This refers to the final F1 race of the 2021 season in Abu Dhabi. The host is pointing to that race as an example of how late-race decisions can change who wins the championship.
Lewis Hamilton is one of the most successful Formula 1 drivers. The host is saying that a rules decision could have changed how many championships he ended up with.
Max Verstappen is a top Formula 1 driver from the Netherlands. The host is arguing that a rules decision in Abu Dhabi 2021 could have changed his championship total.
The start/finish line is the track line used to determine when a lap is completed and when race timing events occur. In F1, crossing it at the wrong moment relative to race-control messages can change whether a driver is credited with the final “racing lap” or forced into an additional lap.
Race control is the F1 officials’ team that runs the race from the background. They send timing and safety instructions to drivers, and a delay can change the race outcome.
A safety car is used to slow everyone down when the track isn’t safe. The host is saying the restart process after it can take away valuable racing time near the finish.
Lapped cars are cars that are behind the leaders by at least one full lap. The host is saying that dealing with those cars during late-race restarts can cost time.
The pit lane is the side area next to the race track where teams work on the cars. Cars can enter it for service, and race officials can use it to control how cars get back onto the track.
A grid start means the cars line up in their proper starting spots, like at the beginning of a race. Then they start racing again, instead of just following the safety car.
Overboost is when the engine briefly makes extra power by increasing boost pressure. It’s controlled by the car’s system and can be used to change how strong the car feels for passing.
Term
super mario car style overtakes
This is a playful nickname for overtakes that look flashy and sudden, like something from a video game. The point is that the speaker thinks rule changes may be making passing feel less natural.
A race restart is when officials stop the race and then start it again after the track is safe. It can change how drivers race because everyone is reset and regrouped.
The apex is the inside point of a corner that drivers aim for. Getting to it correctly helps you carry more speed out of the turn.
Term
pressing the button
In modern F1, “pressing the button” refers to driver-activated performance modes that temporarily change the car’s behavior to help with overtaking. The key idea is that it can create a passing opportunity that wouldn’t exist with normal power delivery alone.
“Cops” is a corner name from the track layout—drivers use it as a landmark for where they can set up a pass. It’s typically a fast part of the lap where positioning matters a lot.
Maggots and Becketts are well-known fast corners at Silverstone. Because they’re tricky and fast, they’re also where drivers often try to pass each other.
George Russell is a current Formula 1 driver. The hosts bring him up as another example of an overtake enabled by the new system, but one that didn’t feel as dramatic.
On some F1 weekends there’s a shorter “sprint” session. “Sprint quali” refers to the qualifying/sprint setup around that weekend, and it affects where cars start for the main race.
A “sim” is a computer racing setup tool. It can help you find a fast setup, but sometimes the car feels different in real life, so you may not be able to drive as confidently.
A “setup” is how the race car is adjusted for a specific track. It affects how the car feels and how easy it is for the driver to go fast.
Term
traces
“Traces” are basically data recordings from the car. They show what the driver did—like where they were on the track and how they used the throttle—so you can compare laps.
“Gears” are the transmission ratios that change how the engine’s power is delivered. Choosing the right gear helps the car accelerate and stay in the best power band.
“Throttle” is how much power you’re asking the engine for. In racing, small changes in throttle timing and how hard you press it can make the car feel easier or harder to drive fast.
Term
powered deployment
“Powered deployment” means the car has a system that can release extra power at certain times. It’s controlled by the team and driver, and it can make the car harder to manage than a simpler setup.
“GT3 SC” is the name of the specific version of the Porsche 911 GT3 they’re talking about. The point is that this version is meant to feel more like an open-air road car than a pure track-only setup.
A “homologation special” is a special version of a car that’s made so it can be used in racing. Racing rules often require the company to sell a limited number of similar cars to the public first.
“Naturally aspirated” means the engine pulls air in on its own, without a turbo or supercharger. The hosts are saying that with this kind of engine, an open-top setup can feel even more connected to the driving experience.
A “manual” is a transmission where you choose gears yourself using a clutch and gear stick. In this discussion, it’s part of why the car is described as more engaging when the roof is cut off.
This is a Porsche 911 that’s built as a convertible, and it also has all-wheel drive. The discussion here is about why Porsche chose this specific 911 convertible version as the starting point for their engineering and packaging.
The front differential is a gearbox that helps the front wheels turn at different speeds, especially in corners. It takes up space in the car, which matters when engineers want to fit other parts.
Extra fuel tank space means there’s more room for fuel in the car. In this case, Porsche re-used an area that would normally be taken by the front differential so they could store more fuel.
A turbocharged engine uses a device that packs more air into the engine, which can make more power. The host is comparing how fuel-hungry different engine setups can be.
Lightweighting measures are ways engineers reduce the car’s weight. In this story, Porsche had to offset the extra weight from the convertible roof by using lighter materials elsewhere.
An electric roof is the powered mechanism that raises and lowers a convertible top. It adds weight, and the engineers are counting every kilogram to keep the car under a target limit.
They had a hard weight limit of 1500 kilograms. Since the car started around 1540 kg, they needed to save about 40 kg by changing materials and components.
Carbon fiber wings are body panels made from a lightweight composite material. They help reduce weight, which is crucial when engineers are trying to keep the car under a specific limit.
Magnesium wheels are wheels made from a lightweight metal. Lighter wheels can make the car feel more responsive, and here they’re also used to cut overall weight.
A lithium battery is the rechargeable battery technology used in many electrified cars. The host is listing it among the heavy components they had to account for to keep the car’s total weight under the limit.
Double front wishbones are a suspension design that uses two arms to guide the front wheel. The host is saying this cabriolet uses a more complex suspension than usual, so Porsche had to redesign the mounting points.
Struts are a suspension part that helps control the wheel and absorb bumps. The host is comparing struts to wishbones, because the car’s suspension design changes what parts need to be mounted where.
A single mass flywheel is a part connected to the engine that helps smooth power delivery. The host is saying they considered using one from another model, but didn’t because this car’s goal was more everyday usability.
Downforce is the “suction” effect from the air that presses the car down onto the road. It helps the tires grip better when you’re going fast. The hosts are talking about how much of that effect you get when the car is open-top.
Lift is the air pressure effect that can make a car feel like it’s getting lighter. That can reduce traction. They’re comparing lift versus downforce for the open-top setup.
A gurney flap is a tiny “fin” on the back edge of a wing or spoiler. It helps the car generate more grip from the air. The hosts say it improves stability when you’re driving fast.
Term
underbody streaks
The underside of a car can be shaped to help the air flow in a way that keeps the car planted. “Underbody streaks” here means those aerodynamic shapes/features under the car. They help create downforce even without a big wing.
Weight balance is how much of the car’s weight sits over the front wheels versus the rear wheels. Moving more weight toward the back can make the car rotate more in turns and feel more willing to slide. They mention a small rearward shift and connect it to drift-friendly behavior.
“Drift happy” is an enthusiast phrase describing a car that’s easy to rotate and slide with controllable traction breakaway. It usually implies predictable balance and steering feel that helps the driver initiate and hold a drift. The host attributes this to the GT3’s rearward weight bias and aero setup.
Porsche 911 is a famous sports car model from Porsche. The point here is that Porsche offers lots of different versions, so buyers can pick what they want instead of losing options.
