I am thinking about putting together an ice racer for the winter to get some more seat time in.  I would like to do an awd car/rubber on ice (thinking Eagle Talon).
Was just wondering if anyone has any experience running in it before and if they would recommend an awd, fwd or rwd.  What kind of prep do people recommend beyond gutting the interior and removing lights?

(I know this is a rally forum not ice race forum but seems like a few people here may have been involved with it before)

2011 Regs are available online at

http://www.casc.on.ca/documents/icerace/11regsicerace.pdf

I think Chris Martin is probably themost experianced Rally driver who Ice Races.

A number of others have also raced Crazy Leo raced last season for a couple of days. Great practice for Ralliests who will be driving Winter Rallies

I have been ice racing for five years now in both class 2 (a Tercel --short wheel base, fwd) and the last two seasons in class 4 (a Justy -- 4 awd).  In both cases, I only ran rubber-to-ice.

Class 2 and 3 (long wheel base, fwd) tend to be more "physical" because of the large grids and interesting lines as inexperienced drivers deal with the chronic understeer.  Class 4 and 1 (rwd) run on the track together (all tend to oversteer) and generally don't do a lot of bumping.  Trust me, you don't want to play fender tag in a Justy when the other driver is in a Volvo station wagon!

If you want to get into the racing, first get yourself a copy of the rules and read them.   I do scrutineering for the series and you would not believe how little attention people pay to the section on car preparation.  

Don't spend any money on suspension, power mods, etc, etc, etc, if you are planning to run in a rubber class.  Get a reliable car with moderate power. You don't want to spend every weekend working on the car.  You want to learn to drive on the ice -- participate in the "rookie school" the first couple of weekends of the season.  

Spend some money on good tires and get someone experienced to show you how to "tractionize" them if you are running rubber.

Street studs are an option but at this point in time, you would be better looking for some used tires.  In order to keep the studs in place, the glue must "cure" which most agree takes a couple of months and lots of heat.  

Race studs (Menards) are expensive and the car must have a full cage.  These guys get traction like on pavement.  Horsepower is really important. The cars are fast and the consequences of errors are big.

What else do you want to know?

Looks like I may be running a rwd chevette.
(never would have seen my self driving a chevette.. lol)