DK Engineering's Harvey Stanley and Daytona Competizione at the F.A.T. GP Ice

This year’s edition of the otherworldly F.A.T. GP Ice Race in Zell am See, Austria, saw the biggest variety of cars yet. On the same wintery airfield that has been used for ice racing by adrenaline seeking skiers, motorcyclists, and racing drivers since as far back as the wartime, some 60 cars gathered to take to the ice once again. With the Classes for Buggies, Sidecars, Classic and Modern race cars, road cars, WRC machines and of course the real Spirit of the Ice - “Skijöring” – Skiers towed behind the racing cars.

Sadly the unpredictability of the alpine winter struck on the days before the event, and on the Saturday morning a scaled down version of the track events had to be adopted - but as any winter sports fan knows - there is so much more to being in the mountains than the sport alone. The event remained a success with a wonderful atmosphere of enthusiasts gathered under the blue sky and Alpine back drop with a truly eclectic mix of fabulous motorcars.

Our own Harvey Stanley, in an exceptional example of a period Group IV conversion Daytona was a notable presence, and the car drew many admirers - very much looking the part on its studded tyres.

On the ice Valtteri Bottas and Richard Lietz sliding two variants of 911 was a certain highlight, as was a truly spectacular show from the Red Bull Flying Bulls - a breathtaking display of flying against the blue sky. It is always great to be reunited with cars that have been in our care, in this case, the distinctive blue ‘61fm’ 550 Spyder – a car we stored for over a decade and rehomed back in 2015 - looking resplendent in a display of over a dozen Spyders.

We are already looking forward to next year’s edition, and it has already been a busy and exciting start to the 2024 events calendar. As soon as the end of this week, Harvey, Luke and Jonathan will be out in force at Retromobile Paris, whilst James will be headed to Dubai for rounds three and four of the Asian Le Mans Series - 2024 is well under way for Team DK !

A thank you goes out to @shotbyardi for providing photographs.