The Kia Picanto is a small city car from Kia, mentioned here as a contrast to the host’s current press-launch experience. The speaker is emphasizing that they weren’t there for the Picanto, and that their background differs from typical long-term coverage of one model.
Concept
back-to-back blast
A “back-to-back” drive is when you drive one car, then drive another right after it. It makes it easier to compare how they feel because you’re not waiting days between tests.
Range is the distance an EV can travel on a full charge under a specified test cycle. The host says the Bentley Torcal’s range will be over 300 miles, which is a key practical metric for EV buyers.
The “thousand horsepower club” is a bragging benchmark for cars with about 1,000 horsepower or more. The speaker is basically saying this Bentley won’t chase that number, even though it should still be very fast.
Concept
enough
The speaker is making a point that more power isn’t always better. At some point, extra acceleration can feel unpleasant and also makes the car heavier and more expensive, so the goal should be the right amount—not the maximum.
In this context, electrification means using an electric motor instead of (or alongside) a gas engine. The discussion is about whether that change can still feel like a Bentley.
Car
Rolls-Royce
They’re comparing Bentley to Rolls-Royce. Rolls-Royce is famous for a super quiet, effortless ride, and EVs can help with that because they’re smooth and very quiet.
They mean the way the electric motor delivers power. The question is whether it can be tuned to feel right for a Bentley—smooth, quiet, and effortless.
Torque is the force that helps the car move and accelerate. EVs usually have lots of torque right away, so the car has to be tuned so that power feels smooth and effortless.
Refinement is how comfortable and smooth the car feels—especially how quiet it is. The host is saying an EV Bentley should be very quiet, which helps it feel more luxurious.
Bentayga is Bentley’s SUV. The host is using it as a reference point to explain that an EV version would likely be very heavy, which affects how it drives and rides.
The Continental GT is Bentley’s grand touring coupe/GT line, and the speaker calls out a “new electric continental GT” as a case where they’d be more concerned. That matters because GT cars rely heavily on smooth power delivery and long-distance comfort—areas electrification must get right.
The Porsche 911 GT3 RS is a very serious, track-oriented version of the 911. The host brings it up to show how Porsche keeps its performance credibility even when it also sells SUVs.
Car
Bentley Torcal
The Bentley Torcal is a new Bentley model the host says will be the main event for 2027. They’re talking about it as an EV, but with styling and identity that still feel unmistakably like a Bentley.
Term
luce
“Luce” here refers to a specific design style the host associates with Ferrari. They’re saying Ferrari’s look is very bold and futuristic, while Bentley’s approach is more straightforward.
The Ferrari Luce is a Ferrari concept or special project that’s meant to show a very different design idea. It’s discussed because it doesn’t follow the usual Ferrari approach and is meant to stand out visually and creatively.
Frank Steffen Walliser is a top executive at Bentley. The host quotes him to explain how Bentley’s design choices for this new car reflect the brand’s current direction compared with what it might have done years ago.
A rear three-quarter shot is a picture taken from behind and slightly to the side. It’s a common way car companies show off the shape without revealing everything.
They’re talking about what makes racing more interesting than just driving fast. It’s not only speed—it’s the extra challenge that shows up once you race.
Track days are organized events where people drive on a race track. It’s a way to go fast safely, and the host is saying racing is like that—but with more intensity.
Car
1960 elva courier
This is a 1960 Elva Courier, a British car brand known for race cars. It started as a road car idea, but in practice it’s being used and driven like a race car—so it behaves differently than a normal street car.
Oversteer is when the back of the car starts to slide out more than the front. They’re saying they were getting a lot of that, and while the car can handle it, it doesn’t help you go quickest.
“Slip” is when the tires aren’t perfectly matching the car’s movement. A little bit can actually help the car turn smoothly, instead of feeling like it’s either gripping too much or suddenly losing control.
The Mazda MX-5 is a small, light sports car that’s common in club racing. The host mentions it as an example of a modern, easy-to-get-into racing option compared with historic events.
The Ford GT40 is a famous old race car. The host mentions it to show the top end of historic racing, even though most people can’t (and don’t need to) race cars at that level.
The MG MGB is a classic British sports car often used in affordable historic racing. The speaker mentions it as an example of a historic car you can race without “big boy” budgets, while still needing maintenance and logistics to get it to the track.
The Austin A35 is a classic small car. The host brings it up to show that historic racing isn’t only for super-expensive cars—some series use relatively modest, older vehicles.
Cross-ply tires are an older tire design where the internal fabric layers crisscross inside the tire. They flex differently than modern tires, so the car can feel less “grippy” but also more predictable and easier to manage when you’re driving smoothly.
“L section” refers to a narrow tire profile/section width used on period race tires, which typically means a slimmer contact patch compared with modern wide tires. A narrower tire generally provides less total grip, so the car reaches its traction limits sooner and requires more careful throttle and steering inputs.
A “slick” is a race tire with no tread grooves, made for maximum grip on dry roads. The host is saying slick tires usually work best when you’re right on the edge of grip but not going past it too much.
This means the point where the tires can’t “hold” the road anymore and start to slip. The host says you can actually be quicker by driving just a bit beyond that slip point, rather than trying to avoid it completely.
Goodwood is a well-known UK venue for classic-car racing and events. The host brings up old videos from there to explain that drifting/sliding can be part of how historic cars go fast.
Drifting is when the car’s tires slide sideways instead of gripping straight. The host is saying that on old race cars, sliding can sometimes be the quickest way through a corner if you control it well.
It’s the point where the tires stop being able to “hold on” to the road. Once you go past it, the car starts to slide, and driving becomes about controlling that slide.
Sliding means the tires aren’t gripping as much as you want, so the car starts to move sideways or rotate. In racing, skilled drivers sometimes use this on purpose to stay fast.
Historic racing is when people race older cars from past decades. The goal is usually to keep them close to how they were back then, and to race in a way that’s safer and more community-focused than top-level racing.
A paddock is the space at a race where teams work on the cars and get ready between sessions. It’s usually closer to the action than the spectator areas.
Grassroots means racing that’s built from the community and enthusiasts, not big-money teams. It’s often more approachable and less formal.
Concept
ageless sport
An ageless sport means people of many ages take part. Here, the point is that historic racing isn’t only for one age group—it can include teenagers and older enthusiasts too.
“Historics” means races for older cars, usually from past decades. The cars aren’t modern race cars, so the driving experience feels different and more old-school.
LIVE
Welcome back to the intercooler podcast everybody episode 321 of the intercooler podcast that's
the podcast powered by car finance specialist JBR capital Dan Prossa and Jez Meddinger with
you here today. Andrew is going to be making an appearance a little bit later on Jez but
until then the audience have got you and they've got me and actually they've got a really busy
show this week. There's so much stuff that we want to get into. We might run out of time so I
suggest we just get on with it. You guys have been racing over the weekend haven't you? Maybe just
you could just give us a minute on what you are up to and then we're going to bring Andrew in a
little bit later and you're going to talk about it in much more detail. Yeah absolutely so I dragged
Andrew out of racing retirement. The last time he was in a racing car was three years ago and it
wasn't much of a drive I don't think so he took a little bit of persuading but I managed to squeeze
him into my little 1960 Elba courier and we went out to raz ourselves around Bonnington and it was
quite an eventful day. We had some technical issues but it was very exciting and I'm hoping
that he won't hang up his racing gloves just yet. No it's far too early doesn't it? It's far too
early. There are people in their 80s out there doing it. He's got no excuse. So you guys will
talk about that in more detail a little bit later on. You also discuss an important new Bentley
that Andrew's been to have a look at. We've got the British Grand Prix that we want to discuss this
bizarre Ferrari not quite a manual gearbox and we'll save that for the very end. You've also been on
your first car launch, press launch which I'm sure was an experience for you.
