Watch McLaren’s new dev driver thrash a Ford GT40 round Goodwood

By topgear ,

201212gmc

Swedish racer Kenny Brack has joined McLaren Automotive – the road-car arm of the Woking company – as a development driver.

This is good news. Partly because 49-year-old Brack is a helmsmith of the highest order – he won the Indie 500 in 1999 and is an X-Games gold medallist, too – but mostly because it gives us an excuse to run this on-board video, filmed a couple of years back at the Goodwood Revival.

It contains scenes of an oversteering nature, as the handy Mr Brack pilots a very slippery Ford GT40 around the West Sussex circuit. Mostly sideways.

We're not certain (a) precisely how much power the Sixties Ford was producing, nor (b) precisely what tyres it was on. Judging from the footage, we're going for (a) all of the power and (b) ten-quid car-boot sale remoulds. Watch and applaud.

Anyhow. Brack will help McLaren develop its road car offerings, finessing the handling of its upcoming offerings including the 540C. Exciting as the 540C sounds, we're assuming this set-up process may be a little less hair-raising than wrestling a Le Mans legend round Goodwood.

"Throughout my career I've been very passionate about car development, so to work with McLaren feels like a great fit," explains Kenny. "I have every confidence that future McLaren models will continue to put a smile on the face of anyone who drives one..."

Whether Brack had a smile on his face in the above clip remains unclear. We suspect not.