Did Did Top Gear Put The Stig In A 500 ??

[neutral 3]

As above, I have been catching up on the many Top Gear shows, that I missed, via You Tube, but a quick search didn't pull up a Griff 500.
Interested to know what kind of time one would put in around Dunsfold.

Edited by neutral 3 on Monday 28th October 23:14

[ianwayne]

That version of Top Gear with the Stig started in 2002, just as the Peter Wheeler Griff ceased production.

The 'new' version of the Griff has never been a road-going car, only the prototype. So I doubt they would have been able to drive it, or test it, even if it were available.....

[spitfire4v8]

Tiff tested the G500 but I don't think it involved a timed lap of anywhere just road testing : "this is NOT a car for wimps!" or something like that he said ...

The purple Chimaera 5litre that was tested against the Z3M was a 4 litre dealer demonstrator that went back to the factory for a 5 litre engine to be fitted for the test. Presumably the factory at that point didn't have a nice 5 litre chimaera to lend them.

[griffster]

....but we did get Gerry Marshall in a Griff - Quite possibly a better racing driver - He owned one too

[pitboard]

griffster said:

....but we did get Gerry Marshall in a Griff - Quite possibly a better racing driver - He owned one too

I would say thats it's beyond doubt that Marshall was a better racing driver than any of the journeymen who have donned the Simpson helmet.

[griffster]

I was fortunate to know Gerry a little over the years, from race training at Brands in the dim and distant, to being a customer of mine during his final years.

We shared a couple of car interests: Droopsnoot Firenza - turns out I had bought one of his race development cars (returned to road spec, but retaining all the under dash test instrument holes)
TVR Griffith

He kindly offered me a 'fast lapping' session at Silverstone (as a thankyou for looking after his daily driver car accessories) with PW and team watching.............I chickened out, having heard the sound of tortured rubber and drift angles navigating Luffield.... (post cardiac surgery!)

I miss characters like Gerry & Peter.....

[coppice]

griffster said:

....but we did get Gerry Marshall in a Griff - Quite possibly a better racing driver - He owned one too

I doubt it. Good though he was ,and I saw him race countless times , he was essentially a very , very good club racing driver , a very big fish in quite a small pond . Needell was consistently successful in single seaters , and was good enough to get an F 1 drive (in a very poor car) and he also had a serious record in sports cars.We know how good he was from his results, but any comparison with Big Gerry has to be entirely speculative . - and I doubt his exuberantly sideways style would have served him well in high grip cars in longer races.