James May - best driver of the three?

edkwon

edkwon

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Interesting comment I read in a review of Ben Collins' book

As an example of how Top Gear's final production sequences are aimed at entertainment, Ben Collins said in a South African interview after the release of his book that out of the 3 presenters, the best driver was James May. The reason is that May has an engineering background and is more sorted out. In the book, Collins described May as always pretending to be a poor driver to provide some hint of comic relief.
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This wouldn't surprise me a bit if it were the case.
 
Every time they do a 'serious' racing thing, he's always right in there if not the leader. The classic time/distance rally on the circuit, he was posting consistent times - the best racing drivers aren't just fast, but consistent.

Same with the converted diesel touring car; consistent times, with speed.

Is he a good tire-smokey driver? I would theorize that he's probably not as good at destroying rear tires as the other two. But at 'skill' driving, I could see it.
 
Mechanical sympathy.
Some people have it, while others will be with a foot on the brake, tyre smoking in 1st gear bouncing off the rev limiter?..
 
Rubbish! In their latest race (the hatchbacks in Monaco) James was the slowest of them AND he had the fastest car of the 3 (which was proven in the DVD of JC Powered Up). Yes he understands the mechanical engineering and he is always consistent but he is consistent slow ;) So if you define the best racing driver as someone who is consistent and knows about racing lines etc. then James might be the best but I think Jeremy is much faster, better and has more balls to go fast :cool:
 
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MarxOutThere said:
Mechanical sympathy.
Some people have it, while others will be with a foot on the brake, tyre smoking in 1st gear bouncing off the rev limiter?..
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That really sums it up, combined with a less of a headfirst approach to things and being very pedantic about stuff.
 
JB13 said:
Rubbish! In their latest race (the hatchbacks in Monaco) James was the slowest of them AND he had the fastest car of the 3 (which was proven in the DVD of JC Powered Up).
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Rubbish! I don't think that the Monaco thingy can be used as a reference point, as it was clearly all scripted(james getting lost, richard loosing his car, etc...) so it wouldn't be too far fetched to think that the race results were scripted as well. We should look at when James raced the TVR around a track (with Jackie Stewart) or when he was in that rally, from those we can clearly see that he can actually drive (and has the knowledge to drive properly). Maybe it is just him having to play his Captain Slow character on Top Gear most of the time that we think he isn't too good of a fast driver.
 
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Lancia Stratos said:
We should look at when James raced the TVR around a track (with Jackie Stewart) or when he was in that rally, from those we can clearly see that he can actually drive (and has the knowledge to drive properly). Maybe it is just him having to play up his Captain Slow character on Top Gear most of the time that we think he isn't too good of a fast driver.
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FTFY.

I think James is a good driver; he just doesn't like to drive like his hair's on fire all the time. ;)
 
What about the 24hrs at Silverstone? I would have expected they were all giving an honest effort there and I seem to remember James being the slowest, I could be mistaken.
 
I believe Collins also said that Richard, although not necessarily the most skilled, was the driver with the killer instinct that is required in his opinion to be a successful racing driver.
 
MarxOutThere said:
Hang on, Don?t we need to sort out what ?best? means first?
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Have to agree with you there. I heard James being interviewed on the radio not so long ago, and the interviewer asked him why he was called Captain Slow. He said to James, "I mean, are you really that bad a driver?"

Obviously, in many people's minds, good equals fast. I'm not so sure, but then I'm not a racing driver.
 
clarksonjr said:
get them all in the reasonably priced car and find out once and for all
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It's a great idea in theory, but I fear the producers would take this opportunity and script that also so we'd see James going 10 hours slower than his natural pace...
 
I think he certainly has the most potential, and is actually the "best" driver in two ways. First, he is certainly the best driver when it comes to the boring stuff like driving etiquette, safety and sticking to the rules. Beyond that, he is probably the smartest when it comes to the technical bits and knowing what happens when you do a certain thing and can analyze it.

That said, I'm not sure he will always be the fastest. I don't think its down to lacking the ability, but more because he often doesn't seem to care all that much about it. Obviously he gets competitive and clearly can drive reasonably quickly, but that isn't a given. Jezza and Hammond are much more "into" being fast and both fancy themselves racing drivers. Hammond was the only one for a while that was actively seeking racing licensure and regularly goes and does the competition vehicles on the show. Jeremy is just bonkers and loves to drive fast and also is the only one of the three that is actually a dedicated fan of racing.

I put the win at Monaco down to Jeremy caring more about it then the other two, and since he is an F1 fan that watches the races, he knows the track. Plus, if the show was honest, Jezza spent the night grilling the F1 guys about how to drive the track and the other two were off staring at unobtainable booby's and getting drunk (is it bad that I don't know if I would choose Jezza's or Hammond/May's night out?)

So yeah, given an equal level of motivation, I would put James as the best driver full stop. Lacking that motivation, the other guys would probably come ahead. Jeremy is certainly the most flamboyant driver, but screaming around a track with your ass hanging out and yelling power in cool ways doesn't necessarily make you a great driver. The other thing I've noticed about him is that he finds it hard to drive any other way, and when a car isn't good at doing power slides he tends to get a bit grumpy about it and says it can't handle or that it is too clinical and boring.
 
In terms of driving styles I think there is no better representation than when they go to the Virginia Raceway in 15x07. Jeremy is just being stupid, kicking the tale out the whole time, Hammond is seriously competitive and will go to extraordinary lengths to win. And James is the gentleman driver; sensible and knowledgeable but when a race is presented will give it the beans.

So in terms of driving, yes I would say he is the best. But I also don't have a problem with the 'Captain Slow' persona.
 
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