Chris Williams Wrote:Keep us up to date please, be good to see the full interview.
Chris
No problem Chris.
To give you all a little insight into the day, it was ALL for charity.
Supporting “The Children’s Trust Tad worth” for children with multiple disabilities.
Basically we all offered our cars, time, and fuel free of charge.
Marshals, safety crew, emergency services and some bloke in white overalls claiming to be the Stig all did it for free.
We drove children & parents around the Top Gear track, and the fee paying public.
£15 per person entry to watch and 3 laps around the track from £25 to The Children’s Trust. The figures aren’t in yet but we estimate £100K was donated that day!
It was a 5am start for Adam & I, we got to the track about 7am, and the weather was AWFUL. We’d had a month’s rain in 8 hours and the main roads were severely flooded, there was standing water on the circuit and everyone was concerned for safety.
We had a long drivers briefing (with Stig man) before the safety car went out to survey the track. The forecast was for Blue skies from 11am onwards, and the stair rod rain had subsided to an annoying drizzle. Safety car back in and we were briefed again before going out on acquaintance laps. It was blooming hairy I can tell you. The Enzo spun off the track just after Gambon and I went side ways after Bacharach Bend (that’s the bend before Gambon) Adam was in the car with me and he went a little quiet.
More and more safety laps (maybe 12 or so) and we then came back into the holding area before Chicago.
Another briefing from the Marshals and we were let free in groups of around 6 cars on to the circuit and drive to get our times down as we improved our knowledge and skill. Adam had to sit this one out, but he got to do lot's of filming so he was quite happy with his VIP Drivers pass.
3 hours later and I was much more confident, throwing the De around, you had to be bloody sharp with your senses as an Enzo, F40, Aston Works DB9 and a McLaren MP12 come out of nowhere, fill the gap you were about to take then out brake you! There was a few Fuuuuuuuucks, shhhhhhhhits and so on. I’ve never heard my springs and chassis groan so much, and those Goodyear tyres scream for mercy.
I did ¾ of a tank of fuel and now need new brakes as I did OVER 70 laps of the Top Gear track that day. Stopping in the holding area every 9 laps for a brake and engine cool down.
My lap times just got better and better.
I was hitting 85mph on the follow through, having to jump on the brakes for Bacharach, the fastest I could get around there was 50mph, but taking it wide to give me a better line on Gambon. What a corner that is, so bloody sharp, jump 2 gears into 2nd and hang on at 35-40mph and bounce around it trying to hold the back end in. There’s a bloody raised rumble edge kerb on the RH side as you come out of Gambon and I clipped it a few times throwing the passenger side wheels up in the air. Probably only an inch, but it felt like more. Power out of Gambon into Crooner curve. It’s all about the line you take here that reduces time. Again it’s very deceptive, as it’s a progressive bend that gets tighter as you travel around it, you can leave braking in a De until the 30 yard marker assuming your doing about 70, but once your 2/3 of the way around Crooner it bites you! Tail out as the bend tightens, I tried braking part way in but that really throws the exit pick up time down, in the end it really is a “throw the car into it and hold the slide” kinda bend.
On to Chicago and around and around and around again.
Top Gear have the Start/Finish after Gambon, but because there were spectators this was moved to just after Crooner curve, as it was a much safer place in respect of the chances of a car coming off the track.
Take my word for it, this was NO SUNDAY DRIVE, a new Merc AMG Black was totalled as he went off and through the water butt barriers, the F40 blew something on the engine, and two drivers were red flagged and sent home after a side swipe of each other just after Bacharach!
We really were pushing it. Our only brief was not to kill our fee paying passenger, but hey they’d signed a disclaimer….
Scream if you want to go faster. :twisted:
So who wants to see some Top Gear Delorean track footage then?
Do want to see a Ferrari 308 bottle it and a Delorean triumph?
This isn’t no computer game, this is for real.
Surprising a DeLorean looks fairly small compared to a lot of the supercars.