My shotgun ride in the Mong AU Saloon car.

Casper · 10-08-2007, 10:47 PM

Well, as many of you know we have adopted an AU Saloon car on aufalcon.com as one of our own.
Today I was fortunate enough to be given an invite by Greg and Matt (Lovell) to come to today’s practice at Phillip Island for the weekend round of the saloon cars. After turning up a bit late (damn work) I finally caught up with the guys working away under the car preparing for the final practice run (which went well although a bit of under steer was causing Matt some grief).

At the end of the day I got the best surprise as Greg bolted in a passenger seat and handed me a race suit, helmet and gloves. Time for me to get a inside view at just how damn fast these things really are.
All I can say is the video (yes, there is in car video of this on aufalcon.com and a smaller 10meg clip at the bottom of this page) does not do the car justice for how fast it can take these corners. If you listen to the clip you will realize that the car is kept flat stick through corner after corner where every fibre in my being was telling me we had to be on the brakes. It was the most sensational feeling to go through these sweepers on a knife edge feeling the car twitch and grip under you just waiting for it to spear off into the greenery. Matt certainly wasn’t holding back and, on the 3rd “cool down” lap started messing around getting the car sideways and off line just to show the difference in how it reacts.

For the record the car was clocked at 222kph at the end of the main straight.. thats moving!!!

A huge thanks to Greg and Matt for giving me an awesome day out and a ride of my life. Top guys, super friendly (as everyone was) and couldt go out of their way enough to make my day a heap of fun.

Overall a sensational day. Couple of snaps of the car and the day.

Me in my fashionable race suit pumping up on adrenaline just before we headed out.

Right click and save the video. WMV format.

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