Transcription
You ready? Mean it.
[Music]
RS, that's... look at the staircase in this hotel. Totally unassuming hotel because, well, I booked it last night. When I say last night, 10 minutes before I hopped in the car to, uh, head down south. And when I say South, Germany. Look at the architecture. For something very special, but really, look at the architecture. This thing is incredible. So, this is The Aviator Hotel. No brand deals here. I, I just think it's really cool. Uh, in Farrow. It backs onto Farrow Airport, actually, which is a more of a sort of private aviation station, uh, where the majority of the private jets land in this part of the UK. Yeah, I just booked it super last minute because I'm in this part of the world before hopping onto the Channel Tunnel. Very, very cool interior as well. I got in so late last night, so I didn't do the whole room tour thing. Uh, but the rooms are great. And this time of year, anyway, value was good. Yeah, let me show you what I mean by it backs onto private airport. Hotel, private airport. So, yes, super cool spot. Definitely be staying here again.
But now, this is kind of technically the very first day. Even though this is a very long journey, and by long journey, I don't mean in the car I'm about to hop in. I mean long journey, physically, mentally, and emotionally for the next 12 months at least. This is the very beginning of something very cool that I'll share with you in the car. Speaking of the car, this is also the very first time I've done a road trip in my new Ferrari Lusso. That is the channel successor to the M3 Touring. So, we're about to christen this thing. So, yeah, what, probably a, all in all, 9-hour drive, I would say, that we've got ahead of us to the Nürburgring. I've got to go pick Yorkie up first, and then we're going to put some, some christening road trip miles on this thing. And I know what you're thinking, is it the V8 or is it the V12? What do you think?
[Applause]
That would be the V12. Even the fuel button for this thing is cool. It's like a nice little electronic release catch. Releases it right here. Quite a nice touch, I think. For this one, there's only one choice, isn't there? V12 deserves the good juice. So, over on the main channel, there's a full breakdown and inside look as to all the specs, features, and the reason that we ended up swapping out of the M3 Touring and into a V12 Lusso. Namely, because over the years, the channel has had RS6, M3 Touring as platforms. They're so complete, right? They're just fast, practical, look cool, sound great. But I think if you roll all of those attributes up and amplify them into one package, it probably doesn't get better, in my opinion, than the V12 Ferrari Lusso. Why I say that? This is basically a four-seater 812 Superfast hatchback, right? So, it's got the practical side, it's got the V12 side. And along this journey, we're going to be unlocking that. Because the sound of this thing is obviously a massive contributor to the overall experience. But importantly, those cars over the years have also acted as genuine, bonafide road trip and support cars. And as part of the Sub Seven series, which I'm going to explain to you soon, that you might have already seen on the main channel, off the back of the announcement of the GT3 RS, we're going to be spending a lot of time in Europe, particularly Germany, on road trips. And I just couldn't have thought of a better car to support those trips that excite along the way than one of these. And I'm just honestly, I think these things are unsung heroes and one of the best Ferraris ever made. If you want to take it as a proposition that you could use daily and not have to squirrel away for special occasions, like you might do with something like an 812 Superfast. This is a daily driver, practical, all-wheel drive, twin-clutch, naturally aspirated V12 Ferrari. Back when they used to make proper V12 Ferraris. It's got Apple CarPlay too. Feel like it's been a long time since we've been on a road trip. Yorkie? We've been on separate trips, haven't we? You were in New York. You've been on the biggest road trip in the world. What are you talking about? Together? That's right. Like, when was the last time we were on a road trip? New car day. New car day. This is christening the car. Straight into it. This reminds me a lot of 355. I think that was the last time we were on the... Was that the last time? I'm convinced the last time we were on the Channel Tunnel was when we took the 355 to... Was that where did it go? That was that like, Shadow sort of? We went to... It was a Chubb activation. It was a C de Leon. It was a... Which one? Concord? Oh, look. Level. Well, this is how long ago. I think it was. I'm pretty sure I've not been here since since the Eurotunnel was called the Shuttle. Is that like a Brexit rebrand? It's no longer Eurotunnel, it's a shuttle. Your ass out of here. That's what it is.
