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Post by racingteatray on Jun 16, 2020 16:40:04 GMT
Prompted by Garry's thread, which got me thinking about what cars I had and hadn't been in, which has been the most memorable (in a good way) passenger ride you've ever had in a road car on the road?
For me, it's a toss-up between two, both from my childhood: a 300SL Gullwing when I was 13, or a Bugatti EB110 SuperSport when I was 17.
Even although the Gullwing has been my absolute favourite car pretty much ever since I was old enough to know what a car was and I remember it like yesterday, I think the Bugatti just edges it, because nothing I have ever experienced since has given me quite the sheer visceral raw sense of "OMFG this is fast". It was being driven by a former professional racing driver who held the Bugatti concession for France (where we happened to be) and obligingly he absolutely spanked it. I've had a soft spot for the EB110 ever since.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 16, 2020 16:44:01 GMT
One of the dealers in Riyadh took me and a few mates around a test route in a Mustang convertible, new then (94/95) including a small circuit they had set up out the back of their showroom. He knew what he was doing, playing with that auto like it was a manual. Loud and visceral as a V8 could have been at the time imho of course. Great fun.
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Post by Tim on Jun 16, 2020 16:46:53 GMT
A friend hired a Nissan GT-R for the weekend and took me out in it for a longish thrash.
Jesus it was quick and it turned out it flew pretty well courtesy of an unexpected and long flight from a hump back bridge.
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Post by LandieMark on Jun 16, 2020 16:53:13 GMT
Best passenger ride was a hot lap in a race prepared E-Type at Croft when I was 21. I got to drive it first too.
Worst (I know you didn't ask) was a ride in an Evo as part of a rally experience. Didn't enjoy that much to be honest.
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Post by Martin on Jun 16, 2020 16:55:24 GMT
I had a ride in an immaculate Gullwing and almost brand new Honda NSX when I was 17, thanks to working part time for Stuart Graham, who has the most amazing collection of old Mercedes and owned a Honda dealership back then. When it comes to speed, the best experience was sitting alongside a professional racing driver (My Dad's company sponsored the F2000 series for a year and a Ginetta team for a couple of years) in his E46 M3 around Donnington in the lunch break. He also used to take our guests around the circuit in the teams Galaxy which was hilarious. I worked for the company back then, so I was paid to spend weekends at racetracks looking after guests, we went to every round of the BTCC in 1997. Anyway.....
I've not yet been the passenger in anything as fast as an EB110 on the road.
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Post by johnc on Jun 16, 2020 17:04:45 GMT
Not a road but Jimmy McRae took me round Knockhill in a Sierra after I had taken him round for about 10 laps. To say he was smooth was an understatement: the car floated round corners and the transition from power to brake and back on power was smooth as silk. It is something I look back at with real admiration.
On the road probably my first passenger ride in a Tesla P90D in ludicrous mode or the scariest ride was in an ex works Cosworth powered MK 1 rally Escort on country roads that I didn't know around Cupar , at night and almost all sideways with 7,000 rpm + at almost all times: even in my early indestructible 20's I thought I might die.
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Post by Big Blue on Jun 17, 2020 9:34:31 GMT
I hate being a passenger and no amount of recall has found anything enjoyable enough to be "best". Closest was the first time out on a big bike as pillion with a rider that only rode bikes at the time (no car license). Thing I remember most was coming off the Marble Arch gyrotary and left onto Gloucester Place where people were stepping off the back of the routemaster bus which was stopped in traffic but not at a stop. Nich, the rider, gave an almighty faux scream and we pissed ourselves laughing as all these ladies leapt with terror.