Certainly was but it certainly was. Let's start with the British Grand Prix. I don't want to lingo
on this too much but it was a good race with a huge number of talking points. I don't know if you
managed to catch up with it. I did. I watched it on catch up because I was driving back from
Donnington and I watched it all when I got home. Yeah I mean we could spend a whole podcast talking
about it the ins and outs. I think let me just throw it to you straight away. Let's talk about
the thing that most of that will get the headlines at the ending. How do you feel about that particularly
with regards to the difference in the way that this ended compared to Abu Dhabi 21 for example?
So the difference is that in this instance the rules were followed. The regulations were applied
properly as written and that is correct and proper. That is the way it should go. So I don't think you
can be too disgruntled at the lack of a sort of dramatic fireworks ending yesterday because the
rules were applied properly. Now we will come back to that in a moment but it's just it's worth saying
isn't it? Had the rules been applied as they were yesterday back in Abu Dhabi 2021 Lewis Hamilton
would be an eight-time world champion and Max Verstappen would have three. It is extraordinary
that such significant things turn on the thinnest threads. A race director taking things into his
own hands and not applying the rules as written. The consequences are vast aren't they? And it's
also the arbitrariness upon which you have to act on those rules and the speeds at which those
decisions have to be made. So the difference between us getting a racing lap at the end and not
getting a racing lap at the end was I believe, tell me if I'm wrong here, it was when the McLaren
went over the start finish line or when the message was broadcast to him and it was a matter of a
second here or there because that message got broadcast a second later than he went over the
line that automatically forced him to have to do an extra lap. Had that message been broadcast a
second earlier and he hadn't quite crossed the line then there would have been a racing lap and
who knows what might have been the final result. So there are a few questions to ask them aren't
there could race control have got that message out a few seconds earlier possibly although
they need to do their job thoroughly and rigorously they can't hurry these things who knows maybe they
did very very well to get that message out when they did but also clearly things need to be reviewed
right the rules were applied properly which I think is correct and proper but are the rules
correct do we need to reconsider how these things are handled you know one of the talking points is
you lose this need to clear the lapped cars and then the need for another lap behind the
safety car after that that can burn two laps can't it and if you have an incident right
towards the end of the race as we did yesterday burning two laps is such a pity and all you're
clearing lapped cars so there has to be a better way doesn't there and a few people have suggested
what they should do is just peel into the pit lane sit at the end of the pit lane and then
rejoin the train later on the back of the train right and that takes a fraction of the time so I
think that is a very very sensible approach alternatively when there is a an incident
in the final few laps and you can discuss what how many laps that should be is it just an instant
red flag throw the red flag clear up whatever needs to be cleared up and then have a a grid start for
123 laps whatever a race restart and so we get the fireworks at the end as we
which is presumably what we all want now I understand that doing that would disadvantage
some drivers and be advantageous to others but so is ending it behind the safety car or so is
having a one-lap shootout from a safety car restart you know whatever you do someone's
going to benefit and someone else is going to be disadvantaged by that but the the thing is it's
just so unsatisfactory watching a fantastic race and then having it come to an end behind the
flipping safety car so I think something needs to be done to to put that right and actually
there's been such an uproar I think in large part because there was that erroneous message saying
the safety car was coming in and we all thought oh yippie if that message had never been sent out I
think this would be annoying but not quite as gutting as it turned out to be so I think things
probably will change on some level the third way they could do it is by assessing how many laps
are left and saying well we're going to release the the lapped cars but do they have to catch all
the way up again if we've only got 1234 laps if they're half a lap ahead you know what
that's plenty for them not to interfere in the rest of the race of the leaders so one of those
three options can work and the reason why I think they're going to do something is they don't seem to
be the current ownership of F1 doesn't seem to care about compromising racing integrity
for entertainment and as we have seen with over boost and super mario car style overtakes
and I want to just very quickly mention there's something on that point as well very a question
on that front but that's why I think they are going to do something to enable more entertainment
to take place rather than having a damp squib here because what they're trying to sell is
entertainment they're not trying to sell us racing integrity it's very un-american isn't it to have
a contest a sporting contest and the way it did it's like a draw in in soccer you know the
americans just can't abide that deal with it which is fair enough actually yeah you know sport is a
huge part of their culture and sport it has to be dramatic and thrilling and exciting and as we
know america f1 is now owned by liberty media and american organizations so I can see the american
americanification or something of f1 happening actually in the sky f1 coverage
neyemi schiff was saying it would be artificial to throw the red flag and have a race restart full
race restart for a few laps guess what half of f1 is artificial these days let's embrace it
so here's what i want to put to you so there's this idea that there's the old fashions
good old you know racing overtake where you outbreak someone into a corner you you grab
the apex before they do and you've overtaken then there's the super mario kart press the button
fly past them on the straight overtake now i think what we saw at silveston uh was a third type
which is where pressing the button puts you in a position that you wouldn't have otherwise been able
to do to do an exciting racing overtake around the outside of cops or throwing yourself into
maggots beckets and suddenly having two cars alongside each other through there which i don't
think we'd have seen last season i think those exciting moments were enabled by pressing a button
so where do you stand on that i'm fine with that i think if you know a slightly artificial bit of
tech puts you in a position to make a brave overtake i'm fine with that and that was always the
objective of dr s it shouldn't be a it shouldn't get you passed on the straight it should get you
just enough alongside that if you're brave enough and late enough on the brakes and you carry enough
speed or whatever you can maybe make an overtake stick i don't have a problem with that at all
and actually um lewis hamilton did that a few times yesterday he was super racy with some
ballsy moves enabled by that um this overtake function but then of course he does this do or
die daring manoeuvre and then the next straight it was george russells and it just
roars past with god knows how much more power it's so unsatisfactory yeah i mean that that's the
flip side of the of the overtake button is the fact that enables the good work to be undone that
easily yeah someone who's with no skin yeah i do it is it is frustrating actually and do you know i'm
i'm sort of really enjoying f1 this year because we are seeing racing i'm a big hamilton fan i
make no secret of that and he's been doing spectacularly well but well actually luis is a
good example you know he was mega quick in sprint quali um and quick in the sprint as well much
quicker than his teammate um and then each of them the ferrari drivers makes very very small
changes overnight on friday night into saturday um and sunday and then the sorry um over saturday
night into sunday and then the picture totally changes so i've got some thoughts on this reading
between the lines yeah so it seems that we came into the weekends with luis having basically
ditched the sim he'd gone like luke skywalker he turned off his targeting computer um raw
dog did he ruled he rogued dog did straight in and had a good setup smashed sprint quali
leclerc was slightly off the pace looked at what hamilton was doing and if you look at
the traces and how they changed from sprint sprint quali to quali he picked up some of what
hamilton was doing in terms of which gears he was using where he was on the throttle where he
wasn't on the rest of it and moved a bit towards hamilton's setup and the difference being is
that leclerc had used the sim to set his car up on what the sim said would be fastest hamilton
hadn't and what the sir was saying is that it's not that the changes made the car faster it's
that the changes enabled the drivers or leclerc's changes enabled him to have more confidence which
enabled him to push faster so that is to say the sim is not necessarily a great representation