[Music]
So, we just completed the, we just completed the order of this ticket three minutes ago before arriving at this gate. So, I'm, I'm hoping all will be smooth. How to go here? It is empty. That was on the other side. It's not. It's on this side, isn't it? Yeah, it's good. It's good. It's good. It's good. Right, now, you ready? There is a lady staring at us over here, thinking, "Look at these two." That's carried none. Confirm. I said, "No pets, please." Confirm if you have no pets. There's no ferrets. No ferrets. No cats. No dogs. 10:46. It's 9:57. Yes, yes. No charge. They want to get us out of here. That's interesting. Doing... He's trying to take it on the inside. Oh, look, they're still currently changing, changing the... They're still rebranding. They're in the middle of the rebrand, aren't they? That is what's happening here. We're just talking about the price for a second. The price that we just concluded, three minutes before, one, one way, one way, was the grand total of, was it £226? Yeah. Was it £226 for half an hour? Eurotunnel hack, or Le Shuttle hack, as it would be. If you're booking the tunnel and you're in a sports car, supercar, book the, uh, large. I didn't do it. I did book the large and wide lane. It'll put you in the same category as a lorry or a truck or a car carrying a trailer. And they put you in the single-story, wider trains, which ultimately means you've got a better chance of not curbing your alloys. That's basically it. Right. So, when you're doing that spec, it's no more charge, I don't think. And you just get a wider, uh, the train, which makes life a lot easier. He looks like he's been at the Nürburgring. He does look like he's been at the Nürburgring. Oh, no, he can't have been, 'cause he's on his way. That's... So, maybe he's going back. He's going back for more. I'd have to say, back for more. You might not have seen the amount of deb rubber and scratches all over the front of the dude's car. Some, maybe some different wheels. Cross-continental missile. That's what it is. What, definitely a... What did you call it yesterday? An RS6. What did you say yesterday? Asset. Brilliant. Which is great. I mean, look at it. It's a beast. It's so cool. I think we should apply some subtle flashes of orange on it to sort of tip of the hat to the Sub Seven series, 'cause all of the Sub Seven branding has got orange on it. Yeah. So, there's this frustrating regulation that you have to have a certain sort of kit in your car when you travel through France. See what that is all about. Oh, that's great. Thanks a lot. £9. Jesus. How much was that? I'll tell you when there's no copyright music. Player. Well, I walked in the shop and I was like, "What, what do I need to drive in France?" And she said, she got out this list of things. And I was like, "You need one of these. You need this, um, alcohol test breath thing." I was like, "Well, is there not just a pack?" Lo and behold, there is a pack. But I had to buy you a high-vis. Look, so we've got, okay, European travel adapter. You don't need that, apparently. We stick that on the car. You need to wear that. Why? And we have to have all this kit. This is a legal requirement for us to travel within, within, uh, France. Do you know the frustrating thing is, we're hardly in France. We're going to be in France for about an hour and a half, then we're straight into Belgium. How much was it? £40 for everything? No, for that box. £40 for that. £60. That was £6. That was £12. I... Well, here, here we are. I think we need to go there. Oh, two. Thank you. Have a good day. Cheers. Right, so that's us through. We've just gone through there quicker than you would go through an airport, by far and away. Right, we've got the coffee, everything's done. When we booked that ticket, over £230 quid earlier, when you logged on to the site, it was like, "Travel to you for little than £50." That is not an option. Like, it is simply not there. And then there's an asterisk next to it, which goes, "Not during peak times." Well, what is it? Tuesday afternoon, end of October. It's like 11:00. There wasn't a single queue. There's no one here. There's no one here. If there was any time throughout the travel period of UK to France that was not peak time, it is today on a wet Tuesday at the end of October. There you go. That's that's that's the whole queue there for this for this train. There's all, all 12 of us are currently heading over to France. £50 quid for high-vis. £50 quid for a high-vis. Thanks for coming. So, actually, straight, one of the annoyances of the ring is it, it is like German Mordor. It is in the middle of nowhere. It's in the Eifel mountains. I haven't actually explained why we're going there yet. It's in the Eifel mountains. It's a beautiful region. But even if you fly there, I actually think door-to-door, it might be two hours quicker by car. No, by plane is two hours faster. Do you think? Yeah, I think so. Only because when you get there, you then have to rent a car. And we know we've seen the pain of renting a car at that airport. It takes like an hour. So, you rent the car and then you drive to the ring, which from, anyway, from that airport, it's about an hour's drive. So, you still got two hours when you land of farting around before you actually get to the ring. I reckon you probably get there, all in all, maybe two hours faster. It's got to deal with airport security and planes and, yeah, this is much more fun. It's way more fun. It's great. Plus, this is a wicky for what we're going to be doing regularly next year. Off the back of what I'm about to explain to you, possibly when we get on the