a giggle. So much „what the fuck have we done?“

 

[nicjasno]

W

It always brought out a giggle. So much „what the fuck have we done?“

We were winning.

 

[Der Stig]

Super belated, but I wanted to post and add some pics and my experiences!

It has been since Ringmeet 2019 since I've seen most of y'all and time has flown! I have to say, the overall feeling was just like old times from my first Ringmeets. But now with sauna! It was really good to BS with everyone until 3AM, drive on an ice lake for the first time, and really lame to have a Peugeot 208 rental instead of a glorious RWD Volvo wagon.

I arrived on Wednesday since I'm still "working" US hours and wanted to make sure that internet etc functioned for my work phone. Flying in from Heathrow where things were grey and moderate and arriving in HEL where things were grey and frozen was fun.

The Pug in alpine camo.

At the local pub in Helsinki (only almost fell over 5 times on the walk from the car lol).

Soviet Finland housing blokki for my AirBnB.

Unlike my beat up Vans, the Pug's shoes are studded.

Such a game changer having studs on ice. This was a new experience for me as well.

Went to get some proper winter garments at Varusteleka so I could survive -20C lol.


Tried the exotic Finnish cuisine per Taneli's suggestions lol.

Delicious. Very Finnish.

Because I couldn't keep the Finnish names straight in my head, I took a picture of the map in the cabin.

First morning at the cabin

Snowy cars

Poosnow

Blasting Children of Bodom on the way to the icetrack.

Upon arrival, the Mersu had already been beached lol.

Volvo wrenching.

My foot is exactly as wide a Kadett Ling Long Spike Boy (thanks @public for bringing the spike boots)

Trying to find reverse in the Mersu

I am now sold on old RWD Volvos after experiencing these steeds on the ice.

KTM was too moody to cooperate, but looks awesome with the studded tires

@Dr_Grip and I attempted an expedition to the other cabin 50 meters away in the woods. We were up to our nuts in snow, haven't laughed that hard in a while

Got to do a few laps in the Mersu after it was resurrected and I was pleasantly surprised at the shitbox level. As in, it was actually really good on the ice once the ESP/ABS fuse was out (or maybe broken lol). In spite of the flogging, beaching in the snow and general abuse, it lived through the weekend.

Not pictured: drunken local Finnish zombies who attempted to eat our brains while at the bar Posmo saved us from having a drunken zombie couple climb into the Pug by telling the drunk bastard "Goodnight and goodbye"

For anyone on the fence about making the trek out to the ice track meet, just do it! *Bring ear plugs

 

[93Flareside]

I still have some!