AUTOMOTIVE 'HOTBED'; We ride with the fishes-and have fun with the xDrive.(News)

Byline: JOE KOVACH

While most of the Northern Hemisphere is emerging from winter, rural Arjeplog, Sweden, remains veiled in ice and snow. Its frosty climate, however, generates piles of wealth by drawing car companies that perform cold-weather testing there. Arjeplog is like Death Valley, California, which attracts car companies for the same-if opposite-reason ("Two Days in the Valley,'' Sept. 6, 1999).

Arjeplog, in pristine Lapland, is Sweden's fourth-largest municipality in terms of area (the size of Belgium). Its population of around 3300 grows by more than 1000 from autumn through spring due to testing crews.

Arjeplog's reputation and wealth started coincidentally. In winter 1973 three pilots cleared a stretch of snow on Lake Hornavan to make a runway. Opel execs staying at a local hotel saw the strip and asked the hotel manager if the smooth ice could be used for testing brakes. The manager happened to be chairman of the local aviation club, and Opel became a pioneer for cold-weather automotive testing in the clandestine area. A dozen other car companies followed. We recently got a rare invitation to visit BMW's new cold-weather station there.

Just south of the Arctic Circle, Arjeplog's average yearly temperature is 32 degrees Fahrenheit. Thus the frozen lake roads, with nearly 40-inch-thick ice, can support a semi-truck. Lake roads look black-topped but are asphalt-free. You can't see fish below, but they're there. We saw photos of some real whoppers.

Dieter Stoll, who oversees BMW Group test facilities, said he has instructed his engineering teams to "Eat together, have coffee together and party together.'' Judging by the ...