A frozen lake and several Lamborghinis provide lessons on traction control

From the passenger seat of my Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato, 24 Hours of Daytona winner Corey Lewis gives me a "slow down" hand gesture, urging me to avoid an Urus high-centered on a snow bank. I resist the childish impulse to blast by at full throttle and spray the recovery crew with a fresh layer of snow because I don't want to be the next driver to cause a scene. Once we pass the group, I punch it again, countersteering into a wide drift as my studded Blizzak winter tires shred through snow and ice, exhaust wide open and barking at redline, cranking through a series of left-right-left transitions until we come back around to the stuck SUV.

Lewis and I both laugh—everybody spins at least once while ice-drifting Lamborghinis on Lake Catchima north of Montreal, which played host in February to North America's Esperienza Neve winter driving academy. This year, Lamborghini invited customers out to tear up the pristine Canadian winterscape in three Sterratos, four Uruses, and two rear-wheel-drive Huracán Tecnicas—all told, about $3 million worth of cars.

Drifting in six-figure Lambos might make anyone a little nervous. In the controlled environment of a 30-inch (762 mm)-thick ice sheet, though, the consequences are minimal (there are bruised egos whenever anybody loses control and needs a tow, of course). So much power on the slip-and-slide immediately exposes driver skill—or lack thereof—despite 400 studs per tire on the Huracáns and 300 per tire on the Uruses providing grip and confidence. Even for a driver as experienced as Lewis, ice-drifting still has its value. For the mere mortals among us, all the more so.

Lamborghini's ice-driving school uses a variety of the brand's machines.

Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

"In the real world, normally, you don't have the opportunity to kind of test the limits of what understeer and oversteer actually feel like," Lewis explained as we took a break on the frozen lake. "It makes you just an all-around more controlled driver on the street, whether it's mixed conditions, highway driving, backroads, or emergency avoidance. I truly believe that events like these are a huge help for people. Plus, it's fun, too."

I traveled to Lake Catchima hoping to get in on the fun, but I also hoped to learn more about how modern driver's aids make the current crop of unbelievably powerful supercars approachable for "average" owners. So, for my first round on a coned-off figure-eight, I fiddled with the various drive modes on an Urus Performante.

With TC and ESC fully activated, the super-SUV happily cruises around at tamer speeds. Start to turn the steering wheel, however, and the nannies rein in power to prevent tire spin and slides—safety first, presumably to help drivers avoid ditches and berms while shuttling the family up to Zermatt or Aspen.

Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

Switching into Rally mode and toggling ESC off entirely allowed me to modulate steering and throttle inputs without the computers stepping in to prevent slides. And the 4,740-lb (2150 kg) SUV performed admirably, hooking up the front tires in opposite lock but also shifting weight around predictably when I lifted off the throttle. The sensations changed up entirely in the Sterrato, thanks to the unique power and balance made possible by the naturally aspirated, mid-mounted V10.

When I switched to a rear-wheel-drive Tecnica, I could only manage a few circles before spinning out—thankfully, I never needed help to get back underway. It was another lesson learned, though, about progressive and steady inputs eventually leading to smoother donuts.

The biggest surprise? Even in the disadvantaged Tecnica, driving on snow with TC and ESC turned on remained entirely possible without too much tail-happy squirrelliness. Sure, the tire studs helped, but remember, this is a 640-hp (477 kW) supercar. To learn more about how exactly traction control and electronic stability control allowed the entire supercar industry to turn up the wick without regularly risking lives and limbs, I spoke with Lamborghini CTO Rouven Mohr about the evolution of the very nannies that so many automotive reviews regularly bemoan.

"For our product range, we can for sure say the Urus is the most used of our cars to go on a winter holiday or to go skiing," Mohr said. "But from the development perspective, every car in our product range is running the full set of winter test sessions. This means at least two winters, so we start one winter with the basic calibration and then we have the confirmation with the second winter."

How traction control works

Modern traction and stability control systems are quite capable.

Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

Mohr needed to educate me first on early traction control systems, which used simple wheel speed sensors to detect slippage and then cut power via fuel or ignition. A second generation followed, attempting to predict how much torque would cause a wheel to slip. This model also allowed for "performance traction control" that purposefully allowed a minimal amount of spin to improve driving dynamics. Today, Mohr calls modern TC and ESC systems "integrated traction control" because they can take into consideration power sent to front and rear axles, controlling variable differentials and employing braking micropulses in addition to managing power output.

Integrated traction control requires a raft of sensors and serious processing power, though. Each Huracán uses four wheel-speed sensors, three accelerometers (for the X, Y, and Z axes), three gyroscopes (for yaw, pitch, and roll), and a steering angle sensor. The Urus features the same set of sensors, plus vertical wheel position sensors used for special off-road functions, such as detecting a tire lifted off the ground.

Data from the wheel speed sensors are processed every five milliseconds, even though the sensors can detect wheel movement every 0.1 microseconds. The accelerometers and gyroscopes can process inputs every five milliseconds, but the steering angle sensor outputs every 10 milliseconds.

Studded tires gave the cars some bite on the ice.

Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

The goal is to measure longitudinal speed, side-slip angles, grip coefficients, and the desired trajectory. Mohr's algorithm for TC and ESC can then execute tasks every five milliseconds, though lower-level software tasks can be executed even quicker, in the range of single milliseconds. But it's predicting that desired trajectory that requires a bit of wizardry.

"The magic behind the scenes is the electronic brain," he said. "And this always sounds not so sexy because it sounds a little bit like PlayStation. But in reality, if it's well done, it's exactly the opposite way around; it's only PlayStation-feeling if you have not done the job properly."

Mohr himself had recently returned from a round of winter testing for the forthcoming hybrid Urus, which will likely add even more power to the platform. The Urus hybrid will require new traction-control algorithms because with electric motors, turning TC and ESC fully off is not really possible. The interventions only turn down to a certain level because otherwise, the instantaneous torque can cause enough wheelslip and immediately rev an EV's motor to the moon.

"Especially on ice and snow, if you have a bad application of your traction control," Mohr said, "you can have 1,000 horsepower [746 kW], and you're driving and just permanently choking. There are cars on the market that have 1,000 horsepower, but if you drive them on snow, your Fiat Punto [is] faster."

Rather than bemoaning the inevitable EV era, Mohr sees further advantages for his algorithms because of the more discrete control that electric motors offer. Lambo's new hybrid Revuelto serves as a proof of concept for these strategies, which include using regen to brake the front differential while cornering hard on a track. And the all-electric Lanzador, which debuted this past summer at Monterey Car Week, will introduce a further level of programming by using four electric motors.

As you might expect, the cars are more capable than most of their drivers.

Credit: Michael Teo Van Runkle

In the meantime, even after attending multiple other ice driving and rally racing schools, the lessons I learned while hucking a lifted, rally-ready Huracán around a frozen lake will definitely translate to regular life, from track time to off-roading and ski trips in the mountains. For Lamborghini customers at Esperienze Neve, Mohr agrees with Lewis that supercar owners can learn a lot, too.

"I have to say it," Mohr laughed. "Ninety percent of the time, the driver is the bottleneck, not the car. If you compare today's supercar with even 10 years ago, based on progress in tire development, based on progress in aerodynamics, based on progress in pure power, it's unbelievable. Unfortunately, the skill of the driver is not on the same level; it's not increasing the same."

"You have to make a kind of bridge between the potential of the car and the skills of the driver," he admitted. "So a good car, for me, is a car that takes the driver based on their skill level and enables a wide range of drivers to go as close as possible to the limit."

Approaching the limit of any Lamborghini—whether on asphalt, in dirt, or drifting across snow-covered ice—is absolute laugh-out-loud fun. Hence the value and popularity of ice-driving schools, to help owners better understand and unlock true supercar performance. Without effective programming for TC and ESC, every supercar would be scary. Instead, modern tech and advanced algorithms can make an Urus Performante and its entirely unnecessary 657 hp (490 kW) feel entirely at home hauling the family up to the ski slopes.