Page 26 - Motor Trend (May 2020)

NEWS I OPINION I GOSSIP I STUFF
Interview
Chris Hoy
hris Hoy is a six-time Olympic
C gold medalist, the most successful
track cyclist in history. He’s also
a bona fide car enthusiast, with a Porsche
911 GT3 RS in the garage and a soft spot
for Caterhams. He’s quite handy behind
the wheel, too, having driven an LMP2
racer in the 2016 edition of the 24 Hours
of Le Mans.
Hoy knows what it takes to be the best.
The focus. The training. The grit. The self-
belief. In our new original series, Dream
Jobs with Chris Hoy, now streaming
on the MotorTrend app, he joins top
professional drivers to find out what it’s
like to get behind the wheel of machinery
ranging from a 600-hp World Rallycross
car to an electric Formula E racer to the
legendary Grave Digger monster truck.
Have you always been interested in cars?
My love for cars and motorsport began
with a Scalextric set I got when I was
about 6 or 7. It was a Le Mans edition, so it
had the Porsche 911s with the headlights
that came on. That was the first time I
became really interested in cars. I never
dreamed that I would ever race in the 24
Hour race myself one day. Funny how
things work out.
What was the first car you drove?
A Citroën Xantia. It was my parents’
car. I used it to get from Edinburgh to
Manchester, to train on the velodrome.
I’d drive three and a half, four hours there
and back. It had done 130,000 miles, and
the air suspension kept failing. It was
a nightmare, but it got me there. Well,
sometimes it got me there.
What was the first really fast car you
owned? It was an E46 BMW M3. That was
my attainable dream car, and I bought
it with about 8,000 miles on the clock.
It was carbon black with a red leather
interior. That engine was an absolute
work of art. The noise was just incredible.
What’s the best car you’ve owned so far?
I’ve had three or four Caterhams, and
I just love them. It’s a simple concept—
lightweight, no driver aids, nothing
26 MOTORTREND.COM MAY 2020
Chris Hoy is now streaming on MotorTrend. Download the app to start your free trial now.
Gold medalist, car racer, MotorTrend dreamer
interfering with the driving experience.
But I love my Porsche 911 GT3 RS. It’s
such an exciting car, the closest I’ve come
to a road car that drives like a GT race car.
All the money in the world, what car
would you buy right now? I’ve always
had a soft spot for the old 911s, so I’d get a
Singer 911 with the Williams engine, built
to my own specification. I know Marino
Franchitti, who’s involved with the
development and test driving. He’s driven
a few pretty special cars in his time and
says the Singer 911 would be his favorite.
He knows what he’s talking about, so who
am I to argue?
Let’s shift gears and talk about Dream
Jobs with Chris Hoy. The World Rallycross
episode was like jumping in at the deep
end. It was a combination of trying to
enjoy it but also being bloody terrified.
The WRX cars are pretty intimidating.
They have 600 hp, and they break traction
in the first three gears. You’ve got guys
racing door handle to door handle, all
trying to beat each other into the first
corner. It’s so intense, and it’s such a short
race that you can’t ease into it.
Driving Grave Digger was a completely
different experience. The truck is so
huge—you don’t really get a sense of how
big it is until you stand next to it—and
you’re in a confined area. The front wheels
are steered by the steering wheel, and
the rears are steered with a toggle switch,
so you’ve got one hand on the wheel and
one on the switch. You’ve got 1,500 hp,
and when you put your foot down, it
just explodes forward. Monster trucks
sometimes get written off as a novelty, but
then when you see what these drivers can
do, I’ve got so much respect for them.
How exciting was racing the 700-hp
Porsche 911 GT2 RS Clubsport at Spa? It
was brilliant. If you ask any racing driver
in the world, Spa is always one of their
top three tracks. It’s such an iconic place.
The battle I had in the first race was for
about five or six laps, and we were wheel
to wheel. I’ve raced there before, and it
doesn’t matter how much you talk about it,
when you go back to it for the first time in
a while, it takes your breath away.
You drove a Formula E car. Is it the future
of racing? What’s interesting is how fast
it’s improving. When you use electric
motors, the strength is what makes them
exciting. The trouble is you can’t have the
power turned all the way up because the
battery runs out too quickly. Once they’ve
solved that, we could have a car that could
race for an hour flat out. Then it’s going to
get to the point where it’s: “Hang on, this is
going to rival Formula 1.”
It looks like you had a lot of fun doing the
series. Do you want to do some more? It
was awesome, yeah. It’s called Dream Jobs,
and it’s supposed to be me experiencing
other people’s dream jobs. But I reckon
I had the dream job, because I got to do
them all. It was just brilliant. I’m a very
lucky boy, and if I did get the chance to do
a second series, I would grab it with both
hands. Angus MacKenzie