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Post by garry on Jun 17, 2020 10:20:11 GMT
Not a road but Jimmy McRae took me round Knockhill in a Sierra after I had taken him round for about 10 laps. To say he was smooth was an understatement: the car floated round corners and the transition from power to brake and back on power was smooth as silk. It is something I look back at with real admiration. On the road probably my first passenger ride in a Tesla P90D in ludicrous mode or the scariest ride was in an ex works Cosworth powered MK 1 rally Escort on country roads that I didn't know around Cupar , at night and almost all sideways with 7,000 rpm + at almost all times: even in my early indestructible 20's I thought I might die. I did some laps around knockhill with John Clelland in a Sierra. He was chatting like we were popping to the local shops and at one point demonstrated how to correct a slide by actually doing it and talking me through it whilst it happened. It opened my eyes to the level of skill those guys have. On a road the most memorable was a 911 turbo in the mid 80’s (a 930 turbo). As a kid, the best car I’d ever been in was my uncles Capri so it was a bit of a difference. Boss of the local car dealership where I had a weekend job dropped me home. There was this long slightly uphill straight and I can still remember that sense of being catapulted to the horizon, the tremendous noise, the turbo kicking in. It was like nothing on earth. |
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Post by racingteatray on Jun 17, 2020 11:38:44 GMT
I hate being a passenger and no amount of recall has found anything enjoyable enough to be "best". I don't enjoy being a passenger either, unless I trust the driver, which is possibly why both my memories date from being a teenager!! The only time I've had a similar experience in recent(ish) years was about seven years ago in Vienna. I was there for the wedding of an old university friend and got chatting to a friendly Kuwaiti guy sat on my table for the wedding dinner. He turned out to be a massive petrolhead (and it turned out Mike had put us on the same table for that exact reason) and we ended up agreeing to meet up the following day for lunch. After checking that I only had a small overnight case as luggage, he picked me up from my hotel in a gorgeous dark grey Lamborghini Aventador and we had a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours blasting around (including a demonstration of the launch control on a deserted country road), before breaking for lunch after which he kindly gave me a lift to the airport in it. He turned out to be a decently skilled driver, which was a relief. Still not a patch on the Bugatti experience though. By coincidence, that was also metallic grey. This is what I had to say about it at the time: www.tapatalk.com/groups/themotor/passenger-ride-lambo-t19870.html |
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Post by ChrisM on Jun 17, 2020 19:16:20 GMT
^
Ah, hence your request elsewhere for a link to the old forum !!
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Post by racingteatray on Jun 17, 2020 19:52:57 GMT
^ Ah, hence your request elsewhere for a link to the old forum !! Yup, actually because I seemed not to have kept any photos, but thought I might as well link the whole thread. |
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Post by PetrolEd on Jun 17, 2020 19:56:42 GMT
Not a road but Jimmy McRae took me round Knockhill in a Sierra after I had taken him round for about 10 laps. To say he was smooth was an understatement: the car floated round corners and the transition from power to brake and back on power was smooth as silk. It is something I look back at with real admiration. Its such an education being taken around a circuit by a decent pro driver. They just seem to get the car to pivot from the centre and the car changes direction likes its floating. Like watching a decent golfer they seem to be doing nothing different to me but somehow make the whole thing look so easy. As an 18 year old my mate had an Impreza Turbo Mcrae edition. That thing went everywhere sideways. He was an animal and I'm still thankful we got away without a scratch. Same mate also had an F40 a few years later which he drove in a similar manor. It was bloody quick but I was disappointed by the noise therefore I'd take an F50 given the choice. Did a 7.40 lap time at the ring in a manthey GT2. Never have I wanted to spew so badly. Hugely impressive but also hugely frightening. Made the passenger lap in a 991 supercup car quite the plesant experience. Only thing with that was the gearbox wine that was deafening |
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Post by ChrisM on Jun 17, 2020 20:00:32 GMT
I've been trying to think of any memorable passenger ride I've had on the public highway, and have struggled. None of the family had any interest in cars, all I can recall from friends etc is that I had an uncle who liked to change cars regularly but never for anything "exciting".... minis, Austin Westminster or something similar in the mid 1960's, an early Celica, Maestro, some XJ6's but no memorable ride in any of them. So it comes down to a trip when I was in secondary school with one of the teachers to another school to do some sort of chore that I can't recall, 3 schoolboys with him in his original mini countryman, the one with wooden bits on the outside. It was only a few miles across town, but I recall he had no regard for speed limits and had the tyres squealing on a few of the corners, the car felt under control the whole time but maybe it wasn't quite the right way to drive with several parents' kids on board !
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Post by Deleted on Jun 17, 2020 20:02:05 GMT
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Post by Andy C on Jun 17, 2020 20:16:35 GMT
A couple spring to mind
Exige S around silverstone With a pro racing driver - again the smoothness and control was hugely impressive
Customer took me out a Tesla Model S . ‘only’ the 75 I think but the acceleration was other worldly . I’ve been in a lot of quick stuff but this was a different level. The lack of a nice noise would do my head in though I think
And a few thanks to people on here - Dan D in the Cayman around oulton was huge fun , the early morning drive from the hotel to Prescott in the TVR with mark , and the same with Bryan in the targa from another year
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Post by ChrisM on Jun 17, 2020 20:22:06 GMT
Best passenger experience off the public highway was in 2007 when I won an Autocar prize, driven for a few laps round one of the test tracks at MB World in an AMG Merc by the lady who's now Mrs Toto Wolff.   The shoes have gone, the jacket is scrunched up in the back of the Kuga for use in emergencies and I still wear the shirt and trousers ! (and Concorde is in the background) |
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Post by Stuntman on Jun 17, 2020 20:46:59 GMT
Three vivid ones for me:
1. Passengering Tim Harvey in an E36 M3 at Castle Combe in 1999. We didn't join the circuit via the pitlane as you might expect, instead we joined in very sideways, via the circuit gate on the exit of Camp Corner. It was his last run of the day giving passenger hot laps, and as we joined the circuit, he laughed out loud, and said that was the most sideways entrance of the day! He then proceeded to drive two laps in similarly flamboyant fashion, gobbling up whatever was ahead of us. I loved that ride.
