When you hear it was at Nardo, a proper 24-hour attempt, supported by the crack Oreca race team, you may wonder why I’ve failed to mention it in the 24 years since it took place. Truth is, I’ve been trying to forget it, not because anything went wrong, but because it is perhaps the single most tedious thing I have done with a steering wheel in my hand. And if you’re now arching your eyebrows, perhaps now’s the time to tell you what I was in: a stock standard diesel-powered Chrysler minivan.
The idea was actually quite a good one. Chrysler had this new Voyager MPV with a new 2.5-litre diesel engine and needed a stunt to show the breadth of its performance. So first they employed a husband and wife couple to see how far it could travel on a tank of fuel. And the answer was 1,077 miles; they must have had an excellent marriage. Then the car would be driven for 24 hours around Nardo to show how fast it could go. And of course they needed a team of world class drivers for this component, so they asked… well not me obviously, but three of their contracted works GT1 Viper drivers, Marc Duez, Ni Amorin and Jean-Phillipe Belloc. But they were smart enough to realise that sometimes things go wrong, so they needed a back-up car just in case. And for that they did indeed call me.