train, and we've, we've got to do the, the cliché classic photo on the train thing, haven't we? So, I'll explain to you why we're heading to the Nürburgring when the Nürburgring is basically closed. What's weird about that? Ate it in half. I ate it in half. You didn't pull it in half? Well, I thought that would get really messy and sticky inside the, you know, Ferrari. It also serves you right for only ordering yourself a cheese sandwich. If Amjad watches this, you've got no idea how much grief you're getting. Honestly, this boy, he was one latte. Yorkie, back in, back in Monterey, just walk off and come back with a coffee and there'd be six of us standing around going, "How's your flat?" "How's your flat white?" Yawn. Nonsense. Speak to Amjad about that. He'll tell you how much a budget here. Right, that's why, that's why I just bit your sandwich in half. Who goes to Stu? I said, "I tell you what, I'll go and I'll get the, all, I'll get all of the, the emergency equipment." Then you go and get the coffees and one sandwich for himself at breakfast time. It looks, look at that. Looks like Mad Max. Look at that. Stop. Thanks. Okay, is it okay to still make it on that train? Is it just, um, tighter? I have a question up. Tower, but obviously then it's totally up to you if you're wanting to drive on there because obviously on this, this end it's tighter, right? Where the single, you got a lot more room. Okay. How tight are we talking? Is it like really tight? It's fairly tight, uh, to be fair. Always okay. Fair enough. I'll take the risk and then join if that's okay. Clear out. Okay. Thank you. All right, that's fine. Okay. Thanks very much. Thank you. That £230 quid ticket is currently, uh, doesn't apply to the slot that we booked because it's full of heavy goods vehicles, which is the, the platform that we need to go on because we're classed as heavy goods to be wider to give us the space. Hang on. I've been up to. So, so to be fair to the guy, he's like, "I pulled you out because you booked the wider carriage." With the wider carriage at foot, like, right. And now he's saying he's going to check with his boss to see if they'll let me go on the standard carriage. And then you're going to have to get out of the car. Yorkie, guide me, me to make sure I'm not going to curb the wheels. Also, you know, the other ones are two-deck, like, sometimes you drive up. Yeah, but they've got like little rubber. They do. It's not so bad. Listen, we need an excuse for some new wheels. So, you know, maybe I'll just ping pong off all the side. Yeah, I think some black wheels. Yeah, we need some mods on this. I'm also thinking I don't want an exhaust, but I would like a bypass valve to unlock, unlock some of the stuff. It's down to the crew members, right? But if you want to go down and explain to them, yes, and then see if you can, and then so it goes. All right, okay. Let's give it a go. So, am I going down this ramp? If you want to go down this way, that's... Yeah, sure. See what happens. Thank you. Brilliant. That was Steve. Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Steve. Right, let's see what happens here. I'm going to take that off so you can see. No, I mean, in a minute. In a minute. They're currently on the walkie-talkies going, "Are we going to let this, this guy on?" To be me, we have to go in the up ramp on the tray. Look, it goes up. That looks wide enough. It does look wide enough until you turn in there. Let's see what happens. I've never been on the top level, on the top deck. It is Mad Max. Look at, look at the patina on it. Paint's coming up. It's straight off, off a set. I can't tell if they are discussing what they're up to this evening. Anyone behind us? No, no. Just us. Hello. Hello. For the... We come down to the. Okay, you straight on and down on the left. You have my for this single. Thank you. Uh, you can see Point Orange Point. My... Oh, all the way down. Thank you. Okay, so the first turtle of them actually allowing us on the train is where it's completed. Yeah. She just said, "All the way down there. Follow the orange jacket." And it just vanished. Look at the size. It is like something from Blade Runner, this thing. Why in here? Are you ready? Let's, let's see. Oh, yeah. To be fair, it is, uh, so those, those curves that they have, they're here. They're quite big. They don't have them on the other train. It's just flat and wide. Ah, this is fine. Drama over. This is fine. Why are they, why are they stressed? Oh, yeah. Massive. Look at the blast doors. Right, now, I shall proceed to tell you just what on earth we're doing heading to the Nürburgring at this time of year. So, if you've watched the main channel, you'll see the introduction of a Golf Orange 992 GT3 RS that has arrived on the channel. This car was ordered over 18 months. And actually, when we put the order in, we were one of the earliest slots in the UK. Then we were offered a PTS slot, which is Pay To Sample slot, that pushed the build by like four months. And then they had a carbon fiber shortage, which pushed the build even further. And what was one of the earliest slots became one of the latest slots. And from a sort of audience value proposition, I was coming to the end of Gumball planning the next quarter in my head, like the end of year quarter, thinking, "The GT3 RS arrived. What value can I provide the audience with this car?" Because it's so late, there's no shortage of content on that car. And let's face it, in the automotive YouTube world, and we're guilty of doing this, it's not just other channels, we're very guilty of doing this. Five years ago, four years ago, introducing