Saturday 16th September 2017

Ferrari F50 at Suzuka: Time For Tea?

Because V12s and manuals are the best, aren't they?

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Often a Time For Tea? video will be topical, or have some relevance to what's in the automotive news. Sometimes, however, the situation just calls for a brilliant car video. Today is one of those days.

The Frankfurt media days are done for another year, so indulge us a little nostalgia as the future looks all new and scary. It's a Ferrari F50, one lap of Suzuka and a rather handy racing driver - with some fabulous Adidas race boots - committed to video.

That really is it too, besides a bit of jazzy lift/Gran Turismo music to begin with. Perhaps best of all this video has a foot cam, allowing you to watch those boots dance across the pedals. Not only are they there for the (very nicely done) downshifts, but also note the left foot gently dabbing the middle pedal for big stops.

And that V12! The F50 was mentioned in our Project One story the other day, and how the Ferrari was the last installation of an F1 engine in a road car; regardless of how much more modern the AMG 1.6 is though, there's no way it can hope to compete with this glorious V12 sonically. What a car. Sometimes simple really is best!

Watch the video here.

[Erudite geezer]

Aural sex.

[LukeyC]

My all time favourite car at my all time favourite track - how have I never seen this before!?

[toohuge]

Goosebump inducing noise...

[GCH]

To this day I still can't fathom why they made it without a roof...

[vz-r_dave]

GCH said:

To this day I still can't fathom why they made it without a roof...

F1 cars dont have them.......

[bobski1]

rookie question, when he is heel-toeing the brake and accelerator, why does he do it?

[HardMiles]

It sounds good, but simply nothing can beat the GTR long tail at Shelsey Walsh with Kenny Brack at the wheel. Best v12 noise ever.

[mwstewart]

bobski1 said:

rookie question, when he is heel-toeing the brake and accelerator, why does he do it?

That is heel and toe. It's to match wheel (gearbox output shaft) speed to engine (gearbox input shaft) speed on a high compression engine - or any engine with wide ratios - as suddenly releasing the clutch with a large disparity between the two can cause the rear wheels to lock at worst, or at best create a small jolt that unsettles the car.

[ecksjay]

tsuchiya's drift bible is on youtube (I think) and goes some way to helping explain the effects and benefits of heel and toe... at least visually

[Tickle]

My favorite Ferrari.

Always loved them. One of my finest motoring moments was on a run in North Wales following one for about 30 miles, the sight and noise bouncing off the hills was pure magic.

[cib24]

Suzuka circuit battle against the following legends:

Ferrari F50
Ferrari F40
Ferrari F355
Lamborghini Diablo
Porsche 911 GT2
Porsche 911 GT3
Porsche 911 Turbo
Nissan Skyline R34 GTR

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxTu80ZO3Uo

You're welcome. It's a great race and I can't believe they were able to race that much money on the track at once!

[sideways man]

That's what formula one is missing... gearchanges and a foot cam!

Ok, gearchanges aren't coming back, but something to show how hard the drivers work has to be good....

[topgunkos]

My ultimate Euromillilions car, pure porn.

[Cneci]

Barely a whiff of oversteer; beautiful throttle application!

Think Sir Jackie Stewart would approve of that lap!

[Zajda]

Gan-san (Motoharu Kurosawa). Legend. First under 8 minute Nurburgring record laps in nineties under his belt. Well over 50 at the time as he was born in 1940...

[LukeyC]

GCH said:

To this day I still can't fathom why they made it without a roof...

All F50's come with two roofs! You get a hard top, but it can't be stored away in the car, so you also get a soft top located on a shelf behind the seats.

[cholo]

Obviously I'm not the expert and he is, but watching him on the throttle looks very un-smooth (is that a word)

I've always been taught on track days to be as smooth as possible (smooth is faster), but mid corner, it just looks like he is on-of-on-off with the throttle.

[f1ten]

Just ban epic car in every way.

topgunkos said:

My ultimate Euromillilions car, pure porn.

[big_rob_sydney]

What a lovely machine.

[loveice]

cholo said:

Obviously I'm not the expert and he is, but watching him on the throttle looks very un-smooth (is that a word)

I've always been taught on track days to be as smooth as possible (smooth is faster), but mid corner, it just looks like he is on-of-on-off with the throttle.

The word "smooth" is relative. For those corners he was as smooth as anyone could considering the speed and the type of car he was driving.