Da Hapa

Matt from DRIVE TV, "the smoking tire", etc. has an ongoing series where he drives "regular" guys/gals cars... usually on Angeles Crest or other public highways like that. Some of them are pretty entertaining.

In this just released video he drives CJ Wilson (Go Angels!) personal GT4 at the Streets of Willow. Great little video and I'm stoked to see that he's going to do another clip on the Cayman Clubsport.

Enjoy!

n3rd

Why not ask CJ himself what he thinks of it?

Mvez

I'm constantly amazed by the amount of shuffle-steering in "track" review videos....

vantage

Matt drove one of my cars, he's a nice guy. Definitely "gets it" when it comes to cars.

In the competition forum, there has been lots of debate on this. I personally try to keep my hands at 9 and 3 unless absolutely required to input more lock.

Radiantm3

The only thing that bugs me about Matt is that he's not a very good driver. I guess I have high expectations from people who review how a car drives.

jphughan

If I have to turn the wheel more than 75 or so degrees, which I definitely do in several corners at CotA, then I'll shuffle steer since that's far better than crossing one's arms, but I don't adjust my grip before turn-in. Instead, I turn the first 75 degrees or so normally and then move the "outside corner hand" (since it has more freedom being up higher rather than pressed against my side) to feed the wheel as necessary to achieve the appropriate amount of lock, raising my inside corner hand after adjusting the outside hand to maintain a roughly 180-degree separation between my hands until it's time to start unwinding, at which point I unwind until my hands return to the normal 9-3 position (in terms of the cockpit, not on the wheel itself since it's still offset due to the extra lock) and then once again use my outside corner hand to feed the wheel back as necessary until it's pointed straight ahead. But otherwise it's 9 and 3 on the wheel all the time.

Yeah, I was wondering about this. Those lines and throttle technique didn't look very good to me at all. I gave him a bit of a pass being in a borrowed, unfamiliar car and since I thought there might be things about the track surface that weren't apparent on the video that might be affecting the chosen line (I've never driven Willow Springs), but perhaps not.

GT4VR

I think he's lost some weight, but added some man fur. Haha. Thanks for sharing! Enjoyed the video. So much for the 2,000 mile break-in period I've been reading about in some threads here.

Farrah is a likable guy and an average once-in-a-while track day driver, but the difference in ability is stark when you get used to watching Harris and Sutcliffe toss cars around like toys. For what it's worth it sort of makes his reviews easier to relate to because he's driving at an ability level shared with a larger audience.

I liked that he acknowledged all the previous reviews and did a good job of not repeating what's been said in dozens of videos before him and even added a couple new observations I hadn't heard before.

Dr.Bill

I will say this - CJ certainly has good taste! With the exception of PCCB's, my car is almost identical! Although it will not have a fluffy beardy guy driving it!

mrd_spy

yep it got him in a mess 1st lap as well.

so a brand new car thrashed on track and some bad steering technique

gmaki

Did you go with Radio Delete? That is probably me favorite thing about CJ's car. I wish I had had the ***** to do that.

jphughan

Does radio delete also remove the speakers, and if so does it go further and remove the actual speaker grilles?

rk-d

I've been waiting to see Farah's take on the GT4. He drives a lot of big horsepower cars, so I was a little surprised he actually liked this one.

Interesting that they are tracking the car at 700 miles on the odometer - no break-in for that GT4

vantage

I'm not at all surprised he liked it. Because he drives so many diff cars, he's able to appreciate the pros/cons of each without letting his personal preferences mask the review. In prior track videos, he admits he's not the best driver, but I think the cars are driven sufficiently hard to give the average buyer a good sense.

He even liked my Elise (i.e. low powered car). I think he used the word "race car" a few times during the one take:



Other low powered cars he loved included the Morgan 3-wheeler.

GrantG

Very nice!

rk-d

Nice! He's pretty critical during these one take segments - looks like he really liked your Elise.