My
Ring-mentor
Phil Gardner's
Scooby "R1NGA" was featured in the January 2002 issue of Cars and
Car Conversions (reproduced below without permission), which prompted me to
build this page. Phil says he would've done, but as well as being old and grey, he
doesn't understand computers ;->.
It's a slightly lame article from CCC, but that's at least in part because they couldn't think of any improvements to the car. I'm not surprised: this (the second Scooby to bear the R1NGA plate) is a well-tuned STI V Type R, with excellent brake and suspension upgrades.
I'm told that on the weekend of my crash in Easter '00, my GSX-R600 was faster than R1NGA, but Phil's since found some much better tyres, and now reports that a good rider on an R1 can just about keep up with him.
R1NGA gained a celebrity autograph in '00, when Phil was instructing at Yamaha's Ring Riders course: World Superbike rider Noriyuki Haga accepted a ride. Despite Phil going gently (after being reminded, by Haga's manager, of the value of his cargo :-) ), Haga still found R1NGA white-knuckle exciting, and signed the passenger sunvisor.
I've had many passenger rides in R1NGA, but although I can't recall ever being overtaken, it's always an uneventful (almost - stupid though it sounds - boring) ride. Far from being a criticism, in my view this is the highest compliment of a sorted car and an excellent driver - if you want an exciting lap of the Ring, the car park is full of drivers who'll be happy to oblige (just check your life insurance first!)
One of my most vivid car memories was my first passenger lap of the Ring in October '98, in the old R1NGA. We were going round the fast double-apex right-hander Flugplatz at 100+, perfectly on line (of course), when Phil said "there's no grip here at all!", turning the wheel from lock to lock without affecting the car in the slightest :-)
(It would be wrong for you to think that Phil's flawless though - he
fell off his Supermoto
at Adenauer Forst in September '01, showing off to spectators)
Here are Phil's scans of the Car and Car Conversions pages - click these small pics for legible ones ...
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