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Old 24 Jan 2018, 15:54 (Ref:3794760)   #9
Richard C
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Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!Richard C is the undisputed Champion of the World!
I will be honest, I had never heard of him until this thread. So I have no option regarding the poll question.

Quote:
Originally Posted by knighty View Post
heres the web article, yes the car was protected on the test day by having the throttle wound back a bit, as it was too valuable to have crashed by a rookie trying to prove a point
But, I read that same article yesterday after Googling him. The rumors about the "less than full throttle" and times that showed him faster than published. Consider me dubious of some of that.

My thoughts is that the "less than full throttle" strategy makes little sense if they were trying to protect the car. A small reduction is likely to have no "positive" impact on the potential for reducing the chance of an incident that will damage the car. A significant reduction might but would be clear to the driver and observers. I think a small reduction that is not obvious might even increase the chance for an accident. Especially if the driver knows what the car should be doing, but is unable to extract the expected performance. So he may try harder and drive beyond the capabilities of the car to try to extract non-existent levels of performance.

If however they wanted to protect the engine, I can imagine lowering revs for example, but that would also likely be noticable and something hard to keep a secret. I am not saying it didn't happen, or wasn't attempted, but just that it doesn't make much sense. But I learned long ago that intelligent people make stupid decisions.

Regardless... if the reported times (even the slower, but still fast times as reported by the team) are accurate, I doubt he was experiencing any type of significant lack of power. Again, maybe someone tried something (such as simply adjusting the stop of the fuel pedal in an attempt to prevent full throttle. Maybe it didn't work as planned!

In the end, to me, this all sounds like a big fish story in which the truth continues to be stretched the more it is talked about and the more time that passes. Who doesn't love "if only" types of stories?!

Give it a few years and he will have had power reduced by 50%, been on old worn out tires, usage of just one gear, and lapping the circuit in under a minute!

Richard
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