bert
22-03-2011, 06:40 PM
As many would have heard from the media, vodaphone put on a show at mount panorama bringing Craig Lowdnes in his V8 supercar and Jensen Button in a mclaren f1 car. Approximately 20,000 people turned up for the spectacle.
As a resident of bathurst I have seen a lot of cars go around this track, and you tend to get a feel about how fast the cars are going. All I can say is WOW!
Up until today the lap record was held by Lowdnes at
2 minutes 6 seconds. The announcers made it clear that no timing gear was to be used, which brought out my phone and its stop watch function....
Jenson Button was first up in the f1 car. Remebering that he had travelled around the track only 5 times in a road car at the 60kmh limit. First lap he reeled of a 1:54, smashing the lap record by 12 seconds. His second lap was 1.48. He then was taken out of the car. The f1 car is soooo loud compared to a 'normal' race car and could be heard all the way around the track from the top of the mountain. Also to the f1 diehards (gary!) the Mclaren was on the rev limiter in top gear from about halfway down conrod straight. With proper gearing the f1 car would most likely be able to lap the mount in 1.30's.
A lot of people were speculating how the car would handle the dipper, it did that fine. Jensen commented that the hardest part of the lap was actually the straights, because the bathurst track has a hump in the middle, he found that he was fighting the car on the straights, there was talk that 350 k's was reached on conrod but I cannot confirm this.
It was then time for the V8 super cars to do a couple of laps, Lowdnes did a 2:10 which is a pretty good time. Jensen was then put in the V8 and reeled of a first lap of 2:20, then a 2.16 which I think is a remarkable effort considering he did not know the track and had never driven a V8 super car.
Lowdnes was then back in the mclaren. Lowdnes had never driven an f1 before but reeled of a mid 1:50's and then 2 laps at 1.49. You should have seen his smile! Both Jensen and Craig commented on how easy the car to drive across the top of the mountain. Craig also mentioned how the 700 horsepower v8 in comparison to the f1 cars tends to labour climbing the mountain!
I had a great time up on the mount and to add icing on the cake, I got a call from my office to tell me an autmated 2.3 meter dome had just been dropped of at my workshop!
Cheers
Brett
ps I would have posted pics, but my canon dslr decided to pack it in!
As a resident of bathurst I have seen a lot of cars go around this track, and you tend to get a feel about how fast the cars are going. All I can say is WOW!
Up until today the lap record was held by Lowdnes at
2 minutes 6 seconds. The announcers made it clear that no timing gear was to be used, which brought out my phone and its stop watch function....
Jenson Button was first up in the f1 car. Remebering that he had travelled around the track only 5 times in a road car at the 60kmh limit. First lap he reeled of a 1:54, smashing the lap record by 12 seconds. His second lap was 1.48. He then was taken out of the car. The f1 car is soooo loud compared to a 'normal' race car and could be heard all the way around the track from the top of the mountain. Also to the f1 diehards (gary!) the Mclaren was on the rev limiter in top gear from about halfway down conrod straight. With proper gearing the f1 car would most likely be able to lap the mount in 1.30's.
A lot of people were speculating how the car would handle the dipper, it did that fine. Jensen commented that the hardest part of the lap was actually the straights, because the bathurst track has a hump in the middle, he found that he was fighting the car on the straights, there was talk that 350 k's was reached on conrod but I cannot confirm this.
It was then time for the V8 super cars to do a couple of laps, Lowdnes did a 2:10 which is a pretty good time. Jensen was then put in the V8 and reeled of a first lap of 2:20, then a 2.16 which I think is a remarkable effort considering he did not know the track and had never driven a V8 super car.
Lowdnes was then back in the mclaren. Lowdnes had never driven an f1 before but reeled of a mid 1:50's and then 2 laps at 1.49. You should have seen his smile! Both Jensen and Craig commented on how easy the car to drive across the top of the mountain. Craig also mentioned how the 700 horsepower v8 in comparison to the f1 cars tends to labour climbing the mountain!
I had a great time up on the mount and to add icing on the cake, I got a call from my office to tell me an autmated 2.3 meter dome had just been dropped of at my workshop!
Cheers
Brett
ps I would have posted pics, but my canon dslr decided to pack it in!