Stig's Practice

R

RFds

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Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
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92 Acura Integra
From what I've read in the General Automotive Forums, there seems to be a consensus that driving a car to the limit, especially those without perfect handling abilities, require a significant amount of time to master how to control the car and to get the best lap times out of the vehicles.

I'm wondering what kind of time the Stig spends with a certain car before they pick the fastest lap as the official power lap time.

No doubt the Stig has tremedous driving abilities, but i think for many 'average' cars (FF hot hatches or more luxury oriented cars) that top gear test, especially those that understeer wildly, the Stig could really improve on the lap times if he/it were given more time to practice with the cars.

For example, in the constant comparisons of the STi to similiarily powered Evo, I remember reading that the Evo with its Super Active Yaw Control allows an average driver to achieve respectable laptimes, but its the STi that could really shine in the hands of a practiced master.
(I am only using this as an example which is familiar to me)

So is the Stig limited to a certain number of practice laps like SIARPC?
What kind of improvements can he make if given time to practice?
Should this be considered when comparing laptimes of vehicles which flatter a unfamiliar race driver to a car which takes considerable practice to master?
 
Think of it like this. The F1 drivers they've had on the show haven't had much practice with the Reasonably Priced Cars yet very quickly they can put in a fast flying lap.

Any decent racing driver worth his salt can do this as they can feel what the car is doing and find it's limits very quickly.
 
I guess it also depends on how many days they have the car there for, but especially for the really powerful hypercars, it won't be more than a couple of hours. So the Stig has to go out there, do some laps, and find the quickest way around in that car quite fast. Which is what he was built to do.
 
Let me give you an example. MOTOR magazine was testing the 996 Porsche Turbo S at a racetrack. For times they brought along Australian Touring Car driver Warren Luff. He went out did a 1min8.4, 1min7.4 then 1min7.6 came in and said "Thats as fast as it will go".

Professional drivers don't need practice.
 
The most practice that the Stig had with a car was probably with the Carrera GT: he had to keep going round and round for a whole morning because he kept spinning it out of the Hammerhead.

(04x04, remember how they showed the spin? Jezza then said that the Stig "had a go after that, spun it again, and again, and again...")
 
Not sure how much truth there is but I was told by British GT Driver Callum Lockie that some manufacturers send their own test drivers with their cars to be the Stig. Their practise laps would then be learning the track in a car they know rather than the other way around. Who knows? If that were the case I guess it would balance out.
 
^ What's more important? Knowing the track or knowing the car? I would have thought track knowledge would have been more important for the sake of consistent lap times comparable across cars. Keeping the same driver with the same track means the car is the only variable, which is the whole point isn't it?
 
Mineworksfine said:
Their practise laps would then be learning the track in a car they know rather than the other way around.
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I don't think so since if it would be that way round all the test drivers would have to have about the same stature to not catch the eye of the "Internet Dweebs" and that's almost impossible. ;)
 
True, but Frank Mountain did the Maserati MC12. So I guess its perfectly possible other people have done it. I doubt "The Stig" did the DBR9 either.
 
^Is this common knowledge or something? I had never heard of that. Source?
 
I haven't heard of that but i always thought that the Stig is not one driver. imho some manufacturers bring their own testing drivers. And i do think that knowing the car is as important as knowing the track. After all noone says that these testing drivers don't have a chat about the track with the Stig.
P.S. where is the Veyron powerlap????? :(
 
It has been my experience as a racing driver that learning a new track takes longer than getting the feel of a car. I can get a feel for the limits of a car within a few turns, but a new track can take anywhere from 5-30 laps, depending on its complexity.
 
Censport said:
It has been my experience as a racing driver that learning a new track takes longer than getting the feel of a car. I can get a feel for the limits of a car within a few turns, but a new track can take anywhere from 5-30 laps, depending on its complexity.
Click to expand...

It's swings and roundabouts, but generally I would agree with you. Learning the track is harder than learning the car. But as I said above, any decent racing driver will be able to learn a new car/track very quickly.

I suspect the Stig is replaced by other drivers when it's something like the Toyota F1 car in the Excel centre, or the Reanult F1 car and Aston DBR9 round the track.

TBH we could over anaylsis this to death and still be no closer to the answer. After all, all we're doing is guessing :lol:
 
"TBH we could over anaylsis this to death and still be no closer to the answer. After all, all we're doing is guessing"

He's not wrong you know. Seems like j8mie got an upgrade - he's suddenly started talking sense. ;)
 
I thought it was common knowledge that manufacturers sometimes supply their own stigs. You can get them in six packs these days, y'know. Lambo stig's racing suit has orange lining (or so I hear).
 
Yea the stig is not always the same person/thing it's racing suit sometimes appears dirty or off color, i believe the only stig that has been consistent is the former stig!
 
Racing theory is consistent with everything. It's only the variables that change. Like, for instance, what kind of slip angle does the car like? If it's a stiff differential, it may prefer to slide a little bit through a corner. If the suspension is very soft, it may be more critical to get the car pointed before the apex. Just small things really that if you were the Stig and driving lots of different cars you'd get a handle on very quickly.

It also helps that he knows the track inside and out.
 
j8mie said:
TBH we could over anaylsis this to death and still be no closer to the answer. After all, all we're doing is guessing :lol:
Click to expand...

A couple of months ago some bloggers found out about a very complicated yet massive flaw in the dns subsystem that basically runs the internet by interpreting a few hints, they have guessed the problem impressively exactly weeks before the one who found out about it went to the public with the whole story.

if you make a lot of educated guesses, you will eventually (could take days or years) come up with a conclusion that is likely very close to what's actually going on.

i just wanted to have said that :)
 
REALLY nerdy hat on: The other thing that supports the multiple Stig theory is the difference in driving styles between cars. For instance compare the CLS55AMG lap or the Alfa 8C lap versus the LP640 lap. One very slidey the other perfectly neat and tidy. Yes differing cars require different styles but usually you are a Jenson Button or a Lewis Hamilton, a Sebastien Loeb or Jari-Matti Latvala.
 
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