of what's going to make you feel confident in the car it might give you a setup that is on a sim
faster but in the real world is so edgy perhaps that you can't push on and actually find that pace
and this is where hamilton is now doing so well this year with his raw dogging approach
is that he's actually leaning into that confidence and you can see it on the track he is exuding
confidence out there and i think that's what's helped him do it i think my frustration with f1 at
the moment is that the cars are so complicated not just in terms of you know powered deployment but
aero and mechanical balance and all the rest of it that a driver can have a great weekend and then
a poor weekend and he's probably performed to the same standard level himself
but what's changed is that the car just hasn't been in that sweet setup window
and arguably that's always been the case in formula one there's always you've always had to get
everything to click but i think now you've got so many more things that have to click
fall into line and the window is so much narrower that what we're watching now is an engineering
team a driver and engineering team okay so of course the the fundamental design of the car
is massively important we know it is that's basically what determines who's winning races
and championships and who's not but more so than ever now i think how you get your car
into that setup window or not determines what kind of weekend you're going to have and i think
i think it's on a razor's edge these days more than it's ever been
and so the the guy who's quick or the guys who are quick probably are the ones who have
absolutely nailed that setup window got their driving absolutely spot on
and then they go fast and that's a particular challenge and you know they deserve credit when
they get it right absolutely but it's just not as thrilling to watch for me as drivers in largely
equal cars just absolutely going at it i just i think i'm finding that side of formula one at
the moment a little bit tricky it does feel a little bit like there's so much tech going on
that it's i mean it's always been a drive around a car and the cars needed to be good but it feels
like there's so much of what performs on the track is a function that is not related to the driver
that that's added an extra degree of remove hasn't it and i was thinking yesterday about the
arbitrariness of the results in terms of all the factors that came together to make that result
happen and made me think looking at where piastri was you know the kind of race he had he was almost
world champion last year and i was thinking how many drivers on the grid could be world champion
because the the role of the car underneath him is so great now and the level of the drivers is
so high you could probably say half the grid yeah in the right car season
yeah would be would be good enough to be world champion and that's and you wouldn't have said
that maybe 20 years ago would you i think you're absolutely right i think it's more exaggerated
than it is ever been yeah the car both the fundamental design of the car and the setup
on a given weekend it's become i don't know 90% and i don't think it's ever been that high before
yeah um we've talked about as long as an exciting pack of fake top top trumps i want to talk about
is that what that is okay so you um you've been on your very first press launch and by the way
not many people get to do a Porsche 911 GT3 variant as their first press launch so you've
done very well um you can't actually tell us much about the car or the driving your driving
impressions because it's embargoed until tomorrow afternoon Tuesday afternoon um your story will
be live on the website and app the moment the embargo lifts on Tuesday um but you can tell us
a bit about your experience and maybe some of the sort of background on the it's the GT3 SC
isn't it yes that's right so i have well i have a plethora of factoids that i extracted from
andreas pröninger used the director of the GT division um the day before he went on the drive
so all of that stuff by definition is i think okay to talk about um so i think the first most
obvious thing that's had the internet up in arms is how can you cut the roof off a GT3 how can that
still be a GT3 when the whole purpose of a GT3 is this race derived homologation special track
focus and you know cabriolet can't ever be the same as that so the first question i put to uh
mr pröninger was some people say it can't possibly be a GT3 without a roof what do you say to that
and his immediate response was bullshit which everyone laughed at um and i said okay so what
do you think GT stands for as a car and he said i got a great five minute answer from him but if
i was to distill that five minute answer down it was this GT stands for the most connected immersive
driving experience on road or track and obviously the sc fits more into the road half of that than
say an rs does into the track side of that um the argument being if you have a manual naturally
aspirated car like this um cutting the roof off connects you more to the environment and it connects
you more to the driving experience therefore it gives you more gt than than you might have with
a roof on and so this was one of the things i think that we wanted to try and find out uh
when we actually took it out and we had five hours in the car the next day so it was quite
instructive i can also throw some more factoids about you which i found interesting and by
consequence i'm going to assume that you will too and are anybody listening so they use the the c4
carara four cabriolet shell why did they use the carara four shell not the carara two shell the
answer is he wanted to take the space where the front differential would normally go to use as
extra fuel tank space uh because it's a bit thirstier than a turbocharged carara engine
how much more does it would it weigh had they not gone to the extreme light weighting measures
they have done so the that uh cabriolet body shell weighs 40 kilograms more the electric roof has 36
kilos more and they said they were only going to go ahead with this project if they could get the
whole weight of the car in so full of fuel full of five kilos of washer fluid and all that stuff
had to be under 1500 kilos so they were looking at about 1540 at the start so they had to lose
40 kilograms so they basically said okay well what can we steal from the st that's going to save us
some weight so carbon fiber wings bonnet doors suspension components magnesium construction
for the electric roof they had the magnesium wheels as well lithium battery and all of this
stuff is what's brought the weight down so so yes the sc is going to cost uh best part of 40 000
pounds more than a touring uh but you are also almost halfway towards the st in terms of spec so
it's not like you're just paying for the soft top you're actually paying for a really high spec in
terms of what you're getting in terms of light weighting and the approach to actually engineering
the car that cabriolet body shell has been re-engineered so it is bespoke the back end has
been changed i think for aerodynamics the front end has had the mounting points changed so it's
the first cabriolet ever made by Porsche to have double front wishbones opposed to the struts
so they had to change all of the hardware to mount that into at the front ends
single mass flywheel so there was a conversation about taking the single mass flywheel from the
st but they said no because this is the the brief of this car is a bit more usable it is a pain
by the way yeah the st clutch flywheel it it's fiddly yeah yeah exactly and so do you want that
on this version of this car and they said no it's also going to be really loud in an open
top car as well but there was a little hint that there might be a later speedster coming
which could take that single mass flywheel which is quite interesting here's a question for you Dan
downforce how much downforce or lift do you think the sc has without a top on it
is it neutral it's 16 kilograms of downforce yeah so obviously it's
Porsche don't talk about this i extracted it out of andreus under pressure so obviously
it's what it's up into sort of a 200s ish for the normal gt3 i think and obviously a bit less
for the touring but it's uh what they wanted was a car that was stable at speed so it was
important that they had just a little bit enough to make it stable there's a little gurney flap
at the back as well that just helps create that stability they've still got all the underbody
streaks that run down the the underside as well to basically help that downforce
but it's not a car that you're ever going to need downforce in because that's not its brief it is
essentially a road car and at road car type speeds you shouldn't need much downforce
another factoid for you the weight balance has changed one percent towards the rear and
Proninger says it's the most drift happy gt3 of all so uh so but yeah there's lots of factoids there
and i was the way they handed out the press kit was in this pack of things i was flashing them at
the screen earlier what i thought was an exciting pack of top trumps which i immediately started to
play with some of the other journalists only to then discover halfway through our pack
that you've got ah do my front wings in carbon fiber from a 911 st do they beat your rear bumper
from the gt3 and so suddenly it was like they're not all numbers we can't play top trumps of these