a new car to an automotive channel was a big deal. But there became this cliché thing of, "Okay, so you've bought this car." And it became like, handover day, first drive, exhaust wrap, road trip, done. Right? And, um, you know, we've been guilty of not using these cars. And I think on automotive channels, it's like, "Okay, you've added this car. Now what?" I thought, "Okay, not only is this car now not news because it's, it's sort of 18 months old, but what am I going to do with it to provide an ROI?" Because it's, it's ultimately quite a substantial investment into a car to use as a tool to create content with. So, I'm driving along during Gumball, thinking, "Well, it's obviously a track car. We like track time. We love spending time at the ring. The content series at the ring previously with the, the 992 GT3 did well." I'm thinking, "What series can I create?" And I don't actually know where it came from, other than, "How difficult is it for these professional drivers to do a sub-seven-minute full lap at the Nürburgring?" So, I thought, "Is there a journey of following that from a non-professional, amateur driver's point of view to try and get across, first of all, the real transparent truth of what it takes to achieve something like that?" So that the next time someone, a manufacturer, sets a ballistic time, it's not page 10 of some automotive mag as if it's just a Tuesday, right? Because the achievement of doing that, there's still only a handful of road-legal production cars that have ever lapped a sub-seven lap. Of those road-legal cars, everyone who's done those sub-seven laps has been a professional driver or a factory works, yeah, driver. And I thought, "Well, how, how difficult is this?" So, before I opened my mouth wide to anyone and categorized myself as totally insane, I spoke to Lars Kern. So, Lars is a Porsche factory driver. He's done a lot of development driving for them, uh, works very closely with Manthey Racing. And you may be familiar with his name outside of racing from setting previous Nürburgring lap records in cars like the GT2 RS. He knows what he's doing. He knows what he's doing. Now, thankfully, Lars has been in the car with me. I've been in the car with him. And I phoned him up and I said, "You know, when you guys do these sub-seven lap times?" He's like, "Yeah." I said, "How hard is that?" He said, "Well, in what car?" I said, "Well, in a road-legal car, not a race car." He goes, "Right. And he said, "Like, what? Like something like a GT3 RS?" That's like something exactly like a GT3 RS. He goes, "Well, it is hard, but it's designed to do it, and we have done it." He goes, "James, what are you thinking? Just come out with it." I said, "How unrealistic is it for me to propose the idea of going on a journey of trying to achieve a sub-seven-minute full lap time?" And he said, "How long have you got?" And I said, "How long will it take?" And he thinks, "With enough time, with the right support, at the right seat time and car setup, and quite a few fresh sets of Cup 2 RS, he reckons he could probably get me there within a year." Now, within a year doesn't mean next year, because the season has ended. So, my year begins in April. So, it could be April '26, maybe, let's see. Or it could end up being towards the end of the season next year. But I thought, "Okay, what this led me to then create was this series in my head called Sub Seven." Following the journey of an amateur driver trying to achieve a professional goal. And what that did was create an excuse to tell a much wider lifestyle culture expose story of the Nürburgring. Why it's so special, why it's so notorious, why do people from all over the world flood there, why do manufacturers put it on such a pedestal as to the benchmark of performance. As well as this theme of me trying to overcome personal challenges. Let's face it, there's risk involved in this. Yorkie, the further I dug into it, one of the reasons that I realized it was so hard is it's not because there's a lack of other very proficient drivers out there who could do that time. It's trying to set up an environment where you can officially officiate an actual recorded lap time on the full circuit is hard to achieve. Because on most track days, they don't allow timing. If they do allow timing, it's only in your own car, so it's not actually an official time, it's only on your dashboard. But also on TF days, Touristenfahrten days, there's well, traffic for starters. But you never do a full lap. They always bring you in, go through the car park, and rejoin the next lap. So, actually, it's quite difficult to achieve a completely clean full lap of the Ring officially timed. Which is why normally it's pros supported by a brand who've taken the Ring for that time. Which is why, and this is a wild stat, wild, wild stat. So, on this journey of speaking with, with Lars and various other folks, I did some research and I was like, "What is this the equivalent of?" And I was like, "It's my equivalent of attempting a sort of Everest climb." So, I was like, "Okay, let's draw some analogies and comparisons." How many people do you think have successfully summited Everest? It's got to be in the thousands. 