How good of a driver is JC?

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Ebes1099

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I kind of tried to search for this but I didn't really know what to type in. I was curious to know how good of a driver he is? When he was in the IS-F following that touring car driver in the M3 trying to keep up that got me thinking. Thanks, and sorry if this has been answered.
 
It depends what you call a good driver....

Welcome btw :D
 
He's better than most of us presumably... if nothing else, he has tested countless cars on countless tracks.

He's no racing driver, like Tiff Needell, but I would say Jezza's quite competent for a normal driver,
 
Shawn said:
He's better than most of us presumably... if nothing else, he has tested countless cars on countless tracks.

He's no racing driver, like Tiff Needell, but I would say Jezza's quite competent for a normal driver,
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Agreed, I suppose if I had a runway and some taxiways to myself for 6 years then i'd be a 'better driver' - as in car control...
 
Ebes1099 said:
I was curious to know how good of a driver he is? When he was in the IS-F following that touring car driver in the M3 trying to keep up that got me thinking.
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... he has the advantage of knowing the track and of knowing how the stig get?s good times there ... apart from that he aprears to be a fairly competend driver who knows his way with cars ... but also he?s clearly no racing driver ... he?ll probably break a shoulder doing one of these :driving:
 
Shawn said:
He's better than most of us presumably... if nothing else, he has tested countless cars on countless tracks.

He's no racing driver, like Tiff Needell, but I would say Jezza's quite competent for a normal driver,
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+1
He is certainly no pro but he's gotta be above average
 
It did seem like he did a lot of extra powersliding in that Lexus, probably for the cameras.

Could have been a lot quicker driving properly and controlled like the Stig in all his laps. :D
 
Ask Keira Knightley (just kidding :mrgreen:) :lol: I'm sure he's pretty good, not a racing driver, but it looks as though he can drift, brake, and accelerate fairly well.
 
It's part of his job, so I'd say fairly competent, since he hasn't been sacked yet. :p
 
He's good enough to keep us entertained, but not good enough for him to make racing his day job. Which is good enough for most of us here.
 
Yep. Good enough to know how to do all the stuff he does on TG (oversteer, understeer, drifting, etc.), but not quite racecar-good. That's alright by me. :nod:
 
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He's been driving around shouting "POWERRRRRR" for about 20 years now, he's obviously an understated driving god. He could win the BTCC, if he wanted.

Think about it, he's a middle-aged man with a dicky hip and half a gear lever up his arse. What kind of serious driver does that make him? He can drift and make smoke for a bit, but that's sort of where it ends. When things get serious, he's well out of his league.
 
He's got half a gear lever up his arse, so if nothing else, he definitely loves driving more than I do. :lol:
 
+ Jezza is competent but by no means anything special.

Jezza ALWAYS keeps ups with Touring Car drivers when they appear on the show which is just complete fiction.

I mean they showed him keeping up with Luca Badoer for gods sake, like that would happen in a month of sundays.

Put it this way, they showed the "outtakes" of James' power test for amusement, Jeremy would be no better.
 
At the risk of flamed and/or getting -ve repped, I'd suggest he's an OK driver and nothing more. His time in the Liana wasn't all that special from memory...

And then there is this insight on Clarkson's ability from Evo magazines test of the Caparo (taken straight from the Evo website):

"Well, I drove it around the track and it didn?t understeer in the way that Clarkson said it did,? he says. It seems the trouble was that he of the ?80s stonewashed jeans would boot the car in a straight line, be flabbergasted by how quick it was, then realise that there was a corner coming up rather rapidly, so he?d hit the brakes, wipe off too much speed and then try to accelerate the whole way through the corner. And of course if you do that then it?s going to understeer ? as would any other car".

JC is entertaining to watch on film but that's about it.
 
TJP said:
At the risk of flamed and/or getting -ve repped, I'd suggest he's an OK driver and nothing more. His time in the Liana wasn't all that special from memory...
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1 min 50 sec.

Tied for 18th overall with: Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Patrick Stewart, Lionel "Helloooo" Ritchie (on the board as "Rich Tea"), Martin Clunes, and Sir Cliff Richard.

As fast as seven other SIARPC, slower than seventeen others (Ellen MacArthur - Roger Daltrey), faster than at least 40 others*.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/liana_laps.shtml

* The list does not include Trinny and Susannah (appeared S5E9), both of whom were around 1:57-1:58 on a very wet track. I don't know if others were left off the final list.
 
Aaaaaaaactually... Jeremy Clarkson is the Stig.
 
Thanks for the laptime info shellygrrl!

Thank you also to the person (or people) who very kindly gave me positive rep:bow:

Cheers.
 
shellygrrl said:
1 min 50 sec.

Tied for 18th overall with: Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Patrick Stewart, Lionel "Helloooo" Ritchie (on the board as "Rich Tea"), Martin Clunes, and Sir Cliff Richard.

As fast as seven other SIARPC, slower than seventeen others (Ellen MacArthur - Roger Daltrey), faster than at least 40 others*.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/topgear/show/liana_laps.shtml

* The list does not include Trinny and Susannah (appeared S5E9), both of whom were around 1:57-1:58 on a very wet track. I don't know if others were left off the final list.
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True, he did a 1:50, but that was with Hammond and Jason Dawe in the back seat. thats at least 350 lbs of extra weight which will hamper acceleration, braking and cornering noticebly. If he did it without passengers he'd easily be among the top of the stars on the board.
 
Ahhh, there's a rub there!

(edited to add: There's a more thorough SIARPC time list on Wiki (scroll down))
 
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