That’s another one ticked off the bucket list: a passenger ride in a Le Mans racer.
Many moons ago I was due to passenger Derek Bell in a 962 at Le Mans but a minor crash by a fellow racer, also in a 962, curtailed the demo drives and my opportunity to experience the thrill of Le Mans.
The nearest I got to that was accompanying Derek Warwick in a Jaguar XJR15 on the then, new, Silverstone Grand Prix circuit with him chatting nonchalantly as we headed into Stowe at speeds approaching 190 mph as we flashed by the 300 yard marker board with no sign of him braking.
So, you can imagine my delight when Bentley offered me the opportunity of a ride with Guy Smith in a development Bentley Speed 8 from 2003. It was Guy, you will remember, who drove a Speed 8 across the finishing line to record a very emotional victory for Bentley at la Sarthe eight years ago.
Guy is a typical race driver: not very tall, whippet thin and as fit as any endurance runner. Me, I am 74 inches top to toe and weigh in at 175 lbs-ish, so getting into the tight confines of a cabin built for one was a challenge in itself. I’ve seen sardine tins with more room in them.
Helmet wedged tight against the roof, arms overlapped with my right hand gripping the door handle, and feet braced against the bulkhead I was ready to experience a couple of laps on Silverstone’s national circuit.
It was a grey, damp day so the car was running intermediate Dunlops, but with 630 bhp powering less than 2100 lbs still meant it was going to be a helter-skelter ride.
Whenever I am driven in a competition car, it’s not the acceleration that amazes me but the ferocity of the carbon brakes which shed speed off as if you’ve just run into a lake of superglue. That and the sheer amount of lateral grip through the corners.
A few laps only gives a brief insight into the amount of physical effort and endurance required for Le Mans or Daytona; the cabin was stuffy, even on a cold December day, with an all pervading aroma of petrol fumes, the ride over the kerbs as subtle as a skate board on octagonal wheels and even wearing a helmet the noise was deafening.
These cars look like brutes to tame and drive fast.
Guy, who won this year’s ALMS series in a Mazda, told me he was only using about 70 percent of the car’s potential, but that was still enough to hit 170+ mph at the end of the pit straight and before we entered the left hander into the Luffield complex.
Even at 70 percent, his work rate was phenomenal, the steering wheel writhing in his hands like a bad tempered snake (is there any other kind?) as the car slithered from under to oversteer on the damp track and the cold Dunlops vainly fought for traction, a battle they seemed to be losing most of the time, especially on the long right-hander into the pit straight with its adverse camber.
And while Guy’s head stayed relatively still, mine was being wrenched from side to side, backwards and forwards as I feebly tried to counter the G-forces.
The ride only lasted a couple of minutes, but it was probably 120 seconds of the most exciting driving I’ve yet experienced.
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Related posts:
- In-Car Video: Goodwood Circuit
- R392 Takes to the Circuit – 2011 Nismo Festival
- Bentley Teases with V-8 Soundtrack
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