Countach versus Testarossa at Rockingham
Discussion
A good friend Danny has a yellow anniversary Countach and was invited to take part in a kids program called "girls not allowed". They wanted to race a Countach against a Testarossa. Danny was up for it but not having any race track experience he asked me if I would drive the car. Don't get me wrong Danny drives the anniversary hard but race track experience is another ball game.
So I arrive at the Rockingham Race Circuit in the UK to find that the Testarossa is driven by a real nice guy that races it in the Ferrari Classic Championship. The cars trailered there, has a roll cage, Pirelli race cut slicks, big 6 pot AP brakes, modified suspension etc.etc. Danny's car is bog standard other than a straight through exhaust. Anyway to cut a long story short the guy in the Testarossa goes first, does eight practise laps neither of us have been to this circuit before and then does the standing start flying timed lap. Then its my go. I drove Danny's car once four years ago for about a mile on a dual carriageway. I only do four practice laps as by lap two I'm already having to pump the brakes to stop for the corners, on Danny's advice I dump the clutch at 4000 rpm and were off. I cross the start finish line lift off and still can't stop for the chicane but no problem just go straight through the cones and turn around. The time for the Testarossa was 1 minute 29.6 seconds, the Countach 1 minute 28.2 seconds. Danny had a grin from ear to ear and so did I. The biggest laugh was with the guy who was there with an Enzo. He'd done about forty laps that day as they did a lot of filming with the car. His best lap was only five seconds quicker than I managed in the Countach.
Danny has often talked about upgrading the brakes on the Countach and if we had some good brakes and I could have done the eight warm up laps before the timed lap we'd have beaten the Enzo time. Ok when all said and done its all down to the nut behind the wheel. For those of you who are interested "girls not allowed" is shown 10.30am on a Saturday morning on channel 5. Our bit will be shown somewhere within the next four weeks. Hope they don't show my spin on lap two when I tried to slow the car down on the gearbox, it did not work and I ended up going backwards. cheers Graeme
So I arrive at the Rockingham Race Circuit in the UK to find that the Testarossa is driven by a real nice guy that races it in the Ferrari Classic Championship. The cars trailered there, has a roll cage, Pirelli race cut slicks, big 6 pot AP brakes, modified suspension etc.etc. Danny's car is bog standard other than a straight through exhaust. Anyway to cut a long story short the guy in the Testarossa goes first, does eight practise laps neither of us have been to this circuit before and then does the standing start flying timed lap. Then its my go. I drove Danny's car once four years ago for about a mile on a dual carriageway. I only do four practice laps as by lap two I'm already having to pump the brakes to stop for the corners, on Danny's advice I dump the clutch at 4000 rpm and were off. I cross the start finish line lift off and still can't stop for the chicane but no problem just go straight through the cones and turn around. The time for the Testarossa was 1 minute 29.6 seconds, the Countach 1 minute 28.2 seconds. Danny had a grin from ear to ear and so did I. The biggest laugh was with the guy who was there with an Enzo. He'd done about forty laps that day as they did a lot of filming with the car. His best lap was only five seconds quicker than I managed in the Countach.
Danny has often talked about upgrading the brakes on the Countach and if we had some good brakes and I could have done the eight warm up laps before the timed lap we'd have beaten the Enzo time. Ok when all said and done its all down to the nut behind the wheel. For those of you who are interested "girls not allowed" is shown 10.30am on a Saturday morning on channel 5. Our bit will be shown somewhere within the next four weeks. Hope they don't show my spin on lap two when I tried to slow the car down on the gearbox, it did not work and I ended up going backwards. cheers Graeme
Sounds like fun. Was it this event?
www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=277518&f=63&h=0
www.pistonheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=277518&f=63&h=0
Edited by s3am on Friday 9th June 21:09
mr bridger said:
well graeme, if a "professional" driver had been driving the ferrari....i"m sure the difference would have been 3 seconds in the ferrari" favour!!!!!!
I am sure that your assumption is correct in that if a professional driver had been driving the ferrari the story might have been a little different. However I do not know too many professional drivers that possess my abilities. Remember "Life is to short to drive a Ferrari"
Hi guys,
I know this is a revival of an old thread but finally the chaps have uploaded the video of the event. You'll have to be patient as it seems to take a while to download but here is the link and I hope you all enjoy. Cheers Graeme.
http://homepage.mac.com/digitdesign/L
I know this is a revival of an old thread but finally the chaps have uploaded the video of the event. You'll have to be patient as it seems to take a while to download but here is the link and I hope you all enjoy. Cheers Graeme.
http://homepage.mac.com/digitdesign/L
ed your brakes. Aweful.You have to remember that the testarossa was a race car with a big AP brake conversion with seperate discs and bells. (so not a problem) Danny's Countach is a bog standard road car. (the only yellow rhd anniversary ever made). The chap in the Testarossa did around eight warm up laps before the standing start flying lap. I managed three as by lap two I was having to pump the brakes for the corners. But at least I had half an idea as to whether the next corner was a left or a right. The Countach runs no diff lock on deceleration unlike a Porsche as I found out whilst trying to slow the car on the gearbox and going backwards at one of the corners.
After the interview at the end I drove the car back into the pitlane and had to stop the car by switching of the ignition as there were NO brakes. Whilst waiting for the car to cool down two of the Lambo wheel centre caps fell out as the glue had melted and poor old Danny had to wait for over an hour before attempting to drive back to Ipswich with a mate who looked very nervous at the thought of it. If he'd had been able to get a train home I reckon he would have done so. Danny was still grinning from ear to ear and as I had done the job he wanted me to do. One of the girls on the film crew asked me what I thought my chances were against the Testarossa. My reply "sometimes it just boils down to the nut behind the wheel"
After the interview at the end I drove the car back into the pitlane and had to stop the car by switching of the ignition as there were NO brakes. Whilst waiting for the car to cool down two of the Lambo wheel centre caps fell out as the glue had melted and poor old Danny had to wait for over an hour before attempting to drive back to Ipswich with a mate who looked very nervous at the thought of it. If he'd had been able to get a train home I reckon he would have done so. Danny was still grinning from ear to ear and as I had done the job he wanted me to do. One of the girls on the film crew asked me what I thought my chances were against the Testarossa. My reply "sometimes it just boils down to the nut behind the wheel"
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