[Manxman]

Remember Clarkson's critcism of the Elise understeering? (Although he was subsequently shown how to drive it by the Lotus test driver...and the Stig!)

The November issue of Evo has a test of the Caparo T1, which was also slated by Jeremy. This has just annihilated the record at Evo's test track. When the Caparo development driver was asked about Clarkson's criticism he had the following answer:

"Well, I drove it around the track and it didn't understeer in the way Clarkson said it did". It seems the trouble was that he of the 80's stonewashed jeans would boot the car in a straight line, be flabbergasted by how quick it was, then realise that there was a corner coming up rather rapidly, so he'd hit the brakes, wipe off too much speed and then try to accelerate the whole way through the corner.And of course if you do that then it's going to understeer - as would any other car.

While the Elise's acceleration and top speed is a long way from the Caparo, I would guess that the effectiveness of the brakes probably had a similar result.

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy Top Gear hugely, but had not previously heard a good explanation how Clarkson suffered such massive understeer.