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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hJfBM2sRkQ
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…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=updyPbEJ8f4
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oIhGJyLR6TI
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…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2r78ShGPQwQ
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYJtcoS7ImQ
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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MT5yLR4aluY
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
