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| Our man strapped in |
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And climb in? Vault in? Fall in? Engage the services of a small crane? There are, of course, no doors and the seat - a slab of polystyrene upholstered with gaffer tape - is a long way down. There's also a central cockpit spine at what will shortly be neck level, so at least there's something to lower myself against.
Descend into seat, pull down the layers of clothing that somehow got left behind, buckle up the four-point harness and take stock. Ahead is TV-screen-shaped steering wheel with, yes, a small screen in its centre. The image on this screen is supposed to stay upright however the wheel is turned: sometimes it really does just that. It can display all sorts of things, and right now it's ready to show lateral and longitudinal g-force, speed and the gear I've selected. Rev-counter? There's one in the system, but not on this particular menu.
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| Image on steering wheel is supposed to stay upright |
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The engine may be exactly to production spec, right down to the electronic programming, but the transmission certainly isn't. It's a six-speed sequential race unit as used in France's 206 RCC Cup championship, controlled by buttons on the steering wheel - one for up, one for down. You have to use the clutch to start off, though, and as the dog-clutch transmission engages its gears quite violently it's best to use the clutch for every gearshift too.
OK. Push start button, clutch down, select first. It's a race clutch so it's going to be quite fierce, but a good dollop of throttle at the crucial moment gets us going. The 20Cup weighs less than 500kg, so its power-to-weight ratio is quite spectacular. So is its torque-to-weight, made all the better by the fact that the 177lb ft peak value is on tap all the way from 1,400 to 4,000rpm.
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