Most talented drivers

[Falcon Coupe]

WRC for sure, but on the bitumen i go with GP bikes.

Edit: i found that pikes peak video and am downloading it now, for anyone interested i typed pikes peak into Imesh which is a peer to peer program, get it here : http://www.imesh.com/

[Polyal]

ok..its gone a bit off topic but thats ok.

Just got the vid...its definately a 405, well atleast thats what it says at the end; i think its a coupe version. Either way its nuts!

[MO]

Rally.... got to be good at just about everything....dirt...tar...water...etc

[CruizinEB]

i would say that Speedway drivers would be the most talented drivers around,there is so much skill in controlling a slide on clay,Go Speedway Go

[347Stroker]

Originally Posted by CRUIZIN EB

i would say that Speedway drivers would be the most talented drivers around,there is so much skill in controlling a slide on clay,Go Speedway Go

I bet they have insurance though.....

[Psycho Chicken]

Nonsense, clay has a constant ammount of grip give or take. Bathurst, 1993 (might of been 1994 actually) when it ****ed down. Brocky and Perkins sideways through the top of the mountain, that was driving.

[The MaDDeSTMaN]

WRC, I don't need to think about it. Those guys are awesome!

[MO]

Originally Posted by CRUIZIN EB

i would say that Speedway drivers would be the most talented drivers around,there is so much skill in controlling a slide on clay,Go Speedway Go

YOU are kidding...hey its a joke right...

[CruizinEB]

Originally Posted by 347stroker

I bet they have insurance though.....

no they don't,if you write of a car there goes $100,000

[NAK302]

i remember Seto at Bathurst in a skyline, about 1987 i think. that was quite impressive. but overall like the majority here WRC.

[joshf2]

im thinking you guys may have forgotten the old Group B rally cars

those drivers were insane

[FPVWEPN]

i still believe f1 is the most difficult form of motorsport
remeber about 8 years ago colin mcrae and martin brundle swapped cars for a show to see who would fare better????????
brundle won

[Blue Oval Mopar Man]

Originally Posted by Psycho Chicken

I've got a video of someone coming up Pikes Peak in the late 80's in a Pegeot. Anyone who's seen it will know he's either stupid or a bloody good driver.

Sounds like Arie Vartinan ( Not sure if it spelt right )

My impression in no particular order

WRC - the pikes peak driver shot my impression of rallying up to the top
D1 Drifters - syncronised drifting with 5+ cars in a row going at 90ks around a hairpin all cars 5cm off each others bumpers, AT FULL LOCK.
F1 - So much concentration is needed as everything happens faster and is so physically demanding with the constant g-forces in their races.
V8 Supercar drivers - Physical stresses they have to take, especially on hot days where the cabin temps may rise to over 50+ degrees and still go flat out.
Truckies - How the f*** they can back a semi from a 2 lane street into a battleaxe driveway in less than a minute!
Some PROFESSIONAL Couriers and Taxi drivers - Mental street directories
Commuters who can get through Sydney peak hour with the car/their mind in one peace

[Des]

Originally Posted by FPVWEPN

i still believe f1 is the most difficult form of motorsport
remeber about 8 years ago colin mcrae and martin brundle swapped cars for a show to see who would fare better????????
brundle won

Horses for courses. Most top rally drivers will tell you that it's very hard to be a top circuit driver, inch perfect every lap. Though top rally drivers only get one shot at each run. So I'd put a foot in each camp, F1/WRC on par.
Best drivers I've physically seen:
Digs - Victor Bray
Skids - Steve Kinser
Circuit - Dick/ Brock on par
Rally - Colin Bond
Mixed - Jim Richards (is there anything he can't drive?)

Later Gibbo....

[ELAUBA]

Originally Posted by FPVWEPN

i still believe f1 is the most difficult form of motorsport
remeber about 8 years ago colin mcrae and martin brundle swapped cars for a show to see who would fare better????????
brundle won

As I recall, Brundle crashed the rally car and Colin managed to keep the F1 car on the road (suprising everyone!). Apparently they were both only a couple of seconds behind each other in the unfamiliar car. Brundle has gone on to do a number of events in various WRCars.

McRae took Eddie Irvine for a run a few years ago:

Info ish www.dailyf1.com :

Irvine blown away by rally ride

Eddie Irvine was bowled over by his experience in a World Rally car when he was taken for a ride in a Ford Focus WRC by former Champion Colin McRae late last week in the lead up to Rally Great Britain.

Irvine had asked Ford officials if he could experience the 300 horsepower machine from behind the wheel but as there was a risk he would crash the car, they preferred him to take the seat of McRae’s co-driver, Derek Ringer.

But he did not seem to mind.

‘I've flown in fighter jets with the Red Arrows and been bounced around in super-quick powerboats but nothing compares to the experience of sitting alongside Colin,’ Irvine beamed.


‘It was truly awesome and in all honesty I have to confess the experience was better than sex. I have never felt so invigorated in my life. When we first set off, I wasn't sure whether I was enjoying it or not because I kept thinking to myself, “This is madness!”.’

‘I was just thankful when we stopped.’

Irvine, who was dropped by Jaguar after three years with the Milton-Keynes operation at the end of last season, said the experience was special enough from the passenger seat without driving.

‘After witnessing the way Colin handled the car there was no point in me having a go because I would have been so far off the pace,’ the 37-year-old explained. ‘At times the car was completely airborne and at others we were sideways with the speedo touching 100mph (160 km/h). I knew Colin was good but he's certainly gone up in my estimation.

