[sfh3l]

Hey,
That is me in my 3.0csl
I was asked to do the DVD and I said fine, so long as I get to drive the car (rumour had it back then that they had just knackered the clutch on a priceless C- Type Jag). The deal was to show how cars had improved in the 30 yrs between the 3.0 CSL and the E46 M3 CSL. JC said we would start together and he reckoned the new car would do 3 laps in the time it took me to do 2 in the old one.
We set off - blind for me with no sighted lap....... JC passed me on my 5 th lap. I was quite chuffed and I think he was quite surprised.

When they sent me the DVD through the post a few months later, it was edited so that he passed me on lap 3. I was very pissed off indeed. I had struggled to fit my rebuild gearbox overnight the night before the shoot as it had been done while I was on holiday and we didn't return home till the day before and after my previous appearance on a JC production (spending a whole day hanging around waiting for 10 minutes shooting and then a "cheers and piss off") I had asked fr expenses this time around. The producer asked me at the end of the day how much I wanted and I said that £100 sounded reasonable -a tank of fuel and additives and a day out of my life. He said all he had was £60 and gave me that!

To have all of that and then have them dis the old car was a bit of a piss take I thought.

I now have an M3 CSL as well as the old car and the difference is indeed chalk and cheese. I reckon if JC was half the driver he thought he was then he probably would have made it by on lap 3! Then again, I did have Barrie (Whizzo) Williams drive me round Donington in the old car many years ago when I was there doing the CSL Track Day and with him driving we flew!

After the JC experience though, I take all of those Top Gear chases and near finishes with a real pinch of salt. What happens in real life and what shows in the final cut are very different!

Mind you, JC is a very loud advocate of the CSL. You should check out his test on the isle of Mann too, done for TG and he basically says that the CSL is the best car BMW ever built, by far.