6,000. So, 6,000 people have successfully summited Everest. How many people do you think have officially lapped a full lap of the Ring? Less than 40. Right? So, this series that I've announced over on the main channel, which is a lot more polished than what I'm giving you now, this is, this is showing you the journey. It's not leaving my mouth lightly. I'm not saying this as, "Oh, that would be cool. That would be a fun project." It is not lost on me the severity of the circumstances and the words leaving my mouth that this is no joke. And there's risk involved. There's quite a lot of expense involved. But importantly, and the reason that we're going over to the Ring right now is that I, anyway, simply cannot do it without the support of some very key people. And those key people have turned out to be Porsche HQ Germany and Manthey Racing. And we are heading over there now to sit around the table for the first time with Lars Kern, professional driver, who's going to be acting as pro and coach on this journey, the Manthey Racing team, and some officials from Porsche to get our ducks in a row and agree on what this content journey is going to look like over the next 12 months. And it is going to be a 12-month journey because I need a lot of seat time and a lot of instruction. But I don't want it to just be about me and this, this journey. I want it to be about other people's stories, the cult, culture of the Ring, the lifestyle, the beauty. I mean, it's in the Eifel mountains. It's the most fabulous place. And so, this is the very beginning, effectively, of Sub Seven. So, welcome to the Sub Seven series. If you want to follow it in all of its glossy glory, you need to subscribe to the main channel. And if you want to come along for all of the uncut craziness, you need to subscribe to the channel you're watching right now. So, quite a big moment. Quite a big moment. Yeah. And it's one of the reasons, if you pay attention to the channel a lot, you'll notice that I went quiet online for like three, four weeks. A lot of that has been me admin behind the scenes trying to get this out there. And it's taken a lot of backwards and forwards with the right people. But Manthey have been incredible. Lars Kern has been nothing but supportive of the idea from day one, which is amazing. Thank you so much. And then it ultimately made its way up to Porsche HQ because Porsche is, um, majority shareholder of Manthey Racing. So, even though Manthey were on board, they had to sign off on it. So, it got approval from Porsche, and we're here. And that's what we're doing. Lot to find. I've been doing it on the Sim just to try to have some understanding of how wild it's going to be. And it's fun. We need to get you a Sim. I really need to get a Sim. 100%. Actually, in the comments, if anyone can recommend a good home simulator. We've got partners who have professional Sims, but I can't go to them all the time. And they're literally entire rooms with like GT cars in them on hydraulic platforms. And I think we should go and see those guys because it'll be a great part of the journey. But we're beginning this at quite a strange time in the, it's off-season now. And I still want to share what the culture of the Ring is like and the beauty of the Ring is like at off-season. I mean, they re-tac parts of the Ring from next month onwards. And there's snow, and it's a beautiful place. I really, as well, want to share track walks because on-boards do not convey the degree of undulation. Like, some of the, the hills and crests are crazy. So, we're going to take you along for the N24. We got some really interesting potential backstories lined up. Very cool people have, uh, documented the N24 over the last 15, 16 years. So, there's going to be all of these sort of spin-off sub-stories, hopefully, as well. We're going to be talking to Timo Bernhard, who's the fastest man to ever lap the Ring, ever, in the 919 Evo, which conveniently is a Porsche. So, that's, uh, helpfully on brand. We're going to tweak the car. We'll tell you a bit more about that as the time unfolds because that's going to be cool. It's going to be tweaked. And the idea on the main channel is we're hoping to, we're not going full Netflix, like by any means, but I'd like to sort of up the gloss in parts to just convey the spectacular nature of that amazing circuit. 'Cause every time we drive on it, I'm so thankful that it even exists. It'll never be recreated again. Never been on it. And as part of this series, we're taking Yorkie for his first lap. Do you know what we should do actually? I can't do passenger. No, no, no. What we should do is we should go and get, take you to a... Can I just follow you and something else? Yeah, but why don't you go and we'll rent you a car from one of the companies? Go get a GT3 RS. Yeah. And, or you can have an instructor or something. And you can go around. I might get someone to, like, no, I'm going to be like, I'm going to be fully get Lars to take me out. Yeah, yeah. Get Lars to take you out. Take a... I trust you. It's not that. What I'm thinking is, I'm going to be in the car, all harness, unhelmeted, right? And I'm going to be like, "Mate, can you just reach that camera?" And then I'm going to get Sam to just close the door. I'm going to drive off. Take you. No, I'm looking forward to spending time in this. We're actually on one of the things I was thinking about ordering was some CrossClimate tires for it. But it's on Michelin PS4S, which, contrary to popular belief, it was assumed when the 4S launched that 4S meant Four Seasons, like all-year-round tire, which that's not what it stands for, incidentally. However, ironically, it is a brilliant four-seasons tire. So, it's great to run these now just to have a feel for it before perhaps putting it on something slightly more winter-biased, like when we come back to the Ring if we want to come up and do some off-season filming in January. There's going to be snow there. So, it'll be interesting. But so far, I mean, when I picked you up from where you live, mud leaves on