In Canada, we don’t let any amount of foul weather spoil our plans—not our exercise, not our social life, and certainly not our driving.
It was in this spirit of celebration of winter, then, that a group of Lexus owners, all members of the Northwest Lexus family, found themselves testing the limits of their vehicles and their own skills last week at the Minden fair grounds, which we, along with Lexus Canada and their driving team, transformed into a winter driving course.
We designed the experience to help our guests hone their winter driving skills and learn how to best handle their Lexus in winter driving conditions. It’s something that, as Bramptonians, we have plenty of experience doing, but there’s always room for improvement. (Besides, it happens to be loads of fun intentionally sliding around an ice track in a Lexus RX.)
Looks like heaven, right?
The event began in Haliburton the day before, with a veritable cavalcade of Lexus meeting up and parading through town and out to the Haliburton Forest Wild Life Preserve for some winter activities, True-North-Strong style: a choice of snowmobiling or dog sledding. As if that wasn’t enough of a taste of the wild, the group then met the resident wolves and witnessed a feeding. Then it was on to Pinestone Resort for a private dinner followed by a show put on by one of the guests who happens to be a professional illusionist. It was a magical evening, if you’ll forgive the pun.
The next morning, guests awoke to a sunny, snowy winter day—the perfect conditions to explore their Lexus’ frozen-terrain potential. Handling and coordination were on display for the slalom course (only a few traffic cones were injured in this exercise). There were also several braking and avoidance exercises—a crucial skill for winter driving—and a skidpad for the demonstration of throttle controlled steering in snow and ice. But perhaps the most rewarding (and challenging) trial of the day was the ice track, which is an exceptional tool for teaching cornering and winter handling.
Here’s a more in-depth look at the event.
It was a winter celebration that was at once typically Canadian and characteristically Lexus—which, if we may say so, is one sweet combination.