after all i got very excited so i mean i i get this car it's funny isn't it whenever Porsche does
a slightly out there 911 variant there's a bit of an uproar and the point i always make is
well yeah they should do this a they'll sell a bunch of them and this company exists to make
money of course it does and b guess what they do other ones as well if this isn't the one for you
you don't have to buy it and there's all sorts of other 911 variants that you can go and choose from
and that's the that's the great thing about Porsche they do this stuff they're not taking
anything away from you it's all additive isn't it so why not and there'll be plenty of people out
there who will love this roof off gt3 driving experience and i don't know perhaps you were
one of them i i guess i'll find out when i read your story tomorrow but what what were your impressions
of a a press launch you must have been reading about these things for decades naturally yeah and
there's a little bit of um i'm very aware that i was sort of being parachuted in at the deep end
here i wasn't going on the the press launch for the new kia picanto and spending 10 years doing
hey that's a great privilege yeah no i absolutely appreciate that um so how can i talk about it
without saying what it was like to drive the car what i can say is the format of it i think
so what i hadn't appreciated is uh is that on press launches you would normally share the car
with another journalist and that adds quite a lot and it changes the way that you assess the car
i think because there is always the way that you drive a car with somebody else in it is different
to the way that you do when you're by yourself yeah at the same time you also have the ability to
discuss the car between you about what both of your feelings are about it and see if you're on
the same page or not and i found that very interesting what i did make the chance to do
was to drive i managed to snaffle a touring at lunchtime so i could do a back-to-back blast
for comparison and i also got a 15-minute drive at the very end of the day by myself which
i was able to drive a car a bit differently than i did during the day and that i found very
instructive as well so i think there's all sorts of little wrinkles i think about the best way of
getting the most out of these days that i think come come with experience and you know i can't
wait to have the opportunity to do it again but i feel very privileged and it was yeah an incredible
incredible experience yeah it's cool isn't it you'll get to do it again i'm sure um okay well let's
let's bring in andrew you two have already recorded a segment talking about your racing
and the Bentley um so let's let's bring uh andrew in now and then i'll jump back in a little bit later
on hi andrew it's the crack of doom here did you watch the football did i watch the football
i do you know i'm not a world massive footy fan but when world cup comes around
i always get quite um quite excited about the whole thing i didn't think we were going to beat
mexico uh and because well the reason i'm not on um the rest of the show today is uh this is a
pre-record because i've got to go to london in a minute um and bearing that in mind and given that
it kicked off an hour later than it should have i wouldn't have got to better i don't think between
before five o'clock this morning and given i had to be up at six um i didn't didn't really necessarily
think that was going to be the best possible state to be in to go to london for a quite important
client meeting so no i didn't watch it um but i did catch some very brief highlights on the news
this morning and it looked fab and um yeah well done england did you see
the harry cayne interview well where you couldn't talk yeah yes i did see that yes it was quite
something was absolutely hilarious anyway this is actually a car podcast so it is
you've written a story uh about a new bentley that we've published today uh i have i know nothing
about it because i've not been privy to any pre embargo juicy details so tell me what on earth
this thing is well there is only so much i can say one of these slightly strange situations where
i know so much more than i'm allowed to let on this is all to do with these strange embargo
things that which actually exist in all areas of industry uh right across business and right
through government too so there's nothing new about it on our side of the fence um and it's
where in our industry manufacturers just lay out a timetable um you can talk about this on this date
and you can talk about that on that day and so on and so forth so it's an essentially an
inception style embargo you've got an embargo inside an embargo and right now are in level one
of the embargo dream yeah you can tell us what's in there yes i think well i think i
didn't think there was a sort of phony embargo before in that you know people started talking
about this car i mean bentley were talking about the fact that they were doing an ev so that was
one kind of very informal embargo there's now this embargo where i'll be able to tell you the name
of the car i can also talk to you a little bit about it because i have i've crawled all over it
i kind of know everything there is to know about it okay so when you've got different levels of
embargo like this tell us what they tend to be like what are the what sort of information gets
released when and and why for most okay so this is a slightly different one in so far as i've been
allowed to see the car i've been told all about it but all i can do today is tell you its name
and make some sort of vague references to what it looks like what i would suggest you do is go
on to the website and app now our award winning website and app if you're not a subscriber because
there i will talk in a lot more detail about exactly you know what it looks like what the
interior is like what it's like to sit in how i think it's positioned what i think it's going to
do and so on and so forth i think a lot of people will want to know power how it can pet well i can't
tell you about that i know i can't really what's electric okay yeah but we've known
that okay it's electric i can tell you that its range is going to be over 300 miles i'm
don't think that's going to surprise anybody and i can't really tell you um much i mean it'll be fast
okay i'll tell you one thing um which i think is quite interesting about it and i can't be specific
but i can tell you it's not going to be a member of the thousand horsepower club um and you think
these days that you know if you can launch a car like that it's got out of a thousand horsepower
because otherwise you know everyone else does because everybody else does um and it's what
you know we do know it's the one thing that EVs can do really well they generate loads of power
and Bentley have come to the conclusion and i absolutely applaud them for doing it
which is that there is such a thing as enough if the additional power you are providing
and the additional weight that that is incurring and the additional cost that that is incurring
and all the negatives that go it if all it is serving to do is make your passengers feel sick
because that level of acceleration if anybody is honest is actually just horrible for everybody
then what's the bloody point so i can't tell you how much power it's got but it won't be a thousand
horsepower but i suspect it will still be the fastest accelerating Bentley there's ever been
brake car certainly so let's stop talking about what you can't tell us and start talking about
something that you can't tell us which is to say conceptually how does electrification fit Bentley
and what and where i want to place this is in the sense that i drove a resto mod electric Rolls-Royce
Cunish not so long ago electrification really suited that and i think electrification really
does suit a Rolls-Royce that's all about effortless silent wafting. Bentley's have always carried
a slightly more sporting brief than a Rolls-Royce and they also carry a bit more of a grand touring
brief than a Rolls-Royce and those two things are not necessarily synonymous with electric power
so how do you think conceptually electric power suits a Bentley in general and what will they
need to do to make electric power suit a Bentley more? Well i mean that's really interesting
i think a few things here you're absolutely bang on so you think of the positives you know
Bentley's are all about torque it's got to know how much it's got and even though i did
wouldn't be able to tell you but it's going to have a stack of it obviously refinement it's going
to be really really quiet so it's got to waft longer like you want it to until we drive it
i mean it's going to be heavy you know i don't think that's any surprise it's a Bentley SUV
powered by an EV you know you go and look at whatever it is a Bentayga way as well i can't
imagine it's going to be less than that it could quite possibly be more so it's it's going to be
heavy and it's going to be electric so how do they make something like that a handle and my
guess and i actually genuinely don't know this my guess is that Bentley's point of view is that
actually with this car um they are looking for not a different kind of customer but to massively
expand the customer base to appeal to people who would never have thought of buying a Bentley before
and probably to people for whom you know on-limit handling probably isn't much of a priority the
fact it's an SUV kind of means i mean this was a new electric continental GT i'd be a lot more