the road, standing water, these are a bit of amazing. I mean, it is all-wheel drive, but it's not permanent. It's always sort of vectoring. These have been great. The number one thing for me is displacing standing water. And despite the fact that this is still a pretty all-rounder good performance D, it does a brilliant job of displacing standing water. It happened to me once when I was, when I was young, really, and it's like someone's taken a steering wheel away from you, and that's it, you're on your own. And, uh, ever since then, I've been paranoid about aquaplaning happening. But then really focused on having the right tires. We need two ends of the Michelin spectrum over the next few months. We need Cup 2 RS, which are basically a road-legal slick. And then we need, probably, four-season. But if they did CrossClimate for it, maybe in the winter, we could, we could swap over to. So, on the months, I'm not about going too crazy, but it needs a few things. I think a different wheel would be good. Now, Ferrari are notorious for the gap, the wheel slash tire to arch ratio. They could learn a lot from Porsche, who do the right tuck so that the circumference, the curvature of the wheel follows the circumference of the arch. They've always had these, these sort of big arch gaps. This car, however, is a more practical car with a bit more suspension travel. So, I'm in two minds whether to go for larger wheels or just the same size in an aftermarket style, 'cause I think it could transform this car with a more sort of rock and roll, athletic wheel. And then exhaust. I don't want to go full send because it is a, it is a, a daily driver or something that we're going to put proper miles on. And I don't want to be like the GT3 is now, where we're always like trying to find the right RPM range so it's not too much, too much road noise. But I think some sort of valve default open or a bypass pipe. New wheels. And then when we've finalized the Sub Seven graphics, and that's something else that I'm, I'm really excited for, is that we're creating a series within the channel. And I think it'll be the first one that we've sort of created a theme and a brand around. So, once we finalize those Sub Seven accents, which are likely to be orange because the 3 RS is orange and it just sort of ties it in, then we might put some Sub Seven graphics on the car somewhere. And let's see, comments below, what else should we do to the Lusso? I'm not going to go mad on it 'cause it's already pretty serious. But the sea suckers have worked really well on here. So, if you had four sea suckers, I think they are rated, I don't know, something like 130 mph or something. Although we are going to be on the Ala Bar. So, but I don't think you're going to be taking lights and tripods and all the big stuff. Yeah, we will. Yeah. I'm not sure if you can get a roof rack for the panoramic roof 'cause the panoramic is an optional extra on this. Whereas if you had the sea sucker with an aero-optimized, you know, box. Yeah, they do. Well, that goes down. So, you can put, you know, seats drop, this comes out, then we've got a V12 RS6. Then it becomes kind of like a shooting brake. Is it a... Attach this is a sho... It's kind of like a shooting brake. Porsche, I'm missing a trick right now with not making the new Panamera as a shooting brake. So, back in the day, when this thing was spec'd, I mean, it was heavy. So, the really important things for me, Apple CarPlay, um, I really like the panoramic roof, that is an optional extra here. The dash inserts in carbon fiber, they look great. And effectively, what, what Ferrari call the carbon fiber driver zone, which gives you the RPM shift lights on the wheel, the wheels, all carbon, all of the vents and, uh, surrounding architecture of the driver zone, that's all carbon. Sea kicks and things like that. Suspension lifter. Now, on this, it's not essential, but we found ourselves in all sorts of like steep car parks. We'll probably be parking in fields and all sorts of things. So, finding one with suspension lift was also important. And then the interior. A lot of these cars spec like pipe and slippers. There's like loads with sort of cream, like classic Ferrari cream leather inside. And for me, it wasn't quite cool enough. So, to be able to find one with, with black leather, red contrast stitch, gray Alcantara, super cool. One additional extra, which I, I wasn't particularly chasing, was the passenger side display. So, this here, this is the, uh, passenger terrorizing display. Because it, it can display the speed that you're going right in front of the passenger. And when you adjust the Manettino, all of that info also shows up on there. So, it's cool. As long as it's got Apple CarPlay, this thing is now timeless. NA12, all-wheel drive in various different modes. It'll, it'll change the degree of four-wheel drive. So, when we're on the road after the, uh, train drops us off in France, and we'll go through all of these modes. But, uh, it's pretty cool. Passenger can act as DJ as well and change the tracks. It's a bit of fun. Good, good wagon. Good wagon. Fu... That's mad, isn't it? On the modern ones, that's even further back. It is. Yeah. Found a way to make the dash even further. Found a way to put it even further back. I'm now on the lookout for a L... They've got these sort of airlock systems. Like, it doesn't open straight away. You have to wait for the sound. There's literally no one on this train. Oh, we're on land. So, that means we're in France. I'm not sure if I've got time to find this Lop. I'm... I need to hurry up, really. I'm not sure if this is a good idea. I