Q&A WITH FORBES WRITER JIM CLASH

—For all these drives, you need skill but you also have to be willing to put your life on the line. A lot of it is gut instinct. In an Indy car at 200 mph, your mind tells you it ain’t going to stick to the track, but using what you know, and the knowledge you’ve gained through driving the corner before at slower speeds--not to mention that the car in front of you just made it--well, you suspend your disbelief and go for it!

There are other things people don’t understand about speed. There are a couple of barriers the brain has a hard time getting beyond. At 144 mph, for example, studies show there’s a human gene that actually discourages you from pushing the pedal down further. Another mark is around 185 mph. Some people just can't go beyond that speed. This could explain why some road course drivers can’t drive on an oval. They might have all the skills but can’t get out there and feel comfortable.

Working up to these speeds can be compared to altitude sickness on high mountains. You can’t predict who will be affected in advance. Some people train hard for a climb, but their body chemistry doesn’t allow them to get higher on the mountain without getting sick or risking death. In racecars, it is sometimes the same. You just have to get that exposure over and over with stuff flying by, get used to the feeling of your body aligned with the track and wind. After a while, hopefully you get beyond the fear.

Q: In your book "To The Limits: Pushing Yourself to the Edge In Adventure and in Business," in your contributions to Forbes over 16 years and now, in  the July issue of Automobile magazine, you've done amazing things with a  keen
attention towards serious speed. When did you first
become fascinated by this?

When I was a young IndyCar fan, I watched in 1977 when Tom Sneva broke the 200 mph barrier during qualifications for that year's 500. It was a watershed moment in motorsports. That was when I first wondered ‘what is it actually like to sit in a racecar and drive 200 mph?’ I was young and impressionable, and that moment stuck with me.

Later when I started at Forbes, I began talking to a lot of interesting people, including adventurers--like astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, and four-time Indy 500 winner Rick Mears--and started thinking about speed, and that moment with Sneva all those years ago, and just said ‘why not?’ So I went to racing school!

Q: Describe your 208 mph test run in the Lamborghini Murcielago at Nardo in 2002?

I had the CEO of the company at the time, Dr. Giuseppe Greco, riding in the passenger seat with me during my run, so I was nervous.

Nardo is a big circle, 7.8 miles around, with the highest gradation--about 12 degrees--in the outside lane. The track itself is bumpy in some places, and we had to be careful how we did things. There was only a certain area where we could hit top speed. And if you want that number, you have to be driving near the guardrail where the highest banking is. Because I was driving counter-clockwise, Dr. Greco was only a couple feet away from the rail at 208 mph. Watching, the Italians must have been thinking ‘who is this crazy Forbes writer?’ but Greco never flinched. He was great. It was the perfect test and the first time I broke that [200 mph] speed barrier in a production car.

Nardo was also one of my first experiences wearing OMP. Greco and Automobili
Lamborghini had an OMP helmet waiting for me when I arrived. I ended up driving in only shorts and a T-shirt, but I had my OMP helmet on! At the end of the run, Dr. Greco and the whole Lamborghini crew signed it for me. That helmet is on display in my office now with their autographs all over it!

Q: Can you tell us about the 253.2 mph you did in the Bugatti Veyron this April at Ehra Lessien?

Ehra really is a much easier place to drive top speed because it is bigger than Nardo. It was a real privilege to be out there on that track. But Volkswagen and Bugatti were super secret about the visit; no outside photos or videos were permitted, and only one Bugatti photographer was on the premises to capture the event. The track is a giant oval, 13 miles around, in comparison to Nardo, just 7.8 miles around and a perfect circle. At Ehra, when you come off the high-banked curve, there's a massive straight for about 5 miles. That's where you hit top speed. Driving the Bugatti was nothing like the Indy car, which is pretty much like driving a go-kart. With the Indy car, there’s no top, your butt is a few inches off the ground, and you feel every nuance of the chassis, all while being buffeted by tornado-force winds. The Bugatti is so stable I could have turned the radio on at 250 mph! We used the telemetry download to see my speed post-trial, and I stayed above 250 mph for 25 seconds. It was a long time. That is real speed.

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