concerned i also think that from a Bentley brand point of view i don't think it's any
coincidence at all that the new super sport is coming out now you know the first sub two tonne
Bentley since probably the war um and i think that's Bentley going okay fine yeah we need to do this
EV because that's the way the world is going but we just don't want you forgetting that we can do that
too and that we are a sporting brand um and i think it's you know it's the lessons learned isn't it
from you know the Porsche playbook you know we'll do a Cayenne but we'll also do your GT3 RS
and so i think that so i don't think it's going to be in a virtually sporting car what SUV ever was
i suspect that next year so 27 is going to be all about the Torcal and then 28 will probably get a
new Bentayga so they may choose to reposition that because it does strike me that they are quite
close at the moment um and so far as the look of the thing is concerned um i think you know one of
the things that's i found most interesting about it is they've gone the opposite way to the way
Ferrari went with the luce so the luce is completely out there you know very modern avant-garde um and
you know we we are not going to you know go back into all the conversations that have been
having this podcast and every other bloody podcast about what it looks like and all the comments about
it um Frank Steffen Walliser the boss of Bentley said something very interesting to me at this sort
of partial reveal he said if we'd done this car 10 years ago it would have been a lot more he used
the word fancy but what he means was wacky it would have been a lot more out there would have
been a lot a lot more luce like when you see it and uh you're not going to see very much of it
today when you go onto the website and app at 12 30 when the embargo lifts um there's a sort of rear
three-quarter shot they've done but even that will will suggest that the car is not you know some mad
vision of the future it's not it is very um straight down the line and I think that's smart
for a Bentley customer I think a Ferrari customers and particularly the sort of customers Ferrari
going to be after with the luce I think has a different conversation but for a Bentley I think
the fact that it's an EV is a big enough mental leap and you don't want to have your customers
also trying to get their head around a completely new way for a Bentley to look
so it looks it looks like a Bentley um better looking than a Bentayger as I have said um I
yeah go on the website and app and have a good read and you'll you really understand what I feel
but the word that I would use to describe it is handsome it's not oh my god it's not oh my god that's
gorgeous um it's not it needs a brown paper bag it's a I would say it's there are one or two
things that things on it I don't like which I can go into in the story um but I think if you look
at it you'll think to yourself yeah fair play decent job so speaking of Bentley's you narrowly
avoided a big accident with one on the weekends didn't you I did oh goodness me jazz yes we went
racing we did go racing now I just want to put this into the context because it's very easy
if you haven't done racing to not really care about it uh and to think that maybe this is
just something that posh people do so a question for you Andrew is that true is it something that
just posh people do and and why why is racing interesting oh my goodness I mean there's a
first of all racing is fun there will be lots of people who there'll be lots of people listen to
this who listen and know exactly what we're talking about but there will be probably be rather more
people who listen to this um who have done track days and know what it's like to drive a car as
fast as they feel they comfortably can around a track and will think that's really good fun well
racing is all of that but with this completely different dimension attached to it which is
very difficult to explain but fall off log easy to understand the minute you start doing it
and it's it's fun but also it's more than that it's a particularly with a car like yours so
jezz very kindly invited me to drive his isn't 60 on or 61 it's a 60 yeah 1960
elva courier um if you know what an elva courier is um elva was a race car manufacturer pretty
successful actually uh they ended up building can and cars for mclaren um but they also did a
few road cars based on their race car chassis and the courier is one of those and this courier
so it was conceived as a road car but then it's now gone back to being a racing car again and
it's the kind of car and one of the problems I had with it was when I first drove it I drove it
like our like a fifth like I'd drive a 50s after a meal which is basically chuck it in and sort it
out uh I slide around all over the place buckets of oversteer having a having a great and actually
although the elva will completely tolerate that um it's an incredibly benign lovely thing to drive
that's not how you go quick in it and you know I discovered over the course of the day that we
went racing I went three seconds quicker in the race than I did in qualify and I can't say that
my every qualifying lap was you know full of traffic where it wasn't that was just understanding
the car more and what the elva likes is to be driven with a small amount of slip so neutral to
mild oversteer it's not on all arms and elbows car at all um and that was a great sort of cerebral
challenge and really really interesting to get to know a car like that and then you've got that
other dimension of being out there with all these other lunatics um you know some of whom
bin it in front of you at the chicane which is always um it's always good for the blood pressure
that this sort of leads us into a little bit you talk about just having a little bit of slip
and this I want to talk about why racing historians is different to racing
clio carp or mx5s or modern minis or any of the other sorts of easy to access clubman races in
modern cars on modern tyres and there's a very specific choice if you're going to go and race
historians so can you tell me a little bit about how the racing differs and why you might choose
to go historic over something like mx5s or clio carp I think there are a few reasons but so I
forgot to answer the first part of your question which was is it just for you know boss people with
loads with loads of money it absolutely isn't um you know we are racing with a company called is it
out there from yeah of course there's the big boy stuff there was gt40s there and there were
cobras and you know some quite valuable stuff um but they're also I mean no one can go motor racing
with no budget at all but you could get yourself a an mgb there's another series which you know run
austin a35s these are not expensive cars um you have to be mindful of the fact they do require
maintenance uh you got to get them to and from the track uh you might bin it but it's not it's
not a sport it's not necessarily a sport for multimillionaires and the other thing that I would
say is if you go racing in a an affordable historic car which I've done many times and if you go
racing in something worth millions and which I've done a bit too it's not
like you're enjoying yourself a million times more on the expensive thing you're enjoying yourself
about the same but it's about the sense of occasion then but if you just enjoy but the pure thrill of
driving I've often said that the most one of the most fun I've ever had at the wheel of the motor
car was actually out finally for donnington driving a 1950s 1.6 litre alpha julietta in the wet
yeah I can imagine that would be potential and I've said this before on the podcast
it you know the biggest danger I faced was literally laughing myself off the track I can
remember coming out of cop every lap coppers was you just nudge the steering wheel slight to the
right and then basically apply all the lot you have in the other direction and ride it all the way
through the corner on the throttle and you're just howling left I cannot begin to describe how easy
it is to do that I mean it looks utterly heroic but it's it is just joke easy to do um and and
that's what I like about historic is they move about and if you like a little bit of freedom
of expression behind the wheel a lot of it's down to the task we run on these terrible Dunlop
L section cross-ply tires um which are I mean they're they're the same tires that they were
using in the 50s and the 60s I mean the compounds are a bit different these days but essentially
they're still cross-plies they work the same way and yeah and and they if you just sort of drive
if you drive them like you drive a slick and slicks don't really like slip you know the way to
drive a slick is to be absolutely on the limit but never over it with an L section Dunlop that
doesn't work if you're just going around at the technical limit of adhesion you'll go slowly
um you'll go faster if you're just slightly over the limit all the time everywhere and so that's
what you do and that's why you know if you look at old cine film of you know Goodwood in the 1960s
and there's John Surty's and Jim Clark drifting their Aston's and Ferrari's through Magic at Goodwood
they're not doing it to have a laugh they're not doing it because they're like going sideways
they're doing it because that's the way they make the car go fast and that hasn't changed
and if you like that um and also the other thing I would say is obviously if you're on a skinny
