aussie jimmy

he said: "bloody f..... crocodiles"

TheStiglet

I appreciate the vote of confidence. "Easy to rotate and correct" perhaps understates the task... but it responds as you would expect, it is predictable, but it's quite touchy, you need to be fast and precise. The analogy would be that it "cuts easily like a scalpel". Just make sure you're careful with that scalpel! Does that clarify the perspective?

I'd love to try the new Michelin Super Sports to see how much that fixes the "loose" feeling. More grip certainly helps. But I still suspect that it's over-sprung for our bumpy roads (and is more optimized from the factory for circuit usage or Autobahn service). I felt it unweighting aggressively over humps and undulations that really unsettled or lifted the car. However, I bet on track with some R-compounds it's fantastic!

Has no-one ever inquired about spring options for the car? (BTW - this is the opposite problem I have with the RS 4.0 on track....it's undersprung).

Herr Preuninger are you reading this? =)

TheStiglet

Ritesh - I understand your point and I think it's well made, which I think is why McLaren have built both the 12C and P1 without mechanical LSDs, and both are meant to be driven with the electronics on. For 99% of the population it instills more confidence and allows people to drive their cars faster.

There's also absolutely no question as to how fast the McLaren cars can navigate a circuit. I think I was quite clear about that in my review of the car. It's quicker than just about any street car out there. It just doesn't make me fizz when I drive it, which is a bit of a disappointment. The fun for me is only in the kineticism of the car, the way a roller coast entertains. It is #*&^%$% EPICALLY FAST!!! But never gives you that sensitive feeling of control of rotation and throttle steer. I suppose it's the feeling that I really could "hit the curb sideways..." that makes analog cars exciting. Would gambling be truly exciting if you couldn't lose and software made your bets for you?

Carrera GT

There's anything from mild to wild in aftermarket upgrades for the Carrera GT. I think you have to at least get fresh rubber -- even on a 911, Sport Cups, after 3K miles, get hard and the sidewall seems to become too much part of the high speed damping and too rigid in low speed events. I know two guys in particular who tracked the Carrera GT a lot -- one of them literally pioneered things like harness belts -- and they comment on the car being very sensitive to pressures and temperatures. I assume you were running with the wing extended and using power to plant the rear (it requires about twice the assertion of the 911 because of the low and forward V10 contributing to a car that's design to be stable at 150mph more than 100mph. There's some great videos of Rohrl talking about "slowing down" to 100mph for "tight" turns. (!)

There's always the possibility the car you were sampling is in poor repair. It is basically ten years old and most of them are under driven in terms of miles and demands, so they not what they were when factory fresh.

Of course there's the basic premise that the car is designed to convey a gentleman at his leisure or to transport him at flanking speed, so it's a car designed for excellent conditions, not for California's "poverty and potholes" road system.

Carrera GT

[QUOTE=jmenczer;10700263]Ritesh - I understand your point and I think it's well made, which I think is why McLaren have built both the 12C and P1 without mechanical LSDs, and both are meant to be driven with the electronics on. For 99% of the population it instills more confidence and allows people to drive their cars faster.

There's also absolutely no question as to how fast the McLaren cars can navigate a circuit. I think I was quite clear about that in my review of the car. It's quicker than just about any street car out there. It just doesn't make me fizz when I drive it, which is a bit of a disappointment. The fun for me is only in the kineticism of the car, the way a roller coast entertains. It is #*&^%$% EPICALLY FAST!!! But never gives you that sensitive feeling of control of rotation and throttle steer. I suppose it's the feeling that I really could "hit the curb sideways..." that makes analog cars exciting. Would gambling be truly exciting if you couldn't lose and software made your bets for you?[/QUOTE]I told you not to talk about my business in public!

perfectlap

Classic. We had a friend in common once when he was at McLaren. He just picked up one of those 600+hp AMG whatever in Miami. His bottom line: "this car absolutely should not be sold to the general public."

re Ferrari. Funny how he and Clarkson are in line. No mas power.
Which makes me think the JPM going to Indy in 2014 may not be as banzai as the JPM who cleaned up in CART circa 1999.

Rest of JPM on cars:

AW: Did I just hear that you have a Chevy Volt?

JPM:

Yes I do. I love it! For me when I was 25 it was all about those [performance] cars and now I use a Tahoe with a bike rack that I take my bikes everywhere. And if I need to go anywhere [else] I'll take the Volt.

My wife gave me a Nissan GT-R when they came out and I've still got it -- it's got 5,000 miles on it and it's five years old.


AW: See, like you with Porsches, I don't love that car …

JPM:

Oh it's the baddest $#%&*@! car!


AW: But it's almost like a video game, it does everything for you.

JPM:

OK? That's a Formula One car. A Formula One car will do whatever you want, however you want it. You look at an F1, they never fight with the car, F1 it's on rails, the thing is on rails.

At least when I was there, the difference between the really good drivers and the good drivers is, a lot of the places -- and that's why it's so hard for the younger guys -- the limit is not the car, it's you. Especially in the faster corners.


AW: So basically you just have to believe that the car is going to stick to the road?

JPM:

This is a true story. We [the Williams team] were testing with Ralf Schumacher just when I went there right before the first race in Melbourne. We were testing in Jerez and he's braking 30 meters deeper -- we come out of a really fast left-hander in sixth gear and you've gotta brake for a second-gear right. And like, I'm braking -- bang bang bang [on the downshifts] -- and turning. And he's braking 30 meters later than me. It's like, how the hell are you braking 30 meters later and actually making the corner?


AW: Thirty meters, that's about 100 feet …

JPM:

That's 100 #%$^&*! feet, yes!


AW: And a world-class road car, like a C7 or ZR1 or Ferrari or Porsche -- granted, it's still a road car on street tires, but still -- usually needs 100 feet or more to stop from just 60 mph!

JPM:

Exactly. That much distance he was braking deeper than me. And I got that distance down to like half and then they put on new tires, and I tried to go deeper, and I ended up in the tire barrier.

And then a year later, because you understood the car and learned the car, I could actually go deeper than him everywhere and faster than him in all the fast corners. 'Cause the faster corners, the problem with having so much grip, think about the middle of the corner: Let's say you can go through the middle of the corner at 150 mph. But it's how do you get [down] to the 150 mph? Do you lift early and get to it or do you come all the way here, brake all the way in and hope it sticks? And that's where F1 was unbelievable. You could go so far.

Silverstone, the first corner? It was wide open. When we went from the V10s to the V8s, it was -- the minimum speed through the corner was 305 kph. And it was seventh-gear, floored. And then you come out of there into Becketts, the left-right? The first one was wide open. I mean, the first time you do it? One of the harder things with racing like that is, as you're not used to it, you stress yourself [physically]. The first time you go to do it wide open, you try to hang on [to the wheel] harder and you actually turn in faster and screw it up. If you know it's wide open, you just go [make tiny little smooth steering inputs] and take it wide open.