Dario Franchitti
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eclectic assortment of cars
Dario Franchitti
If you don't know who he is, you can wikipedia him up - three time Indy 500 winner, four time IndyCar series champion, formerly "Mr. Ashely Judd".
Anyway, he's also a columnist with my favourite car magazine, evo. This past month's column (which I've only just read), he goes on about some of the cars he's owned in the past. Here's a quote that's relevant to this forum:
"...and then I got my contract with Mercedes and got a C36 company car. To me that Merc was amazing: good brakes, nice seat position - it was a big step up from what I'd had before. I used to drive it back and forth from Scotland to Germany, just for the fun of it, pegging the speedo on the Autobahn every time. You could make it handle too, and you could learn a lot by playing around with transferring weight and working with an automatic gearbox. I loved driving that car."
The contract he's referring to would be when he raced in the DTM/ITC with Mercedes in the mid '90s.
In the same column, he also wrote about how he used to drive his uncle's (ie. Paul di Resta's father) 190E 16v Cosworth. His comments:
"I particularly loved driving the 190E 16v Cosworth: terrible gearbox, big silly steering wheel and not much torque, but a very forgiving chassis, a glorious noise and a motor that loved to rev. I remember it being such a contrast to the three-door Cosworth, which was all boost, wheelspin and that obstructive BorgWarner gearbox."
The three-door Cosworth he's referring to would be a Sierra Cosworth I believe.
Neat comments from an true champion! And for the single guys, I read that Franchitti and Ashley Judd are divorcing, so she's now available!!
Anyway, he's also a columnist with my favourite car magazine, evo. This past month's column (which I've only just read), he goes on about some of the cars he's owned in the past. Here's a quote that's relevant to this forum:
"...and then I got my contract with Mercedes and got a C36 company car. To me that Merc was amazing: good brakes, nice seat position - it was a big step up from what I'd had before. I used to drive it back and forth from Scotland to Germany, just for the fun of it, pegging the speedo on the Autobahn every time. You could make it handle too, and you could learn a lot by playing around with transferring weight and working with an automatic gearbox. I loved driving that car."
The contract he's referring to would be when he raced in the DTM/ITC with Mercedes in the mid '90s.
In the same column, he also wrote about how he used to drive his uncle's (ie. Paul di Resta's father) 190E 16v Cosworth. His comments:
"I particularly loved driving the 190E 16v Cosworth: terrible gearbox, big silly steering wheel and not much torque, but a very forgiving chassis, a glorious noise and a motor that loved to rev. I remember it being such a contrast to the three-door Cosworth, which was all boost, wheelspin and that obstructive BorgWarner gearbox."
The three-door Cosworth he's referring to would be a Sierra Cosworth I believe.
Neat comments from an true champion! And for the single guys, I read that Franchitti and Ashley Judd are divorcing, so she's now available!!