little cross um cross-ply tire you're going to have a lot less grip so things tend to happen
more slowly um and so these cars tend to be easier to control they're just a lot more fun
I completely agree I mean there's a there was a big leap so when he started racing
last year this time last year I had the idea to go and do it I've done lots of stuff on
track in road cars of various descriptions and on a track and on motorcycles
yes a lot of motorcycles obviously motorcycles is very different um in the sense that you really
don't want to be past the limit of grip on a motorcycle because bad things happen very quickly
at that point in time but unless you're Mark Marquez but but even in a road car on high-performance
road tires on a track day environment it's so different to racing a historic car in a race
environment there's two primary differences the first is that a little bit like with a slick
you tend to be up to the limits of grip and occasionally you'll go past it a little bit
but generally speaking if the back end comes out there's an oh shit moment you know and you have to
you know you need to get on top of that quickly it's not a stage that you are in
frequently and all the time to be fast and then the second part of it is just proximity to other
cars and you know you're only overtaking generally with permission on a straight you're not dive
bombing up the inside you're not going around the outside of someone around a corner you are
certainly not experiencing the first corner after a standing start in a race which the first time I
experienced that with four cars abreast on historic tires going into cops and the reason why the
tires is important now is because you're not turning in and knowing where the car's going to go
all four of you abreast going into cops are going to be sliding sideways and you're about six inches
to the right of the guy outside you and about six inches to the left of the guy inside you
you're all going to be sliding across the track who's going to slide more and and as an experience
that's absolutely thrilling and terrifying at the same time and there is just nothing like it and I
think it's reminds me a little bit of going to a rally date once and finding that you obviously
you are past the limit of grip everywhere if you're on a soft surface in a rally car and that is a
completely different skill and there is a degree to which racing a historic car or driving historic
car fast on track on crossplies is just somewhere along the spectrum from driving a road car on a
track towards that rally car because you have to learn a whole new set of vehicle dynamic skills
of controlling a car past that limit of grip and for the first you know three or four days that I
was in the elbow I was having to get used to the fact that going into a corner and sliding isn't
oh shit it's oh this is fine this is how every corner needs to be this is how it needs to be
done you have to do it that way absolutely but even within that world of slip there's there's
fast and there's slow and that's the real trick of controlling these cars is understanding for
your particular car what's fast and what's slow so exactly so we were watching the heli race there
were 30 austin helis razzing around donnington yesterday lots of three thousands at the front
they've got about 250 horsepower plus um then there was some hundred m's with the four cylinder
engine that were not quite as quick and then there were some heli sprites which are running
much smaller engines and looking at the way that all of those cars pile through and handle
the relative degrees of slip that suits those particular chassis and the amount of power they
have is extraordinary you know you're watching the cars come through redgate around the top and
down the craner curves and the three thousands are just in a constant state of big tail outs all
the way down and all the way down craners are over a hundred miles an hour they are never not
sliding whereas the the sprites for example are there are periods where they are not sliding
when they're going in a straight line but that's not the case for the big powerful stuff and even
just the difference in skill in driving something like a sprite over a heli you've got to learn
do you know what i mean there's so much learning to be done in these cars and that is because you
have a big heli with that big three liter six cylinder engine you know you've got a surface of
torque and so you can really power through and slide it through whereas if you have something
little with very little torque it's all a you're going to be a lot lighter and so your entry is
going to be a lot faster but then it's all about speed maintenance isn't it it's not it's about
not scrubbing your speed off it doesn't matter in the heli because you can just power on and power
through but it's yeah it's these little light cars yeah what was surprising about the elver
which is why i think i wasn't very good in it at the beginning was you think well this is a 66 year
old car but my experience of racing cars that of that age has all been basically racing converted
road cars you know old alphas in the main and the elver is technically a road car but essentially
it's a racing car with a road car body on it and that's what kind of fooled me slightly because it
behaves like a racing car and it's only once you've got your head around that and it's not
and it's actually it's so much more sophisticated in its responses it feels so much younger than
it actually is that you realize that you just need a sort of slightly different mental approach
to all this but anyway this is all sort of slightly slightly navel gazing about a car
that nobody's ever heard of um yeah the the the big question is um should people have a serious
look at going historic racing is it a fun thing to do is it a safe thing to do is it an expensive
thing to do what are the people like the people are brilliant aren't they they really are and it's
it's a really down surprisingly down to earth friendly paddock it's not posh posh rah rah
snot snot I've got my jumper tied over my shoulders and around my neck which some people may not get
along with it's not that they've been obviously there is I don't know if there's a whole separate
conversation about how high society works in automotive but racing is not all of that high
society I think is what we're trying to say yeah it's not at all it's very well I mean you know
I guess the cliche is grassroots I mean what we were doing was you know I guess as grassroots as
historic racing gets and you'll get people there um who you know give up a lot to go racing because
it's what they love and it's not just people who you know the money is completely unimportant and
you know we were talking to people who um you know would love to get this bit on their car would
love to be able to do that but you know they need to you know they need to save a few pennies to do
it and it's uh I mean it really is uh it's it's completely classless sport as well and particularly
at that level um it's an ageless sport um you know you get people you get teenagers doing it you
get in the 80s people doing it um you know the only common thing really is just
you know people who love old beautiful cars love skidding about a bit and having a laugh
is sharing that common passion and that's why I love it I always have loved it it's what I have
done you know I've done a fair bit of modern car racing I've never enjoyed it as much as
historics you know I've raced all sorts of things I've done some very long distance races in
modern cars um I do just genuinely love racing I love the the the challenge of doing the best I
can in different sort of formulas but there's nothing there is nothing like skidding around a
track with a bunch of lunatics and a bunch of old cars on cross-flies basically I'm very much
in my same page as you there I know you have to go and catch a train um but before you go um
I'm aware I dragged you out of racing retirements to join me this weekend I did do do you think that
the uh am I going to get you back in the car again I want to get this on the record are you
going to get me back in the car again I think you probably are jes yes I
people who race will know exactly what I'm about to talk about okay I never got to that moment
where I've been I've been to this place many many many times before races where you you get to that
moment where you'd literally rather be anywhere in the world other than about to get in that racing
car because the nerves get to you before the race you think you know the fires of hell yeah bring
it on I'd rather do that than go and sit in this car now I never got to that with your car and I
think that's an age thing and I think I've got sort of slightly gotten over myself a little bit
but I was I did sort of go for a little walk on my own before the race and I was sort of thinking
about it and I was growing up enough to myself to be able to think to myself what I'm
feeling now is not representative um but I can remember thinking to myself I'll be really interesting
to sort of see how I feel after the race on the drive home and I I had an absolute ball and I think
yeah if we go somewhere which is a fun place to race and it's that car again of course I got a
bloody dirt of course I am because because I love it and and also I was quite
pleased I guess that you know I knew I'd be rusty you know I've done
the last time I raced a car was in 2023
but that did all sort of come away and by the end of it you know the the fastest lap of the
