Let the spanking begin! If you listen closely you can hear one of the Viper team say, “I see Vultures.” refering to the Vette lap record.
Split Screen Vette Vs Viper at Nurburgring
September 2nd 2008 by Gary Faules — 5 Comments
Tagged:corvette, green hell, lap record, nurburgring, vette, viper
5 comments ↓
Is it just my perception or is the Vette driver doing more corrective steering than the Viper guy?
As a team owner not to mention a driving instructor I have learned that while I find different driver’s driving style’s interesting they are not actually important. Early on in my career I thought there was something wrong with this simply because I assumed if you didn’t use the same method/style as someone else who was faster that you would never be as fast. That thinking was entirely wrong. I have watched countless hours of in-car video of myself as well as team-mates who drive for me and while one may be as smooth as silk utilizing only minimum body movement another whips the wheel around like he was swatting at a hornets nest in the car all the while sliding too hot into corners and so on. Even more interesting is the end result… Identical lap time!
Putting different (but good) drivers in a race car are like putting on different pairs of shoes. They both get you to the same place at the same speed.
Considering what a respected formula driver the Viper team used it was funny to watch him have such a hard time using the Viper’s gear shift. After all, compared to what he’s used to driving it must have felt like a caveman’s club. I would like to see how well he would do if he were used to the car.
To emphasize this, look for in car videos of Carlos Sainz and Colin McRae. Carlos flails around on the wheel, while Colin always looked like he was out for a sunday drive. They were both fast, but for all his thrashing, Sainz rarely went off the road, while McRae was often in the weeds.
I’ll switch from WRC to F1. Fernando Alonso was been characterized my many writers as being very abrupt in his steering movements, yet it does not appear to slow his speed or degrade the tires any worse than his teammates.
But like Gunnar, I too was thinking the Vette driver appeared to using way more steering input compared to the Viper driver.
You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Same reasoning works with regards to the Vette’s handling. If a Vette can’t handle then you can’t lead it to a lap record…. LOL.
I’m sorry… Even though I have owned a few beauties I grew up a diehard everything but a Vette guy.
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