Surprise surprise: the Cyan Racing P1800 is a hoot in the snow

When snow lands, you probably want something sensible. A car built in a country where it snows a lot. In short, you want a Volvo.

But you’re reading TopGear.com. Sensible might not be your thing and you might want to use the snow to seek out that good old-fashioned ‘fun’ thing. Therefore you want rear-wheel drive, a manual gearbox and not a single electronic driving aid. In short, you want a Volvo.

Well, you do if it’s a Volvo P1800 that’s had the Cyan Racing treatment. We’ve already driven it – and loved it – elsewhere on this website. But now its makers have had the good grace to thoroughly test it 20 degrees below zero. What hardship.

"The basic concept of the car seems to work really well, it does not matter that much if you are on a bone-dry racing circuit, a wet and twisty country road or on the crisp ice here in northern Sweden,” says Cyan Racing chief engineer Mattias Evensson.

“All of the properties that we have tried to achieve were almost amplified by driving it on the low grip of snow and ice.” As the pictures above surely attest…