Famous & Notable Sayings & Fun Quotes! (Merged)

[minimangler]

"Are you trying to ******* kill me?!?!"

Schumacher to Coulthard, Spa '97.

[LunaticCardboad]

And it looks like Hellinburg was shot out of a canyon!

-Benny Parsons

[minimangler]

"Max Chilton is the first driver i've ever seen in nappies"
Graeme (apologies for not knowing his surname ) on petit le mans commentary last night...

[Alex E]

I seem to remember reading an interview with Robin Herd (of March..) & he was asked how quick Vittorio Brambilla was, his reply was `quicker than most of the circuits he races on` Brilliant.
Alex

[pomracer]

How about a few Frank Gardener quotes??
I seem to remember some clasics from when he was asked to test the 917 by Porsche...after he found out that almost every other driver had ducked the inviatation because the early cars were perceived as being lethal.

If I try and repeat them here I will get them wrong , so please someone post a few Frank quotes
Thanks

[chunterer]

Originally Posted by pomracer

How about a few Frank Gardner quotes??
I seem to remember some clasics from when he was asked to test the 917 by Porsche...Thanks

Bit like those Henry has posted on page one?

[pomracer]

Brilliant - thanks.

[fieldodreams79]

"O hell, I don't know...I guess Buckshot is too short to see over the steering wheel."

Jason Keller refering to Buckshot Jones when asked how he got involved in a crash at Atlanta Motor Speedway in a Busch Series race.

[Hesketh]

Interview to James Hunt right after his victorious British GP, Brands Hatch 1976:

"James, how much does this victory mean to you?"

JH: "Nine points, 20.000 thousand dollars and a lot of happiness"

[SidewaysFeltham]

The US Driver, Ed McDonough, when he totalled Norman Abbott's tweaky Escort Special Saloon at Silverstone.

"What was the cause of the accident, Ed?"

"Brain failure!"

[fieldodreams79]

On Phil Hill in a rainstorm at the 12 hours of Sebring, speaking with Jo Bonnier:

JB: "When you passed me, I was horrified. You were laughing. I didn't see how you could stay on the road at such speed. What were you laughing about?"

PH: "It amused me the way the rain was running down your beard. You looked so uncomfortable."

from The Cruel Sport; Grand Prix Racing 1959-1967, by Robert Daley.

Phil, the MAN! a great book too!

[chunterer]

Excellent additions folks - keep em coming!!

Hey pomracer if you've got any more quips from the laconic Frank Gardner, let's have em!

[fieldodreams79]

When Phil Hill was asked why he races, his response:

"I do it well."

[SidewaysFeltham]

Dear Old John Bolster, after Richie Ginther had finished testing the then new Lotus 40, Chunky's even more problematic Group 7 Sorts Racer.

"So, Witchie, what do you think of the new Lotus 40, then?"

The laconic Ginther, "Well, y'all it's same as the Lotus 30: but with ten more mistakes!"

[johnh875]

I wonder if that was the original version of that saying, that has been applied to quite a few other cars over the years?

[R59]

Charlie Cox co-commentating a British Touring Car Championship race back in the late 90's at Brands Hatch. It was England. It was raining!

"He's got about as much grip out there as a dog on lino!"

David Leslie after making a very big mess of his BTCC Cavalier at Oulton Park, when asked "hows the car" by the BBC pitlane reporter... "Aye, it's fair second-hand now".

[Chatters]

Originally Posted by racing59

Charlie Cox co-commentating a British Touring Car Championship race back in the late 90's at Brands Hatch. It was England. It was raining!

"He's got about as much grip out there as a dog on lino!"

Stolen from Dick Johnson in the mid '80s!

[Graz]

Originally Posted by Henry

Frank Gardner, on the gestation of the Porsche 917:

"Late one Friday in 1969 the telephone rang. Hello Frank, this is Husche (von Hanstein). We would like you to drive our new car at the Nurburgring 1,000 kilometres this weekend. I said I was busy and recommended he call Brian Redman. 'Brian has had a crash, and is in hospital.' Jo Siffert was my next suggestion. 'Jo has had a crash and is in hospital.' 'What the bloody hell is going on there?' Our new car is not easy to drive, Frank' - and he wasn't kidding!

