I drove Damon Hill's F1 today

The LRS folks from Las Vegas run the 97 Damon Hill Arrows today at the Autobahnclub in Joliet. I got my chance at driving a paddle shift F1. Needless to say it was a blast. To make things easier, the start was a push start: With the running engine and the clutch in, they push you to some speed then you dump the clutch and off you go. The car had (thankfully) traction control, which helped out all the drivers today. The steering wheel is generic, not the original wheel. The engine was a V8 Cosworth with 700 hp.
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Not tall really, 5.3 about.

I did 7 laps, each lap is somewhat over a minute long. Acceleration and deceleration were awesome, the sound of the engine just incredible. I loved exploding that hand grenade when upshifting. The track has very short straights, so you don't get beyond 5th. Steering was precise as expected, but very nervous. I don't know whether that was the setup (I'd prefer some softer springs) or whether it was the grooved tires. My last F1 didn't feel so touchy, so I had to really focus on not moving the steering wheel unintentionally. Also any bump in the road would move cause the car to wander a tad.

As you can see from the pics the footroom was very narrow. I wore my racing boots, but had barely any room. So I quickly gave up to left brake and let that foot rest on the clutch pedal. Brakes and throttle were somewhat stiff as expected from a decent race car, nothing surprising.

There were 4 of us driving the car and driver change was quick as they didn't want to overheat the car. Right after the last driver the rain started to come down, so we got pretty lucky.

 

Surprised me too a bit. Sure enough one guy did spin yesterday. I was too timid to get to that point, also really stuck to the ideal line as good as I could. One thing is sure: The track felt a lot smaller than when I drove it in my 308.

Ira, you're up next! Wanna see your pics and report. Make sure you get enough padding on the sides. I'm a heavy guy, but was still sliding around as there is no seat. Also I'm anxious to hear what you have to say about the twitchy steering wheel. If this were my car, I'd try to dial some of that out, even if that meant to put on non grooved slicks.

 

Unbeknownst to the public Eddie Irvine has made several comebacks over the years: Champ, IRL and NASCAR...

Dunno about the GP win. They said it run in 3 or 4 GPs.

 

Many cars used clutches with paddle shifter, mostly manual clutches, this one had a foot clutch. Not unusual. I think today that's all gone.

They told me, that when they get a F1 from a team (they have about 8 cars in Europe and 3 in Las Vegas), the teams remove anything that could be used as a spare or has some secret in it. So they get basically the bare bones chassis and have to rebuild the car around it from scratch. Most cars have the Cossie V8, but now they're planning on putting a V10 into one of the newer cars.

 

We used the North track as the club members drove on the (faster) South track. http://www.autobahncountryclub.net/northmap.pdf

I have driven the North track before and was familiar with it. I like it. It ain't Road America, but for a private track and the flat lands of IL it is pretty good. Unfortunately before turn 5 and after turn 6 the surface has been patched and you really, really feel that in the F1: It basically jumps sideways going over those patches, very nervous.

The Autobahn country club as a whole is a wonderful experience. Beautiful facilities and there is always a hot coffee or some chilled coke around the corner. The founding fathers and club members built themselves a nice "resort" and continue to do so.

Given all the tinkering they did with the car, I'm not so sure anymore whether that really was Damon's car or they just say that for PR reasons. At any rate I got my height wrong: My driver's license says 5'10". Sorry about that, I'm still thinking in metric where I know my height is 1.73.

Just sign up with these guys:
http://www.lrsformulausa.com/f1/cart.php?target=category&category_id=60

You realize this is not cheap. However my experience yesterday was a lot less than that because they gave a nice discount to Ferrari club members (FCA and FOC) and because this was a different track etc. Their rationale is, that in the summer it is too hot to do this in Las Vegas, so they brought 2 cars to the Midwest. You can still sign up with them: Next Tuesday, they'll do it again at the Autobahnclub and in August they're going to do this at Road America (will cost more as it will be a fuller experience with Barber Formula cars in the morning). Just call Pierre Moroni at 1(800) 818-5564 and tell him I sent you.