commasense

Did anyone see Faking It on BBC America this week? (If you haven't seen it, it's a reality show whose premise is to take someone with no experience in a field and train them intensively for four weeks. At the end of that time they have to participate in some demonstration of that skill and four experts try to tell which of several people is faking it. )

I watched this week because the skill in question was race driving, and among the cars they used in the training was a Lotus Elise, which caught my eye in the promos for the show.

The official site for this episode is here.

So they get this video game tester named Phil, and they bring him out to Rockingham (the one in England, not in NC) where several expert race drivers (including F1's Johnny Herbert!!!) teach him racing technique. They start out in the Elise, then move to a Formula Renault open wheel car. The idea is that at the end of four weeks he'll try to qualify and race in a real Formula Renault race at Rockingham.

He starts out (probably like a lot of us did before we tried to drive on track) thinking this won't be too hard, and that he's already a pretty good driver. He's confident he'll do pretty well. But after a while it becomes clear he's not really listening to the instructors. He does some quick laps, but he can't repeat them.

He's just so idiotically confident that he's a great driver that he won't do what they tell him, he doesn't grasp the basics, he can't admit that someone else might have more experience and therefore know more than he does. It's amazing. After the training is over and he's getting ready for the race he actually says to the camera that he thinks he can win this race and show his instructors a few things. He's never run on a track with other cars!!!

Meanwhile the instructors are all saying they don't think he has a chance, and are astounded at how impervious he seems to their advice and instruction.

He goes to qualifying, and from now on the experts are watching him and the other racers, trying to figure which is the faker. He lucks out in the qualifying because his engine misfires, and he has to limp around the three laps, so he has a good excuse for qualifying ninth in the field of nine.

Come the race and he's last place from the start, and falling back. He blows corners, spins, and although at the end he passes one car, it looked to me that the only reason he managed that was that the other car was having problems.

Then there's an interview with the experts at which he says a bunch of idiotic things that no real racer would ever say ("we pre-baked the tires"!?!), and it's all over. Two out of the three experts say he's the faker, and the only reason the third doesn't pick him is that he suspects he's a red herring intended to throw them off.

At the end Phil doesn't get that he's an idiot who threw away a terrific chance. He seems a little embarassed, but he doesn't realize that the first step in learning anything is admitting you don't already know everything, and that other people may just know more than you. It was just amazing to see someone who was not only ignorant and unaware, but even when forcefully presented with evidence of his ignorance, refused to see it or do anything about it.

If you want get into racing, or HPDEs, or autocross, watch this show and learn how NOT to be!

If you get BBC America , they're repeating this episode Thursday 1/22 at 9pm and midnight.

archman350z

Yeah, this is such a sad story. I find it apalling that if one were to take a poll of drivers worldwide, that poll would indicate that the vast majority would consider themselves excellent drivers. I can't figure out why that is...people complain all the time that they're no good at sports, playing a musical instrument, or fixing stuff...but they'll all say they're excellent drivers.

The saddest part about this is that this guy (and so many others) refuse to admit they were wrong or flat out disbelieve it. My philosophy is "shut up and listen." Until you can prove (beyond a shadow of a doubt) that you are the best thing that ever graced the race track...please shut up. Michael Shumacher may be cocky (and argueably the best driver in the world), but there's still all kinds of people telling that guy how to drive better...he's still not perfect.

Unforunately, I've had the displeasure of sharing the track with a few morons who thought they could drive. They are nothing more than a severe danger to themselves and all those around them. Please check the attitude in the pits, please.

2003z

iTrader: (7)

thanks, I just put it on tivo for 3am!