Most importantly, and also just as is done in NASCAR, these contraptions were set up with a ‘stagger’, so they were ballasted on one side, ran Goodyear slicks with different profiles side to side and, from memory, different spring rates too. All of which made them exceptionally good at turning left. If for any reason and at any point in the lap you found the car turning right, then you were either having or were just about to have an enormous accident.
How big? Well consider that around Rockingham the lowest speed the cars ever did was around 120mph, so the best crash you could hope to have involved glancing off a wall at two miles a minute. Which sounds bad, but not as bad as nearly three miles a minute which was also eminently possible.
As a thing to drive, it was a unique experience which basically involved forgetting everything you’d ever learned about driving fast on track. For example, you didn’t lift off the throttle suddenly because the reaction through the diff would stick you in the wall. If you steered straight along the straight, you’d crash into the infield instead. You had to steer right to counter the stagger and make the car go ahead. You never braked until you were actually turned into the corner, and then you’d just brush the pedal with your left foot while your right stayed gently on the throttle just to keep the diff happy. And it didn’t matter that it only had four gears because you used the first three for accelerating out of the pit lane and then never again until it was time to come in.