RSS_Auto_Poster
Well-known member
Written by Jack Rix
I started driving when I was four years old, in these little buggies with two-stroke engines, no gears and an inertia clutch. When I was five, I started driving go-karts. The first road-legal car that I drove, when I was seven, was an Opel Monza. It was manual, I couldn"t see much, but luckily my grandfather was next to me. After that, I drove the beach buggy we had on the farm, which was kind of my parents, considering I was seven. I learned to drive a truck, an actual Ford F-4000 truck, when I was about 10. I wasn"t driving any of them particularly fast, but in the go-karts I was doing pretty well. That"s when we started to plan my racing career. I had already passed my theory test, so on the day of my 18th birthday I took the practical test and almost failed for indicating too late. The first car I had was an Audi S3. It was a quick car, but in Brazil we had to bulletproof it because the risks of gun crime and getting mugged are high. The whole car was armoured, the glass, the doors, the engine bulkhead, the boot. Back then, an armouring of that level added about 230kg; now the technology is much better the glass is much thinner for the same ballistic level so the penalty is down to 180kg. Anyway, I crashed the S3, unsurprisingly. It wasn"t totalled, but the damage was enough for the insurance company to write it off. So, I got another S3, and this time I convinced my family not to armour it, but had to sell it when I moved to Europe for my racing career. When I arrived there, I bought a VW Golf R32, V6; it was really nice but I kind of missed the turbo on the S3. However, the insurance was ridiculously expensive, probably because I was only 20 at the time.
Date written: 27 Mar 2018
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 11304
I started driving when I was four years old, in these little buggies with two-stroke engines, no gears and an inertia clutch. When I was five, I started driving go-karts. The first road-legal car that I drove, when I was seven, was an Opel Monza. It was manual, I couldn"t see much, but luckily my grandfather was next to me. After that, I drove the beach buggy we had on the farm, which was kind of my parents, considering I was seven. I learned to drive a truck, an actual Ford F-4000 truck, when I was about 10. I wasn"t driving any of them particularly fast, but in the go-karts I was doing pretty well. That"s when we started to plan my racing career. I had already passed my theory test, so on the day of my 18th birthday I took the practical test and almost failed for indicating too late. The first car I had was an Audi S3. It was a quick car, but in Brazil we had to bulletproof it because the risks of gun crime and getting mugged are high. The whole car was armoured, the glass, the doors, the engine bulkhead, the boot. Back then, an armouring of that level added about 230kg; now the technology is much better the glass is much thinner for the same ballistic level so the penalty is down to 180kg. Anyway, I crashed the S3, unsurprisingly. It wasn"t totalled, but the damage was enough for the insurance company to write it off. So, I got another S3, and this time I convinced my family not to armour it, but had to sell it when I moved to Europe for my racing career. When I arrived there, I bought a VW Golf R32, V6; it was really nice but I kind of missed the turbo on the S3. However, the insurance was ridiculously expensive, probably because I was only 20 at the time.
Date written: 27 Mar 2018
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 11304