"Porsche came to us because there was a shortage of drivers but the money was good so David Piper and I decided to take it on.

"These first cars had alloy tubular chassis, which was gas-filled to detect cracks. There was a big guage in the cockpit, which measured the gas pressure. If the guage zeroed, they said it meant that the chassis has started to crack, and they said I should drive home 'mit care'. I told them, 'If the needle zeroes I'll park the ******* there and then and walk back, pick up my Deutschmarks and go home'.

"The chassis flexed so much that the position of the gearchange was never the same twice in a row. You'd reach out for the lever and it wasn't there anymore. I was asked to drive it at Le Mans, the money was great too, but I told them 'I never wanted to be the quickest bloke in motor racing - just the oldest- and that Porsche was going to interfere with my plans.

"Then there was the engine. You had about 300 horsepower at 5000 revs, and then between 5000 and 6000 you picked up another 300! So it was a bit of delight, really, and it was on narrow nine-inch rims all round. The computer had said that nine-inch rims would make the car very quick in a straight line, but the computer wasn't strapped in the bloody seat up in the Eifel mountains, where you tend to get the odd corner...

"David did one lap at the Nurburgring and said he was too young to die. It snowed and poured, the car was snapping sideways and aquaplaning at the same time. It was one of the few times I extended my concentration levels above and beyond what I possessed, but we finished 5th".

One quote I remember about the early 917 was I think from Brian Redman. Echoing what Frank Gardner was saying above about how the 917 handles, the car used to weave around on the straight because the chassis was flexing so much and Redman said in an interview, cool as you like (as was the way with drivers in those days), that going down the Mulsanne at LeMans when you arrived at the kink and with the way the car was moving around down the straight, you hoped on each lap that you arrived at the kink and that the car had weaved itself onto the correct side of the road...different times eh?


Another one which raised a smile for me was by Innes Ireland describing a crash he had at Monaco in the fragile Lotus when as usual something broke causing a crash...'came out of the tunnel minus the bloody car...'

[brielga]

From Redman on rejecting a Ferrari F1 drive: "I was racing their F2 car and then I got off in qualifying and said "This is as quick as I can go". "You are only 10th !!"they screamed, "get out and drive quicker!!" . I pushed, drove like a maniac and managed 4th within a 1/10 of a second of the top time. After that they said "you do Formula Due now and by the end of the year you move to Formula Uno". But I said no because I thought if I drove for Ferrari with this mentality I would have been dead by the end of the year."

[ensign14]

"People are mushy" - Paul Hawkins on the merits of where to crash on the Targa Florio.

"I ain't never won a race, but I ain't never lost a party" - Delma Cowart gets his priorities right

And what was the quote about Denis Jenkinson winning the Mille Miglia in a chauffeur-driven Mercedes?

[SidewaysFeltham]

Geoff Daryn, a charming chap who raced a Turner Ford in Modsports in the early 70s, after practising at Lydden, when Ronnie Peterson suddenly arrived to test the March F1 two days before Monaco. Peterson kept charging past Geoff and chucking the whole outfit sideways at 100 and whoknows MPH!

Daryn in the paddock, "Suddenly, I don't want to be a racing driver anymore!"

[omis]

Originally Posted by Graz

One quotes about life I remember about the early 917 was I think from Brian Redman. Echoing what Frank Gardner was saying above about how the 917 handles, the car used to weave around on the straight because the chassis was flexing so much and Redman said in an interview, cool as you like (as was the way with drivers in those days), that going down the Mulsanne at LeMans when you arrived at the kink and with the way the car was moving around down the straight, you hoped on each lap that you arrived at the kink and that the car had weaved itself onto the correct side of the road...different times eh?


Another one which raised a smile for me was by Innes Ireland describing a crash he had at Monaco in the fragile Lotus when as usual something broke causing a crash...'came out of the tunnel minus the bloody car...'

yes..yes.. staying with Lotus in 1961, Ireland had poor year, partly because of a crash in the Monaco Grand Prix when he changed into the wrong gear in the famous tunnel, receiving serious leg injuries.