I dunno, looking at the lap, it looked pretty slow through the corners, maybe the BBC made up the time to play to the British audience..
Seems similar to me. And this brings me to another point...
I thought he looked neat and tidy (quite unlike how he looks on the circuit) but well on top of things. Thought he looked quick but I was also surprised how well he did.
There are two sorts of "neat and tidy" driving. One actually isn't. A driver on the very limit will never look "smooth" from the driver's perspective. Small changes to the steering, throttle and brakes will be constantly needed in order to meet the demands of slight changes in tyre-grip, surface, weight-transfer and whatnot. The key would be doing those changes quickly and precisely enough to keep it on that edge - which would, in turn, still look neat and tidy from the outside, since he'll perfectly keep his line.
At the same time, you can look perfectly smooth through a corner with a constant steering-wheel position - but more often than not, that will be slower. At the very limit, it doesn't look smooth.
I'm not convinced that a dry lap in the Suzuki is worth 3 seconds over a wet/damp/possibly oily lap. The Top Gear test track consists of either easy flat-out or slow corners. Time in the dry is only going to be made up over a wet lap under braking or through medium-fast corners. The circuit has no medium-fast corners. Since the Suzuki has very modest tyres and ABS braking and the track has only two areas where you will be braking heavily - i doubt much time will be gained in the dry. Any slight advantages the car has in these areas in the dry are likely to be almost canceled out by the advantages of better being able to slide the car on a slightly wet surface through the slower corners.
It also didn't look
that wet to me. Just damp. The type of damp where Formula 1 cars still use Dry tyres.
And the tyres are probably cheap all-seasons, easily capable of handling a bit of dampness. And lest we forget, he used a few corners a bit beyond the yellow lines, using the grass and beyond-the-stripes bit a bit like a rumble-strip. Take hammerhead and that last corner.
Pouring more fuel in the fire... is it just me or are those awards from British nominators?
Seems to same to me. BBC is obvious, and AutoSport are from Teddington, Middlesex, United Kingdom.
)
) here.
lol)
