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If you’re going to be on a race track, you’re safest as a passenger if there’s a racing driver as your chauffeur. Not only have they been trained to operate a vehicle at the limit, but there’s no way an incident or crash would look great on a driver’s CV.
With a precious person onboard—wife, girlfriend, journalist—we know the racer won’t crash, but these passengers are worked up beyond belief.
BMW works driver Augusto Farfus is one of the most accomplished drivers in the business, but watching him win races from the stands is far different from being next to him. His wife Liri got to experience a quick lap of the Nürburgring, with Augusto the perfect gentleman by explaining everything to try and put her at ease. He didn’t.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsgNv9V6yEc
This one with Walter Röhrl notable for two things: first, it involves no screaming. Second, if you’re a passenger, make things easy on yourself: keep your eyes up. Closing them and looking away will just make things worse…
If a Daytona Prototype is your office, ear protection is very much recommended, either for the obscenely loud drivetrain or screaming passenger. Joao Barbosa looks like he’s having a great time.
Riccardo Patrese’s wife is playing it cool for almost two full minutes, chatting away, being happy, and then all hell breaks loose. Imagine if Patrese’s Formula 1 car had a second seat—they’re just in a Civic! Some mild swearing in Italian, and the best end to a hot lap I’ve seen once they both noticed a small red light on the dash…
Keiichi Tsuchiya inspired a lot of the manga Initial D, and when it came time to turn it into a TV show, he took the time out to give one of the voice actors a ride he’ll never forget.
There’s one notable exception to the whole, “You’re safest in the hands of a racing driver”: Autocar’s Steve Sutcliffe, an epic driver himself, called the crash a few hundred yards before ex-Formula 1 driver Antonio Pizzeria did. We’re glad both walked away.
It takes a special talent to scare another racing driver, but this is one of those many Tiff Needell clips that you can watch over and over again. Two-time BTCC champion Jason Plato starts to get more and more ghostly as the lap goes on…this is a guy who’s won 94 races in that series alone!
Thumbnail Image Courtesy of BMW
He’s a pro stunt bike rider, so he is a pro driver. You should include Darius taking his mom for a few laps at Laguna Seca! 25 years ago he scared the **** out of me with a on rap rip in his Chev v8 Datsun 240z.
I forgot the link,,,
I see the Concerned Citizens Brigade is out in force. For all you know the passengers had plenty of warning and the entire video is faked. And you have no idea what goes on between two people in the privacy of their relationship or their discussions. But please, do tell us what we should do in the privacy of our lives.
PS: Ricardo, does your wife have any younger cousins or sisters? She seems delightful. You just know it was a cold night in their house 🙂
Personally I love when Max Verstappen took his dad around Monaco: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXmMaU8biaI
I remember when Pizzonia rolled a new Jaguar while chaufeurring a journalist. So, don’t be so 100\% sure that they won’t crash. No helmet, no roll-bar.
I’m sure the neither journalist nor Jaguar were pleased.
To be honest, I’ve never enjoyed being a passenger when someone is pushing, particularly in a road car.