Motor Skills

Have you ever wondered if anybody could drive your car faster than you? We gave some readers the chance to find out against a top professional driver in our motor skills event presented by Toyo Tires.

A while back, we had a brilliant idea. With events like etGP and Time Attack testing driving skills as well as the tuning prowess of top US tuners, why not throw an event that lets the readers have some fun?

The idea was to see if you know your car better than anybody else. You'd have the chance to prove it on a road course. Set the fastest time in your ride, then hand the keys over to a professional driver and see if he can beat your time in your own whip. If the pro succeeds, you walk away knowing the full potential of your car. But should he fail, you win a cash prize and ultimate bragging rights. Sounds fun? Well, it was.

With the collaboration of four of our sister magazines: Super Street, Sport Compact Car, Honda Tuning and Turbo, plus our sponsor Toyo Tires, the event was held at the California Motor Speedway in December. Each magazine brought a group of cars and our roster consisted of Randy Terwilliger's Mini Cooper, Dick Bray's E46 M3, Bob Lee's E36 M3 (represented by Dan Barnes) and Josh Zwart's supercharged E36 M3.

Our professional driver was Will Turner of Turner Motorsport. You should know by now that he races in the Grand Am Cup series and we've turned to him on many occasions for his superb driving skills. And since he's ranked the ninth-best BMW driver in the world (by BMW Motorsport), it's safe to say he was the man to beat. However, our participants were excited to race against the man and get the chance to ride with a pro in their own cars.

To give our challengers a fighting chance at coming out on top they were allowed to practice all morning and set their best times in the cool air before it warmed up in the afternoon. They also got the best performance from their brakes and tires. Each driver started off getting a feel for the track before pushing to find the capabilities of their cars and themselves.

The Mini Cooper was the underdog. It was noticeably slower down the long straights but hung in with the big dogs by zipping through the corners with ease. The performances of the three BMWs were harder to assess. From the sidelines they looked equally stunning through the course. One car that really stood out, though, was Zwart's supercharged M3. The unmistakable whine of the supercharger would grab everybody's attention as it flew down the straights.

After a free lunch Will Turner took each car out for a spin. For the first couple of laps he took it easy to familiarize himself with the cars and discover any potential weaknesses they may have. But later we found him using more of the car's performance and appeared to be entering the corners at insane speeds. With every lap, he got progressively faster and pushed each car to the limit. Our challengers were eager to see what their cars could do and quickly realized it would be hard to walk away with the cash prize. After an amazing display, Will took each driver out for a few laps, sharing his thoughts about their rides and offering tips on how to push them harder. We even caught him getting the tail out, particularly on the E46 M3, which seemed very playful in his hands.

At the end of the day, only a handful of challengers from the other magazines managed to beat their pros, but everybody was rewarded with a certificate for participating and some great memories.

Most of our drivers were within a few seconds of Will Turner and that's commendable. How many of us can say we've gotten that close to a pro? Given a competitive car they might just qualify for the Grand Am Cup!

The special aspect about Motor Skills is that it could have been you. These cars were owned by readers selected from your applications. Anybody can enter, so check eurotuner.com often for information about the next Motor Skills competition. If nothing else, it's a free track day. But more importantly, you get to discover what you car is really capable of.

Thanks to Toyo Tires for making the event possible.