Hooning with Hamilton: PH Blog
14 years after first meeting Lewis Hamilton, Chris drives with him again. Sideways, of course
The first Hamilton-Harris meet. Nice trainers
Lewis, the champion karter with zero street car experience, the kid underpinned by Ron, was game enough to accept the invitation - or McLaren foisted it upon him.
The judging process was quite simple. Several Autocar staff members were placed on the outside of a marked course - a large, wetted circle at the Chobham steering pad - and awarded points for drift angles and control. One mug sat in the passenger seat and judged the mayhem within. In 2000, I was the mug.
"So Chris, apparently you can drift..."
But like a trooper, he tried, he manned-up with a smile and, when it was all over, he said thanks. Then, as he waited for his C-Class to take him home, he came over to us and asked if he might have a play on his own to try and figure it out. I remember thinking at the time how terrifyingly motivated he seemed.
Several years later, when he signed for McLaren, I phoned the team and asked if it might be possible to invite Lewis back to Chobham - not for a competition, but to have him show us that he could now properly spank a road car. They said no. I didn't bother asking again.
Lewis struggled in the M Coupe...
He arrives quietly, smiles shyly to a few of us gathered in the garage and settles into the E63. He adjusts the seat, receives instruction as to what he should do for the camera and then heads off onto the circuit. There follows much tyre screeching from around Northampton. He arrives back in the pits, removes his crash helmet and displays a quiet grin.
All the while, I'm thinking 'will I ever get another chance to ask Lewis Hamilton if I can drift a car next to him drifting a car, and complete a circle that was left unfinished 14 years ago?' You have to think that stuff, because if you use phrases like 'complete the circle' out loud people think you're a mentalist.
... no such worries 14 years later in an E63
"Hello, my name's Chris," I gabble - the way people always gabble when they meet their heroes. Yes, perhaps I should have mentioned Lewis is my driving god and I've not stood anywhere near him since that Sideways Challenge. I stick out my paw the way I always do and attempt to reciprocate the pressure of his handshake, fail dismally and continue.
I ask him if he remembers that day in the M Coupe.
"Yeah, I remember that", he says, still grinning slightly, "I wasn't very good at it, but I'm a bit better at it now."
I stump up some courage. "Would it be possible to do a few laps with me sliding this car [pointing at a second E63, they were littering the place, frankly] as you do the same in that one?"
Would make a nice two-car garage
And that's how I come to be barrelling into Copse at 110mph, watching a white 585hp estate car being flicked into a slide, a beautifully controlled slide which persuades the rear tyres to paint thick black lines from apex to exit, as I do the same. And why, at that moment, I think to myself that even as someone who has enjoyed the most spoiled, lucky, privileged last 10 years of his working life, this is coolest thing I've ever done.
It was supposed to last one lap, but it continued for several. It took me a while to get in sync with his frankly better slides than mine, because his car had a limited slip diff and mine didn't - get the excuses out the way now Monkey. But, once I'd worked it out, for two blissful laps I behaved with Lewis Hamilton, F1 world champion, supreme talent and my driving hero, the way I do with Sutcliffe, or Meaden, or Bovingdon at the end of a three-day shoot when we have a circuit, some cool cars and rubber to shred. We hooned. I hooned. With Lewis f***ing Hamilton.
"Yeah there's another lap in these, definitely"
He proved beyond any reasonable doubt that he can drift a car.
There are only two problems impromptu drifting with Lewis Hamilton. There aren't many photos for me to remember it by. I have the odd iPhone snap, and we'll soon be uploading a seriously cool app that allows a 360-degree view of those twin slides. But I kind of like the fact that, for now, an exceptional moment in my life exists in my memory.
Chris
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[2000 Sideways Challenge Hamilton pics: Autocar]
Years later I got to drive him on track, and he told me my steering technique for oversteer was wrong. I was in my third season of competitive drifting at the time, and I'd have loved to take him out in my drift car (which was in the car park) and get some pointers while driving properly sideways, but it didn't happen. Partly because getting my car on track would have required some tricky paperwork, but mostly because I was too embarrassed to ask him.
Years later I got to drive him on track, and he told me my steering technique for oversteer was wrong. I was in my third season of competitive drifting at the time, and I'd have loved to take him out in my drift car (which was in the car park) and get some pointers while driving properly sideways, but it didn't happen. Partly because getting my car on track would have required some tricky paperwork, but mostly because I was too embarrassed to ask him.
I remember in 06 asking Don Palmer how he thought Hamilton would do in the old F1. He I think saw Lewis do the Autocar SC and didn't think he wouldn't do that well. How wrong he was!
Also demonstrates going sideways can be learnt by anyone :-)
Years later I got to drive him on track, and he told me my steering technique for oversteer was wrong. I was in my third season of competitive drifting at the time, and I'd have loved to take him out in my drift car (which was in the car park) and get some pointers while driving properly sideways, but it didn't happen. Partly because getting my car on track would have required some tricky paperwork, but mostly because I was too embarrassed to ask him.
Didn't he used to do pretty well at the sideways challenge?
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