Takuma Sato gatecrashes Autocar's party
Steve Sutcliffe was wrapping up Autocar's annual 0-100-0 test when a well spoken Japanese gentleman wandered over and started checking out the cars. Now what would you do if you had a car park full of supercars, a private track rented for the day and a Formula 1 driver hove in to view?
Give him the keys then grab a video camera? Evidently Steve thinks the same way. Rather than let Taku embarrass Steve's 0-100-0 times "because he's small and lighter" (yes Steve, we're sure that's the only reason he'd be quicker...) Autocar let him off the leash on the full track. Click through to see what Taku, who drives a classic Mini Cooper in the UK and a Honda Beat when in Japan, got up to in his first few minutes in a real supercar -- and why he got red flagged all too early.
Taku, who lost his F1 drive when Super Aguri folded earlier this year, has an official test with Scuderia Toro Rosso on September 18th. On the basis of this video alone, it's a fair bet that Red Bull will finally have a popular spokesperson for the Japanese market next year.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
lester 8:13AM (9/05/2008)
Video was not what I hoped...i lauighed when he said "handring" in proper engrish. I like Sato, his aggressive nature is always amusing on the track and Im glad to hear he may be making a return to F1
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cFoo 11:18AM (9/05/2008)
F1 will be more exciting to watch with Sato back on the grid. You can't help but cheer for the guy. He's not afraid to make mistake. His mistakes are usually due to over driving the car. Not dumb silly mistake like a certain boring driver.
Hunter 9:01AM (9/05/2008)
Ha! I remember that Beat/Mira/Dangan review on Top Gear. I forgot how bad Clarkson's hair and dress sense was though.
Good news about Sato and Toro Rosso too. F1 needs more drivers with cojones.
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abcd 12:53PM (9/06/2008)
From which year this is ?
Shiftright 11:15AM (9/05/2008)
Too loud? WTF? Isn't this a racetrack? Is the UK really this much of a ninny state?...I find it surprising that an F1 driver has never driven any Lamborghini, and that his only personal car is a classic Mini...I thought F1 drivers were all supposed to have 20w-50 in their veins...
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pmiddle5 12:50PM (9/05/2008)
They were probably past the time. Most tracks have rules where they can only be active from 9am-5pm. Since he had wandered onto the track maybe it was past this time?
R 1:08PM (9/05/2008)
That's not that uncommon unfortunately. Laguna Seca has sound limits, too. Pretty lame.
esteva03 11:17AM (9/05/2008)
it's really humbling to see how apart from regular drivers any professional driver (even the ones that end out of the points more often than not) is. if you seen many cars drive around really fast, even if you are not capable of achieving really high speeds, you can realize when a car is about to snap and trow a tantrum at you. it is amazing to see how a Porsche can be so "man-handle" at such high speed. at the beginning of the turn i think the tail is going to go when he is going wide and has too much angle on that drift after hitting a bump (2'29" on the video), but i assume that with good throttle control he gets it back without loosing speed. all this is an appreciation that i make but really its amazing to se these drivers any time they drive road cars and make them look amazing fast.
...now that i think about maybe he was not even driving the Porsche... still, it looks awesome!
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Quan 12:28PM (9/05/2008)
To be able to walk onto a group of supercars and have your pick of any of them to drive. Ahh... the life of an F1 driver.
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pmiddle5 12:51PM (9/05/2008)
Taku is one of my favorite drivers and I feel he has aged greatly with his driving and determination. Bourdais and Taku teamed together would be a bit strange for the mini RB team. They wont be a RB team for much longer anywayz.
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abcd 1:05PM (9/06/2008)
From which year this is ?
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