get a feeling I'm going to be the one holding up things here. Although I am at the back of the cart, so I'm not going to be holding anyone up. Just keeps on going. Oh, not sure I could be bothered. I'm going to have to do it. Do it in France. So, it turns out the toilets are in the first and last carriages. And you saw how far along we drove the entire length of that train to get into this carriage, which means I was just walking the wrong direction for three carriages. We're in France now, anyway. So, crack on. Return to your vehicle. As safety checks will be carried out once the shuttle doors will be open. Unloading will not commence until a few minutes after arrival. It sounds great. What a thing, man. Was that double or just holding down both? I was just pulling in both paddles. Oh, it's absolutely tipping it down. Do it again. Do it again. Okay, ready? Sounds great. Is... Oh, tipping it down. Oh, hang on. So, it feels good. I actually get, I don't know what the word is. What, what's the word in, in Swedish? It's like "hygge" or something like that, that means like comfort and cozy. Yeah, this car gives me the hygge. However, I'm sorry, sorry, I don't know how to pronounce that, but like, there's like a gratifying feeling about being in a, in a brand that's synonymous with performance but has developed a platform for practicality. And there's something quite cool about that. Super cool about that. Yeah. In snow mode, right? I would argue snow mode is potentially safer or better even than wet mode because when it detects slip, you can plant your foot in first gear, flat in the wet, and it just bleeds the power in. It doesn't, like, cut it. It just makes sure that you're only going to do this speed based on the traction which is available to you. It's really cool. This is the... We don't want no. I don't want that mode. Well, not, not right now, anyway. Go wet mode. Ready? There. Go wet mode. It's pretty cool, actually. Need to fill up with fuel. Might as well. Oh, look. Chevy DBS. Oh, that's a nice spec. So, good job we don't need juice 'cause they don't have any. What? Go around again. It's all on, uh, red. Look, all of the pumps are on red. Bags over the handles. Oh, that one's okay. That one's okay. There is a long nose on this car. Have to watch out for that. Yeah, that was the other optional extra, which is quite important, is both front and rear parking sensors and camera. The rear, not so much, but the nose on this thing is a beast. I mean, you got that long V12 bonnet. So, thankfully, it's got a front-facing camera and, um, parking sensors, which is a nice option as well. I know that that sort of stuff today seems standard, but it's amazing what Ferrari customers back in the day didn't, didn't spec. Missing something here at the, at the, at the cash desk beforehand. Hate that. All right. Yeah, exactly. This gantry is doing nothing but that Farest Gump. Sideways rain. So, it's funny. We should just be talking about standing water. We've literally just got out of the plane and immediately been hit with like torrential rain. And you can see this whole, this whole surface here is just standing water. Well, first of all, I told this story some years back, but my dad, before I was born, worked for Michelin, right? And so, growing up, he was always like, "The importance of tires. If good tires, good tires." And then I remember having an aquaplaning moment and going, "Yes, Dad was right." You know? And, uh, yeah, so ever since then, I've just been so tuned into it. And what I see standing water now, not only am I like, "Okay, thankful for good tread, good tires," but I just back off. Drive accordingly, man. I mean, it's, it's so easy to swap ends. All right, so we're out of the rain. Got some dry asphalt in, in front of us. It's a good time to hear some PS. I mean, it's good for, for a, for a four-wheel drive, four-seater, it's good. But I think we could do a 20% unlock of that exhaust for sure. Right, so I don't want to go full straight-pipe job. We've learned our mistakes over the years of going a bit crazy on daily drivers, anyway, which then makes them undaily drivable 'cause they're so loud. With this, I do think even if it's a bypass or just valves open full-time, something that's just going to elevate it. Another guy? You ready? I mean, it's RS. It's RS. So, it's effectively an 812 Superfast engine, very closely related to that platform. This revs to 8,250. 812 Superfast revs to 8,850. It's slightly down-tuned. This is, I think, high 600s, 690 horsepower. So, it's sort of geared, and its torque profile and its gearing is literally geared for a more grand touring experience. But fundamentally, it's an 812 engine. Therefore, it can sound like an 812 with a life. And we know what those sound like. So, we don't want to go full crazy, but there's definitely room to be found here. I mean, we might be able to do next to this truck, actually. Oh, yeah. That's the carbon fiber driver zone as well. You get these shift lights here. It's there. It's definitely there. It's there. It has hit the proverbial fan, I think. Down here, so we've got 26 minutes. That's gone up by way more than 26 minutes. Once it'll be integrated into apps across the system. Evidently, someone's having a worse day than us. However, this is inconvenient to say the least. But...
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That's two. We are currently, our arrival is when our meeting starts. So, we were supposed to be there at half three, four o'clock. We've just been trolling in this pretty much standstill nonsense for an hour, hour and a half. Hour and a half. Not cool at all.