entire day I did was my very last lap on the race yeah that's where you want to be yeah so I'm
still getting faster to get faster had you stayed in the car well you hope so you don't know I mean
you went faster than I went so you were you raced the car on Sunday I was unable to so I think I was
quicker than you on Saturday but you were quicker than me on Sunday so I think we both
have some progress to make um you because you're quite new to racing me because I haven't done it
for ages but yeah I don't think we can let that journey in just there well I'm very happy about
that right I'll let you rush off and catch a train and I'll speak to you later go forward to it all
best cheers okay so the last thing jess that we wanted to talk about uh this week was of course
the Ferrari manual is it a manual isn't um maybe you could just fill people in
for those who might not have seen the news last week okay so do we call it the do we have to say
in Italian or can we just say chill injury okay don't do cheese chill injury and that's how we
that's the ti official line is it I'm not allowed to say 12-cylindry well we can now we've done the
Italian badly once we can just say 12 something now yeah okay fine perfect um so there was obviously
a huge demand for Ferrari's customers all saying we want a manual version of this it's a v12 naturally
aspirated car um this is what Ferraris have always been we want a manual box on it but Ferrari really
struggled with creating a manual box that could handle the power and torque of this obviously
within any reasonable engineering budget the solution was to take their automatic box and to
completely craft a manual interface for it yeah so that's the DCT the 8 speed DCT yeah and they've
taken the front six ratios the first six ratios of that and made them accessible via a gated manual
gear shift exactly the way it expects be it looks exactly right apart from in itself it does but
where it sits on my transmission tunnel doesn't quite feel like that's how they had designed it
if they were doing it manual from the start you've also still got your d p and n buttons just underneath
it which is a little bit perplexing you do have a clutch and the way it works is that when you press
the clutch there's it pushes a little actuator that sends a little signal to the brain that tells
the computer to make the engine do the things that it should do if you press the clutch and now you
can use the really cleverly crafted tactile gear shift that's been designed to feel like you're
really moving a linkage and you're really moving you know through the box and you know it's been
designed in such a way that if you come off the clutch too quickly you can stall the car that had
to program in all of the behaviors that you would normally expect with a manual gearbox
I I'm really I'm really torn on this conceptually and I can't quite make up my mind about what I
should feel about it and how I do feel about it my immediate my intellectual reaction is well
obviously that's the one to have but then a little part of me gags at the same time how do you feel
about it Dan I was disappointed because there's been these rumors of a manual 12 cylinder coming
and I was like yippie it's going to be great and then you read the first reports and you think oh
hang on that's a bit disappointing um so on the one hand fair play to Ferrari for finding a way
to put a manual experience a manual gear shift into this car because they could have just gone
though it's too difficult we can't do it we're selling enough of them anyway so fair play to them
for finding a way to make this happen but it is artificial it's not a real full manual gearbox
also normally with a manual transmission you would expect there to be a weight saving compared to a
DCT that clearly isn't the case here but I think well the other thing is it has a manual mode so
sorry an automatic mode so if you don't want to drive it in manual you can just press a button
and drive it like a like a normal DCT and normal like an auto so there is some added utility there
ultimately it comes down to how it feels doesn't it I think it does it's almost a shame they told
us how it works rather than just letting a load of journalists drive it we they all come back and
say oh my god it's such an amazing manual shift you know this is a great car and the Ferrari says
well what we haven't yet told you is that it's artificial because if it is that good if it's
that convincing that you you just believe you're driving a manual gearbox great that's that's
sufficient for me you know if you cannot tell that it's any different I'm happy with
that there's just a little part of you though and I think maybe it's the case with modern cars anyway
that so much of your experience with that car is digitized anyway even in terms of the steering
even in terms of the throttle map even in terms of the way the brakes are applied the computers
that they go through it's there's maybe it's actually of no consequence because when you buy
a new manual car 90% of what you do between your fingers and your feet you know it has a computer
interfering with it by the time it gets to the road so maybe actually you're right it's no different
and compared to any other maybe I'm in my head I'm comparing it to my imaginings of what a 1960s
70s manual v12 Ferrari should be and then being appalled at what this is but actually if you compare
it to what I think if you if you were to drive it back to back with the standard DCT it would be
hard and if it's not as long as it's not appalling it would be hard for it not to be preferable I
think yeah and you know the alternative is that there's no manual of any kind
exactly yeah I think it's a fascinating bit of tech and actually what I clearly I haven't driven
the car or you know been anywhere near the car yet there are going to be 1499 of them they're called
doji chichilindre manuele they're all coupes I think they cost 590 000 euros as an uplifter
I think 100 and it's almost 150 150 000 ish euro I think it's almost 50 so it's a big chunk more
expensive they'll all sell out of course I yeah I haven't been anywhere near it but what I will say
is that whenever Ferrari tackles one of these challenging programming and calibration tasks
they do it exceptionally well you know their ESC their chassis electronic systems
things like electric power steering you know all that stuff they do it beautifully well
and it's it's hard to get those things right so I I do have faith in Ferrari to to do a good job of
this but also presumably we're going to see this technology on other cars I think integrating it
with a hybrid powertrain is exceptionally difficult but there are rumors aren't there of a 296
without the hybrid component and this transmission maybe we'll see that but you have to say
surely a 296 without the hybrid that's not going to be producing too much power and talk for that
for a proper conventional manual to handle well especially if you take some I think part I think
it's a lot of its marketing isn't it even if they could have if you sent to me do I want an 830
horsepower fake manual or do I want a 700 horsepower real manual I'll take the 700 horsepower real
manual but the perhaps the problem is they simply can't go backwards they feel that things I think
they're wrong though I think I think save the weight have a bit less power and make a better
driver's car but I just don't think I don't think the modern world of how you market sports cars
is going in that direction I don't know what kind of sports cars are going to be
looking at in 10 years where you've got to have a thousand horsepower to even compete and it we just
thought to this level of absurdity someone needs to break the cycle yeah they really do they really
really do fascinating bit of technology I'm I know it's dividing opinions some people listening
will be thinking well that's crap others will be thinking who cares if it feels like a manual
it's basically a manual I can't wait to have a go we've run out of time very very quickly here
there was a lot to cover wasn't there but that's anyone's before we disappear I will just remind
you all that you really should if you haven't already subscribed to the intercooler our online
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Jez thanks for thanks for stepping in this week and we'll we'll do it again soon my absolute pleasure
About this episode
Racing over the weekend kicks things off with a Bonnington blast in a 1960 Elba Courier, plus a look ahead to Andrew’s deeper dive later. The main focus is Formula 1’s British GP drama and why the rules were (mostly) followed this time—contrasted with Abu Dhabi 2021—sparking debate about race control timing, safety-car procedures, and whether lapped-car handling should be changed. They also discuss the “overtake button” style of passing: fine when it enables brave moves, but frustrating when it’s easily undone. The conversation hints at how driver confidence and setup philosophy are shifting this season.
Dan Prosser and Gez Medinger discuss the British Grand Prix, the Porsche 911 S/C media launch and the new manual Ferrari 12Cylindri, whilst Andrew Frankel jets in to discuss a return to racing, and the new Bentley Torcal.
Use coupon code pod20 at checkout to get 20% off an annual subscription to The Intercooler's online car magazine for the first year! Listen to this podcast ad-free, and enjoy a subscriber-only midweek podcast too. With a 30-day free trial, you can try it risk-free – https://www.the-intercooler.com/subscribe/
