On the Road

…unless it happens to be the Grand Prix weekend.

One always dreams of meeting his or her heroes, and with that comes a slight fear of them not meeting expectations. Well, everyone is human, but I found out in a rather different manner when Formula One rolled into town.

I attended a Johnnie Walker event, and because it was a hot day I visited the john (ha ha) more than once. The second time I went some guy in a racing suit lined up one urinal away and I wondered which nuthouse was this, and who does he think he is before realising it was 1998-99 world champion Mika Hakkinen.

In his case there was no sense of disappointment (well maybe some weirdness) as I was a passenger with him. You can read about that exciting trip here.

That wasn’t all because on Saturday I happened to visit the toilet of the media centre at the Paddock and who should I bump into on the way out but another world champion – this time Austrian Niki Lauda (1975,77 and 84).

Sadly being in a toilet leaves little scope for talk – it’s a guy thing. And besides, it would be weird.

I did more walking and less drinking the rest of the weekend, so my luck held up and I also spotted Damon Hill (1996), Jacques Villeneuve (1997) and Jackie Stewart (1969,71,73) – all outside of a lavatory this time.

Sir Jackie Stewart

In some cases I got an autograph  and a quick chat, but that’s the benefit of being a motorsport fan and history buff I guess – leave the squabbling over Lewis to other people.

These are the people who drove the Nurburgring in the fog, and returned from the brink of death (literally) to win championships and a thousand other mad things.

Why go current when there are still legends around?

There’s been a lot of vitriol exchanged between cyclists and motorists (and even between different kinds of motorists, but that’s a different story), not just here but around the world.

A celebrity chef in the UK just got slammed for creeping up on cyclists with an electric car and scaring them silly – certainly not behaviour to be condoned, but the message behind it is clear.

I’m an occasional cyclist myself, but I keep mostly to park connectors and avoid riding on the street – call it a holdover from motorcycling, where the mentality that keeps you alive is the one that says everyone else on the road is a homicidal maniac.

But I also have seen professional-looking cyclists in a huge peleton on public roads, which is honestly, shameful behaviour. Bicycles aren’t paying road tax, and they’re not allowed on the footpath, so it’s kind of an in-between issue here, but taking up whole lanes of traffic is just silly, dangerous and bound to cause more ill will.

People who behave without thinking of others are always infuriating. But whether its a group of cyclists, an illegal U-turner or a taxi who decides the best place to pick up a fare is the middle of the street, we always have to keep the safety of everyone else in mind.

We return to our inquiry on whether the Nissan GT-R, a super-fast technological marvel, is a supercar in the classical sense of the word.

Helping us in this quest, if you read last week’s edition of Weekend Living – Car, was being able to take a (very) short spin in the Lamborghini Gallardo LP 550-2 Valentino Balboni awhile back (read about it here). It’s a Lamborghini in the vein of the old, pre-Audi/VW days, with a little more excitement and rawness to it. Unlike the GT-R and normal Gallardo it doesn’t have all-wheel drive, only the rear wheels are driven.

And now having seen the other side of the story, I think yes, the Nissan GT-R is definitely a supercar. Purists (or the very rich) might not agree, but there is simply no arguing with the design, performance and, most important, the way it makes you feel. With the Lamborghini you get a more recognition on the street for sure and it’s as much a recognition of the Italian design and drama as it is the big price tag.  But loud engine and ferocious gearshifts aside, very little separates the two.

What I like best about the GT-R is the price, $297,500 with COE – it’s relatively inexpensive (not that I could ever afford one) because all the cars which offer similar performance cost three to five times as much. You’d have enough to buy a nice condo with the change leftover from a Ferrari F430 Scuderia, for example…

The GT-R’s over-efficiency, as nay-sayers see it, reminds me of another lesson from history: in 1969, Honda launched its CB750 motorcycle which, like the GT-R, forced the whole  industry to relook things.

Great acceleration, brakes, handling, a 200km/h top speed – exhilarating figures for the era, and it was labelled a superbike. 40 years on, it’s hailed as a classic, and I suspect the GT-R will have a similar fate.

Tags: CB750, GT-R, Honda, Lamborghini, Nissan, superbike, supercar