Derek Bell vid
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 23,303
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From: Baltimore, MD
Derek Bell came to speak at one of our local shops, and he was just a real gentleman. He talked non-stop about his racing experiences in the most casual and unassuming way and treated us like he was just one of the guys in the club who happened to have a neat car. One of these days, I'll have someone transcribe the video I have, for Derek has some strong opinions on trail-braking (not a fan of it and thinks it's over-emphasized).
BTW, this is my favorite shot of the whole clip:
BTW, this is my favorite shot of the whole clip:
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 950
Likes: 12
From: UK
That was April 2008, I was fortunate enough to be amongst the group of RS enthusiasts in the video.
We spent the whole day with Herr Bell, he was an absolute gentleman telling us fascinating stories of his amazing career, the Porsche works drives, Le mans and just talking about cars all day.
The problems with the 924 carrera Gts, were genuine, he really hadn't driven it for some time.
For the video footage I got to drive the 964CS for quite a few laps and the highlight was when Herr Bell handed me the keys to the 997GT3 and asked me to drive in his place for the group driving sessions....A day I will never forget!
I have to say the guys from car magazine were fantastic as well, none of the video was staged it was just like that all day except when we were really clowning around!
We spent the whole day with Herr Bell, he was an absolute gentleman telling us fascinating stories of his amazing career, the Porsche works drives, Le mans and just talking about cars all day.
The problems with the 924 carrera Gts, were genuine, he really hadn't driven it for some time.
For the video footage I got to drive the 964CS for quite a few laps and the highlight was when Herr Bell handed me the keys to the 997GT3 and asked me to drive in his place for the group driving sessions....A day I will never forget!
I have to say the guys from car magazine were fantastic as well, none of the video was staged it was just like that all day except when we were really clowning around!
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Joined: Mar 2006
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From: Chicago, IL
I found this on the Car Magazine (UK) site ... in a blog by Ben Barry, the passenger in the GT2 ride (and apparently all the Bell ride-alongs) ...
"And then the day climaxed with the GT2: the lairy, apocalyptically quick GT2. If I were to get behind the wheel of a 523bhp, rear-engined, rear-wheel drive supercar, I’d build up to its limits gradually. Not Bell. ‘F**k me!’ he shouted when he opened the taps for the first time. This made me worried. Here was a well-spoken chap accustomed to driving ferocious sports prototypes to victory at Le Mans and the GT2’s performance was shocking him.
It was like hearing an air hostess scream.
But Bell kept his foot in, driving through the twin-turbo explosion at 2400rpm and shifting gear violently as the performance crescendoed north of 6000rpm (my vision was too blurred to tell you the precise tacho reading). The turbo wastegate exhaled violently and BANG, the whole process started again, my head slamming back into the seat."
Ref: CarMagazine
"And then the day climaxed with the GT2: the lairy, apocalyptically quick GT2. If I were to get behind the wheel of a 523bhp, rear-engined, rear-wheel drive supercar, I’d build up to its limits gradually. Not Bell. ‘F**k me!’ he shouted when he opened the taps for the first time. This made me worried. Here was a well-spoken chap accustomed to driving ferocious sports prototypes to victory at Le Mans and the GT2’s performance was shocking him.
It was like hearing an air hostess scream.
But Bell kept his foot in, driving through the twin-turbo explosion at 2400rpm and shifting gear violently as the performance crescendoed north of 6000rpm (my vision was too blurred to tell you the precise tacho reading). The turbo wastegate exhaled violently and BANG, the whole process started again, my head slamming back into the seat."
Ref: CarMagazine