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Finally back on the road, man. We obviously weren't going to show you the crash 'cause that's, that's not cool, ethically. But, uh, it was substantially bad news for someone. So, um, you know, say we are, however, probably going to be a bit late. Yeah, I reckon we're going to end up being there at 7:00, even though it says it's 10:02. We have a quick, quick stop, get there, hitch, black, straight into Manthey. See what's happening. Hello. We're not very far away from each other. I'm in Portugal. You're in Belgium. It's not that close. I thought you were going to say you went to, uh, Portimão. But it's something new, is it? No, it's a new one. Yeah, it's a new one. We, we were trying to get that track, but there was a bike racing on or something this week. So, um, yeah, we, we've heard from a friend of a friend this new track's open and it's massive. It's a massive track, over two miles long, I think. And, uh, fantastic. It should be good. And three Lamborghinis going. So, oh, that sounds amazing. What a time. Ferraris. I look forward hearing. We're on our way to the Nürburgring for the kickoff of an interesting project, which I'll share with you both soon. And you can share your, your days with us, and we'll share it with you before it goes out. Are you driving a Ferrari on track, by John? I'm actually not. I'm driving a Porsche on track. Oh, okay. Why would you take a Ferrari? Why would you take a Ferrari? TR... No, I wouldn't be taking the TR. You scared? You never finished.
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I took us way longer than I expected. We were supposed to get here when it was light. So dark. Look how dark it is. I mean, again, just going back to the beginning of the chat, I'm not, you know, when we first had that phone call, it was, it was very much like, "Am I just totally dreamland?" Because, because I'm not, like, I'm really aware of the words leaving my mouth. Like, this is not a, "That'll be good fun." You know what I mean? That's, that's not how I'm approaching this, man. Like, I'm like, "Okay, if we're going to do this, it's going to be." And I think, as well, it's, it's also important to state that when this gets announced, that this is a joining for the journey of attempting the journey, not, "I'm going to do her." Right? Like, that's, that's not it. Like, it's okay, obviously, cherry on the top is we get this sub time. Yeah, but again, when you, when the project name is becoming a no Green Local, it includes a Sub Seven lap. Yes. You know, it does. So, you're going to have to just, you're not really a local until you've done a sub seven. Yeah, but in general, it's a sub seven bridge to gantry. But you let... Oh, he does that. What's the back calculation if you do, you know, like, what's a good time to go? 22 seconds. 22 seconds from gantry. You can... It's around 18 seconds to spot auto. And half said 75 was 180. 180 kph. What's that like? 120 mph. It's a little bit less. Everybody like, "Well, I guess to do a sub, based on the length of it, it would be like 110 mph would have to be your average speed." It's not so much. No. When you're throwing corners like Carousel, what could possibly go wrong? Where do you think will be the most games to begin with? Like, in the early stages, is that just general seat time? Yeah. And then after seat time, working your driving technique. Yeah. Because that's beneficial for every corner. At the end, where you just like, normally we see the biggest loss in, like, in between braking and, uh, mid-corner. Yeah. Just, just this like, trad in face. How to maximize the grip and and the downs of the car coming to the apex. Because from the apex on, I'm pretty sure we are pretty similar. From the beginning on, but this like first phase of the corner, this is where we're going to lose normally. So, under entry. Yeah. In coast, it's a lot of people are stuck because, I mean, they still have this like hard braking in the straight line, head off brakes, the brake, turn, turn, like this, like classic technique. But in like slow-speed corners or mid-speed corners, you, it's just about using everything you have, right? At every second. So, you just got to use everything you have. So, got to roll in harder and rely on the aero. Yeah. That's 72 times. It's where we're going to see the most game at the beginning. And then I think it's going to be fine-tuning on. Yeah, maybe you have like corners where you just don't feel comfortable doing what we ask you for. Yeah. At the end, it doesn't matter how. It's just as long as you get some way. Exactly. Okay. So, data on board. Lead, follow. Get... We'll figure out and we'll just figure out what works best. And you got to tell me. Sure. You think? Yeah, yeah. The lead, follow will be will be interesting because this is like, there is pretty, like, it jumps to your, to your eyes when, like, where you don't, where you haven't used. Because when I, you're going to see on the data, but it's not as obvious when you actually see you not break and roll in. Yeah, just, uh, you feel why is the... Yeah. So, so when I see, so that's where the, the lead, follow and data will be interesting. Because I might see your brake lights come on, but I don't know if that's just a little settle. But then if I go back and reference that corner and I see the trace, I'll be like, "Okay, you were just brushing it there rather than like anchoring off." I can't tell you. Oh, no, I can't tell you. I just can't put it out until later. It just booked an Uber. Yes, I booked. I booked the fastest Ring Taxi. It's got to be the fastest Ring Taxi, right? Yeah. So, tomorrow is part of me getting a feel for the physics of where I'm expected to get to, which is now dawning on me now I'm sat here around these guys. We're going for a passenger lap with Kristoff in the, uh, GT3 RS MR development car to see how that feels. And, and, and I think he's intending on giving me a, a seven-minute ballpark experience. He will. Is that full lap? Yeah. Jesus. I've never done that. I've only done that bridge to gantry. So, to see that in full laps, it will be eye-opening.
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