Talked to Chris for a good 30 mins at the MTC - he is a very nice genuine down to earth person who loves his job and loves the car. There is no bulls**t just honest views.
The Tif thing is annoying as he is now involved with Evo magazine and so will no doubt push his views on the MP4 via that channel as well. Its a shame as I think he is a good driver who appears to have an issue with McLaren and wants to cause problems where he can. There has to be more to it than we know as Tif can clearly drive and if Journalists can drive the car sideways or any way they want then why couldn't he?
McLaren should invite him the the factory, give him the tour then invite him down the road to Dunsfold and let him try the car again. He might then be able to come out and admit he was wrong - he may still prefer the 458 but he cannot say the MP4 won't let you drive it how you want - I've driven it sideways coming out of hammer head myself...
Yes, I agree the appeal of Goodwin is that there is no 'marketing-speak' with him. Just the straight goods, backed up by mind-boggling demonstrations of the car's abilities. McLaren would do well to understand how customers and press relate to him, as I think this is very much in line with the ethos, or whatever you want to call it, that they are trying to establish. All the glitzy dealership launch parties are nice, but quite frankly after the hangover wears off, there's not much substance to that stuff. I'd take a factory tour and a one day clinic with Goodwin over just about everything else.
The
only benefit of the doubt that I will give Tiff, is that the calibration of the electronics, as well as the ability to disable them (partially or fully) may have been different on the car he drove, vs. later cars, including the one that Chris Harris drove recently. I can't prove that, nor do I know if it is even a logical statement. But based on some of the things I have read and viewed, it appears to me to be a possibility. That said, you can clearly see in his onboard video that he made shifting errors which added to his inability to drift the car.
