RAW | join me onboard the ferocious Sauber C9 Mercedes for a few laps of testing at Donington Park

Just stumbled across this footage on my laptop from a shakedown test at Donington Park back in 2021 in one of my all-time dream race cars, the sensational Sauber Mercedes C9 Group C Le Mans car, at that time recently restored by MotoHistorics in the UK, an exceptional historic race preparer. Public test days at Donington are open to all and any race cars and licence holders, so sything between Radicals, Ford Ka's and Porsche GTs certainly kept my attention! Overall I remember just being blown away by the performance of the car: so much raw power and extremely competent handling for its age - similar in so many ways to contemporary Le Mans prototypes, but of course lacking the driver aids we take for granted nowadays such as traction control, paddle-shift and power steering. This leaves the driver with a LOT to manage and it was thirsty work for sure, with my neck in particular struggling towards the end of the day. Some of you will notice that I'm not super- consistent with my gear selection or apexes or lines and so on - sometimes these are just small mistakes, the kind that are easy to make when you're dialling into an unfamilar car for the first time, others are deliberate mini-experiments just to help me learn what the car likes and responds favourably to. Towards the end of the run I get a clear lap or two, without any traffic to navigate and you can see how the car just LOVES being let off its leash. Softer braking, higher apex speeds, smoother steering input... all unlock an even higher performance window where the car seems to just inhale the road ahead. I hope you enjoy watching this as much as I enjoyed recording it:)
A Ford Ka! 03:17
It's busy out there: 04:01
Fastest lap of the run starts at: 05:48

[@dedge12858]

Imagine you've taken your Ford Ka for a shakedown and one of these flies up your inside at the old hairpin.
Absolutely glorious footage.

[@rofufoja]

A beast to be tamed. Makes Donington look like a tiny circuit. It barely has a chance to stretch its legs. Simply amazing and thank you for sharing with us!

[@hancock_sam]

Pleasure, glad you enjoyed it:)

[@user-vo9pn3sn1x]

Great driving Sam, I wish it had a passenger seat so you could take me for a ride. The engine sounds amazing!

[@michaelraven1221]

It goes through the Gears in such a graceful way, and before you know it it's like "wait woah!" we're going scary fast! That's how I see it that is. Hehe, so cool, thanks for sharing, love it.

[@imsa15463]

C9 with telemetry driven in anger at donington. You sir earned my sub today. Love the channel just found you. Thank you for sharing. More please :)

[@hancock_sam]

Thanks and welcome to the channel:)

[@MachoMadness69420]

Love the fact there’s an old Ford KA on the track at the same time as this beast 😂😂

[@hancock_sam]

Ha, i didn’t!;)

[@justinlehnert9667]

The mid range acceleration is really insane.

[@panno675]

This footage is absolute gold, never thought a c9 could be so rapid in fast weeping corners

[@SRAMEK]

What a beast..The C9 a C11 are my all time favourite racecars.

[@xWILZTAx]

You're a very lucky boy, I'd give my right bollock for a few laps behind the wheel.

[@mo-r-racing]

lapping 7 seconds quicker than my SR3. damn. It must be nice to experience that relentless power.

[@johnnywinstone]

Perfectly filmed onboard, IMHO. Very enjoyable camera view point and engine sound. Thanks also for the written insight too; most helpful.

[@hancock_sam]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@joshuachipling6923]

You are one lucky guy. That sound coming into the hairpin gave me goosebumps.

[@jblovell9065]

Beast is an understatement

[@berca76]

Holy sh*** 250kmh through Craner Curves to Old Hairpin 😲

[@hancock_sam]

;)

[@marcusFZ6]

What a crazy car just in terms of how quickly it's get from anything to over 200 in a blink of a few gears. Not many corners approached where the speed was 200 or more.

[@danwebster4130]

Thats tremendous. 150mph through the craners is insane 😎

[@danwebster4130]

woops I accidentally clicked the dislike button and then unclicked it....rest assured I DO NOT DISLIKE THIS!

[@hancock_sam]

Ha;) No worries!

[@philippemadore843]

Thank you so much for the ride,that was absolutely epic

[@hancock_sam]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@erikbritz8095]

*monstrously fast*

[@weeman2727]

What a car, what a noise, what a circuit 🫡

[@mortythealien2783]

what a beast!

[@Sassenhaim]

I saw the track shaped like a whale eating krill, hmm isnt this Donnington.
Then i read the description 😂😂
Thanks for sharing such an amazing view and ride , kudos🤙🤙🤙🤙

[@Milkydrummer]

I can’t imagine taking such a fast car around a circuit like donnington….

[@berca76]

I accidentally clicked the like button at leat 60x. Sorry for that! Anyway fuc*ing amazing video! I love C9 and C11 so much!

[@hancock_sam]

Thanks a lot!;)

[@Kikos_Garage]

That’s a whole lot of car to be ripping around, looking like the boss! Very nice drive @samhancock!

[@retardno002]

Driving this? I'd piss my pants if I saw it pop up my Ford Ka's rearview mirror, let alone drive it. Thank you for the video!

[@iamconstantlyhungry]

awesome fast 💨 ride 😮

[@mantasisganaitis2281]

Wonderful drive. One of the best race cars ever. And I sometimes think that it might be the best one.

[@hancock_sam]

It's def gotta be up there hasn't it

[@montydrewett673]

thats got to be the quickest thing i've ever seen go around donnington

[@hancock_sam]

It def felt like being on 'fast forward'

[@schumi3319]

Cette voiture et ce moteur sont fabuleux !!!

[@gianlucar.4428]

Well done Sam.. Beautiful

[@hancock_sam]

Thank you!

[@seelow12]

Very nice

[@willknowler8194]

Be cool if you have some Barcelona test footage for this car. Top work

[@mcwriter007]

Go Big Dog go! Let nothing stand in your way!

[@paideadwing]

MEGA FOOTAGE! Thank you so much for this.
Got a question: do you know how much boost you were running on the engine and an estimate of the horsepower it was outputting? I know that it could go over 900 bhp with boost at max 1.2 bar, but you probably ran it winded down to something lower?

[@hancock_sam]

Good question, I’m not sure as this was a while ago, but about 900bhp sounds about right.

[@vonPelger]

1:23,1 is a damn good time

[@hancock_sam]

We went a bit quicker than that later on in the day;)

[@vonPelger]

@@hancock_sam it seems to me that these are vintage slicks? Or are these actually more special tyres? Thanks for your reply 😁

[@EverythingAutomotive13]

Sam thank you for sharing amazing! 2.6G at 250KPH!

[@hancock_sam]

My pleasure!!

[@RacingWithChuck27]

Why turbo boost were you running

[@jeshkam]

So jealous...BTW are you going to this years' 24h LM?

[@hancock_sam]

I’ll certainly do the Le Mans classic, but sadly not the modern 24h!

[@geoffdeller7747]

That's the go,,,,, H pattern gearbox and heal and toe. I'd like to see some of the kiddies try that.

[@jodyjo_gd3]

Different subject but I saw the sound update for this car in the new Forza Motorsport and the game is nowhere near close to this beautiful sound!

0:24 that was a little pig 🤣

[@DouglasJWalker]

😀

[@lukemaney645]

Nice car, but the Nissan GTP Turbo would whoop it like a red headed step child 😂.

[@cyoann8050]

Porn as always my dear Sam, instant like

[@hancock_sam]

;))

[@marylouknipe1290]

😢 'Promo SM'

[@themardybum08]

Lol the poor sod in a Ford Ka doing his best to stay out of trouble.