What a fantastic afternoon.
3 hours at the Grenadier drive in Perth.
One of the other drivers let me jump in the back seat for a couple of laps.
I had some trouble getting in as I am old overweight and two titanium knees but then plenty of room.
Comfortable but no side support so rocked around a bit.
The track has had 3 days of use so picked up a lot of deep ruts and deep sand
Later I got into the drivers seat and completely different. Seats are really supportive so no swaying around.
Started on tar as per video below then onto grass fairly easy
Then moved into deeply rutted sand in high centre diff locked.
Deep loose sand to follow and even with full road pressures it had no problem, fair bit of squirming but never looked like losing traction.
It was raining fairly heavy at this stage but no problem over some reasonably steep short hills
Then moved into low/locked and nothing could possibly stop it.
1st gear it crawled up a steep blind hill with a concrete pipe across the top like it wasn’t even there.
I think this would have been very easy early in the week but now had a fair bit of wear and tear.
We then came back across the grass, crossing straight across the deeply rutted track that we had previously been on with ease.
Justin Hocevar was in the passenger seat and he told me to pick the steepest part of the grass berm in front and stop at the bottom of it.
It was way over bonnet height, at least 45 degrees, covered in wet grass and it was raining.
Straight up and over and down the other side.
Back onto the tar and through a serious of twists and turns that due to the rain I took at around 60-70kmh
A little body roll but pretty good for a 3 tonne beast with supple off-road suspension.
Main straight had a small chicane but I managed to get up to 93 kmh
Justin said now smash the brakes.
KO2 tyres but it still pulled up in a hurry and totally under control. No squirming or direction change.
Hazards came on to alert other drivers
Extremely impressive
The 4 guys from Ineos were just fantastic, they are clearly enjoying what they are doing and are desperately waiting for their company cars to arrive.