2. Passengering John Gaw, again at Castle Combe, this time in 2003 in his Caterham Supergrad, on a trackday which was the day before a race weekend. He took me round the circuit (two up, obviously) at a speed that would still have put him on pole during qualifying the day after. I used to work with him in the late 1990s and we did quite a bit of indoor kart racing together. I was his equal or better in those days, but he was much braver than me!
3. Passengering Paul O'Neill in a race-prepared Vectra at Donington Park in 2007, as part of the VXR track experience day that was promoted by Autocar. I have never been so sideways without the car spinning! Given that it was a FWD car, that's some achievement, and he didn't think he was going to recover the slide either! He was a complete laugh, too.
Thanks Andy for the shout-out above - I really enjoy giving people passenger rides, and the ride I gave you at Oulton wasn't the best. I recall a much better day at the Autodrome back in about 2010 when I took quite a few forumers out in the silver Cayman and I was really 'on it'. Hopefully those times can return again soon, while I still have the GT4!
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Post by Roadsterstu on Jun 18, 2020 13:07:43 GMT
Two stand out. A passenger ride as a 15 or 16 year old in a then new FWD Lotus Elan with my mum's cousin driving. He worked for Lotus at the time. I remember how sharp and compact it felt. That, though, is topped by a decent ride in a bright yellow Diablo SV, about 12 years ago, with a friend who was a customer service manager at a supercar dealer at the time (he now works for a low volume manufacturer and I hope to get a passenger ride (even a drive) in the not too distant future). The Diablo was epic. Loud, fast, wide, very yellow. Glorious V12, felt utterly capable and planted and, at "71mph" on a dual carriageway, absolutely smooth and in its element. The ease at which it hit "71" was just astounding to someone nowhere near used to such performance and on twisty roads it, too, had a great level of feel and communication even from the passenger seat.
Another was a passenger lap at Bruntingthorpe in a 997 GT3, almost 150mph, windows down. The sheer grip it had pulling out of bends on a less than perfect surface was fantastic. Also passengered in a Nissan GTR and a V8 Westfield that day. It was a good day!
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Post by Roadsterstu on Jun 18, 2020 13:15:38 GMT
A couple spring to mind Exige S around silverstone With a pro racing driver - again the smoothness and control was hugely impressive Customer took me out a Tesla Model S . ‘only’ the 75 I think but the acceleration was other worldly . I’ve been in a lot of quick stuff but this was a different level. The lack of a nice noise would do my head in though I think And a few thanks to people on here - Dan D in the Cayman around oulton was huge fun , the early morning drive from the hotel to Prescott in the TVR with mark , and the same with Bryan in the targa from another year I agree, I also had a very entertaining and very impressive passenger ride in the silver Cayman that day. I'm just glad I wasn't in the blue Clio at a certain point, that same day. Sat in the back of Bryan's 911 is another one to remember, trying to sit across the rear "seats" with a view out of that curved rear window, across a vast expanse of spoiler. And an even run home from a Prescott weekend night out, top down, in Mark's TVR. I've probably missed some more out, too. |
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Post by Ben on Jun 23, 2020 11:38:31 GMT
I'm not very often a passenger. I had a passenger ride with Lucas di Grassi in some sort of Maserati once in Shanghai, but that was on a closed circuit.
I remember him being quite smooth, and very cool and collected.
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Post by franki68 on Jun 24, 2020 12:21:02 GMT
Not a road but Jimmy McRae took me round Knockhill in a Sierra after I had taken him round for about 10 laps. To say he was smooth was an understatement: the car floated round corners and the transition from power to brake and back on power was smooth as silk. It is something I look back at with real admiration. Its such an education being taken around a circuit by a decent pro driver. They just seem to get the car to pivot from the centre and the car changes direction likes its floating. Like watching a decent golfer they seem to be doing nothing different to me but somehow make the whole thing look so easy. As an 18 year old my mate had an Impreza Turbo Mcrae edition. That thing went everywhere sideways. He was an animal and I'm still thankful we got away without a scratch. Same mate also had an F40 a few years later which he drove in a similar manor. It was bloody quick but I was disappointed by the noise therefore I'd take an F50 given the choice. Did a 7.40 lap time at the ring in a manthey GT2. Never have I wanted to spew so badly. Hugely impressive but also hugely frightening. Made the passenger lap in a 991 supercup car quite the plesant experience. Only thing with that was the gearbox wine that was deafening Sorry but I missed that last paragraph before..The manthey gt2rs ? I feel ill just watching this....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SrKLK9V6lY |
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