‘I certainly have no intention of trying to become a professional rally driver!’




My favorite bit is the 'better than sex' line. All those chicks Irvine used to have hanging off him must have been all show and no go.

[Gammaboy]

Originally Posted by ELAUBA

My favorite bit is the 'better than sex' line. All those chicks Irvine used to have hanging off him must have been all show and no go.

Nah, I reckon it was just that he was crap :P

MotoGP. simple.
They put Rossi in one of the Ferraris, and he was only 1.5 seconds off Schumachers qualifying time.

I will say that Rally drivers seem to very good car control, but when it comes to development driving, they're not too crash hot, they tend to drive around car handling problems rather than pinpointing the problem and knowing how to fix it...

Ari Vaartinen in the Puegeot 405T16 up pikes peak is a phenominal bit of footage.... but the pics of Jim Clark sliding the Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato at Goodwood are better :P

[The Monty]

Id say WRC followed by an extremely close Drifters.

[chief]

I am on an F1 Power boat racing team and I have to say them. They have got balls 240km/h, 5G turns and they are the tightest turning veichle on the water and ground.

Then again Fighter pilots. If you want to count them as drivers since they pilot / drive the plan up to mach 4 at 9G's.

[TuMor]

I think the point was to keep it to cars mainly...

Id go with groupB drivers in general, 4wd +as much power as they could pump out of a tiny light car. Then to get it around a dirt track!.

"Henri Toivonen drove an S4 around Estoril, the Portuguese Grand Prix circuit, so quickly that he would have qualified sixth for the 1986 Portuguese Grand Prix. Nigel Mansell sampled a Peugeot 205 T16 and said it could out-accelerate his F1 car. And, perhaps most impressive (frightening?), the driver's reaction times were cut in half compared with previous rally cars. The Group B rally cars and their pilots were the stuff of which legends are made."

The thing about those 'show' drifters is that they would practice those 5 car drifts till it was almost robotic. And as much talent as F! drivers have, they would have memorised every sqare inch of the track so its almost robotic for them too.

also think about top fuel dragsters? they have a 7000hp v8 thumping behind them which is trying with all its might to twist itself from the chassis, and they have to keep it going straight down the quarter. Ive seen a doco about the mechanics behind top fuel dragsters and all say they would never get behind the wheel of the things to save their own mother! lol

[4.9 EF Futura]

Originally Posted by wulos

The driver in question was Ari Vartinen, in a Peugeot 205 specifically developed for the Pikes Peak hill climb(& other hill climbs like it)
The name of the clip you are referring to would be 'Climb Dance' & was distributed by Peugeot at the time as a bit of advertising for them.
Tis an exceptional piece of videotography of some absolutely amazing driving. From running at such high speeds to letting the tail end hang off in free space above 1000's of feet drop.
Tis even more suprising to note that Kiwi Rod Millen who holds the record for the Pikes Peak climb is 30 odd seconds quicker then the run in that video.

That is, without doubt, the most incredible piece of motorsport footage I've ever seen. This is the full version that goes for about 10 minutes, yes?

I agree rally drivers are the most impressive to watch.

But no one's mentioned the good ol' boys of nascar?? Unlike WRC and F1, these guys actually engage a clutch and manually select a gear... how primative;) Not sure if anyone here is into the nextel cup/busch series, but watching 40 cars come into turn 3 at Atlanta doing 320km/hr with about 5mm of room either side sure gets the heart pumping. And if oval racing not your cup o tea, watkins glen and infineon raceway provide the same stupidity on a road course ;)

[mickey t]

anyone at the top of their game is good enough for me.

Webber once told me that F1 and WRC were like tennis and squash.

they're sort of the same thing, but not quite...

and whoever it was that said rally drivers drove around problems rather than developing a better mousetrap clearly hasn't had much involvement in the sport...

[TheSneakiness]

Like with everyone else, WRC drivers have the biggest cojones. Ever.

Amazes me how they can pilot a car through the terrains that they do at those sorta speeds.

[Des]

Originally Posted by AUII_SE_Ute

Like with everyone else, WRC drivers have the biggest cojones. Ever.

Amazes me how they can pilot a car through the terrains that they do at those sorta speeds.

Don't know about the cajones remark, I reckon piloting a 7000+hp "Flopper" (Funny Car for the uninitiated) would require some huge cajones....500+km/h when she "pops" and blows the whole body off then turns into a fire ball.
Always makes me laugh when they interview them after a run and their so hyped up on adrenelin....

[MRJUCY]

F1 drivers the speed at which they have to do brake,steer, react etc & the amount of accuracy needed is incredible.

[ELAUBA]

Originally Posted by mickey t

and whoever it was that said rally drivers drove around problems rather than developing a better mousetrap clearly hasn't had much involvement in the sport...

Hear, Hear!

There's people good and bad at car development in all forms of motorsports, but rally drivers get exposed to a much wider variety of conditions, so they are generally better able to adapt pretty quickly to sudden changes in the conditions or the car.

Apparently development and feedback is one of Chris Atkinson's strong suits and the engineers love him for it. I'm told he is also better able to actually explain what he's feeling in the car and what he wants from it than smany of the old hands (i.e. current established WRC works drivers).

[merlin]

Valenteno Rossi

[The Monty]

I forgot about top fuellers. They would probably top the tree for me.

[CruizinEB]

no way, they only have to go in a straight line

[klawsterfobik]

I got so caught up in downloading and watching that movie that i forgot to post! Definately WRC drivers, unbeliebale to watch, they're just so calm and smooth.