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Written by Ollie Kew
"It is a dream", says Emerson Fittipaldi. "When I first left Brazil, I thought one day it would be my dream to have my own GT car. A car for track only, but also the lightest car possible. I think we are under 1,000kg." Behind him, his new collaboration with Pininfarina, the EF7, sits brooding under the Geneva show spotlights. It looks quite stunning: part concept car, part mini-Le Mans racer.So, is lightness more important to the 1972 and 1974 F1 world champion than massive power?"Well, my background is in Formula racing," he says. "When you drive F1 or Indycar, you need good agility and braking to make up time." And yes, Fittipaldi can speak from better experience than most he"s won the Indy 500 twice. "When you drive a GT car after that, it feels heavy and sluggish." He mimes a car being ponderously steered left-right-left through a chicane with his hands wrapped around an invisible steering wheel."So I said, I wanted the lightest GT car in the world. And with German engineering the best from HWA, a 600 horsepower engine with no turbos and all carbon fibre body, this is what we have.""When you have a normally aspirated engine, you"re able to drive the throttle and steering together", says the Brazilian. "Anyone who drives cars fast knows this. So a normally aspirated engine was part of my dream. But what we also have is a very safe car.
Date written: 9 Mar 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 7007
"It is a dream", says Emerson Fittipaldi. "When I first left Brazil, I thought one day it would be my dream to have my own GT car. A car for track only, but also the lightest car possible. I think we are under 1,000kg." Behind him, his new collaboration with Pininfarina, the EF7, sits brooding under the Geneva show spotlights. It looks quite stunning: part concept car, part mini-Le Mans racer.So, is lightness more important to the 1972 and 1974 F1 world champion than massive power?"Well, my background is in Formula racing," he says. "When you drive F1 or Indycar, you need good agility and braking to make up time." And yes, Fittipaldi can speak from better experience than most he"s won the Indy 500 twice. "When you drive a GT car after that, it feels heavy and sluggish." He mimes a car being ponderously steered left-right-left through a chicane with his hands wrapped around an invisible steering wheel."So I said, I wanted the lightest GT car in the world. And with German engineering the best from HWA, a 600 horsepower engine with no turbos and all carbon fibre body, this is what we have.""When you have a normally aspirated engine, you"re able to drive the throttle and steering together", says the Brazilian. "Anyone who drives cars fast knows this. So a normally aspirated engine was part of my dream. But what we also have is a very safe car.
Date written: 9 Mar 2017
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 7007
