As published in Motorsport News
by Paul O'Neill
Photogrpahy by David Lord

There comes a point when you are growing up that you decide short trousers aren’t really the thing to be seen in. And you start to sprout hairs in places you didn’t have any before.

As well as coping with a wobbly voice (although some people say I never really got over that stage), you begin to notice that girls aren’t only good for teasing. They are good for other things too... but I probably shouldn’t go into too much detail in a family publication.

It’s called coming of age ­ and that’s just what Ginetta has done with its new G50 sportscar.

In 2005 I drove in a round of the Ginetta G20 Championship at Thruxton and it was great fun. I finished on the podium that day and was expecting the G50 to be similar. I’d agreed to take part in a test at Croft and even the first rounds of the championship at Oulton Park.

Just how different could the G50 be? How much has the firm grown up?

The answer is a great deal. It looks like a mature sportscar racer with its curvy bodywork and its low-slung stature. Anyone with a heart rate can’t fail to resist it.

When you slide inside the cockpit, the first impressions are also good. Everything is where you would expect, with the sequential gearbox on the left and all of the pedals in a good position to enable you to balance the revs with the clutch.

You’re sat low down with a small steering wheel with the Ginetta logo in the middle ­ just as well for someone like me. With my short attention span, I sometimes need to be reminded what car I am in.

Before I took to the track I spent 15 minutes sitting in the car to get everything figured out. I was driving for Academy Motorsport and the team’s driver, Tom Sharp, gave me some pointers on how the car handles.

The team owners Dave Sharp and Ginetta G20 champion Matt Nicoll-Jones also offered me some advice, including “watch out on cold tyres”.

I did listen, I promise, but...

Excuse one: I went out on a brand new set that had only done four laps. Excuse two: it was a very cold day. Excuse three: I ran out of talent.

It caught me out on the very first corner and I had a small spin. I didn’t bring the car back into the pits until I’d stopped blushing. Whoops.

The tyres are really hard and I have never been in a car which struggles so much on fresh rubber. Getting them up to temperature quickly is the key.

As soon as there is some heat in them, the car is on absolutely top form. The front-end grip ­ probably helped by the 3.5-litre V6 lying between the front wheels ­ is just unbelievable and makes it so direct when you turn in.

It turns so much quicker than a touring car, so you have to watch what you’re doing. You have to pay attention as you start driving around turns, because if you go in with a bit too much steering lock you will swap the car around. And I had already made one gaffe so I was careful not to cause more embarrassment.

That also means you have to be smooth, but, with care, you can wrestle it around a bit.

The best fun comes when you get to the exit of the corners. Because the car gives you great traction it’s just a joy to drive and you can slither out of the bends balancing the throttle and the steering, making out that you are a proper driving hero. Which I am, of course.

Through the high-speed corners the G50 is very good. You don’t want too many flat-out corners on a circuit because it takes away the skill, which comes when you get to corners. On a circuit like Thruxton the car would be incredible and a real handful, but circuits with differing types of corners ­ like Croft or Oulton Park ­ give you the full range of fun.

When I was driving in touring cars, there were a number of corners, like Woodcote at Silverstone for example, that were flat out. But having switched to rear-wheel-drive sportscars I’ve realised that you’ve got to lift for a lot of these corners, and the G50 will be no exception. You’re going to have to come off the throttle to get turned in because if you go in flat you’re just going to spin.

Whoever wins the title will be a really good driver because it will take some skill hanging onto a G50 for 30 minutes.

The braking is really good because you have so much of the engine at the front of the car that you get great feedback from the Michelins. It skips from side-to-side if you brake in a corner, which is not a bad thing because you get a good feel for the car and don’t lock up.

You can also set up the brake bias to suit your driving style. After speaking to the team, they seem to think that the best thing to do is to wind it to the front to keep the car steady. It can skip around at the back a bit too much if you have the brakes set too far to the rear.

There’s only one thing the G50 compares to and that’s the old TVR Tuscan Challenge when it was in its heyday in the late-1990s.

I had a really good time when I drove the G20 at Thruxton two years ago, but if you had to compare the G20 and G50, you couldn’t put them in the same paragraph, let alone the same story.

The G20 is like a Clio Cup car and the G50 is a DTM car: it’s that much of a difference. But it’s interesting because Tom Sharp, who was my team-mate at Oulton Park, raced in the Ginetta Junior series last season.

I know that the usual step is Junior to G20 to G50, but he’s missed the G20 level out but is still very quick, which just shows that if you have talent you can make the step up and you will be able to handle a car like the G50.

This is the only one-make championship that is anywhere near being a proper stepping stone to sportscar racing at a higher level. I don’t know what other route someone would take if they were seriously considering driving in sportscars.

It’s unbelievable how little it costs: £40,000 plus VAT is nothing when you look at the machine you get out of it. There are so many championships where the cars cost the same or more and when you get them you’re just fighting understeer or some other problem. But in the Ginetta you just stick some fuel in it, do a few tweaks and off you go.

If anyone gets the chance to drive one or is thinking about getting into tin-tops or sportscars then it just doesn’t get any better than this. It probably sounds like I’m being paid by Ginetta, but I’m not. It’s just a proper race car and it gives you a great sensation when you drive it.

I’m hooked.

Can I do the whole season please?

Paul O'Neill's blog follwing his race at Oulton Park:

To say my race debut in the Ginetta G50 championship at Oulton Park on Bank Holiday Monday was eventful would be an understatement. But even so it was the most fun I’ve had in ages.

I was taking part in both the British GT Championship in the RPM Dodge Viper and G50 Championship but I didn’t mind. The G50 had been great fun to drive at Croft and I couldn’t wait to get racing.

To my surprise I qualified fourth on the grid for the first race. I was extremely pleased with that but the race didn’t go exactly to plan.

Before the start of the race we were told that the safety car would be out for two laps, but it disappeared into the pits after one. Suddenly we were racing and I managed to get up to second by the first corner. And without warning the safety car reappeared at Druids so I had to retake my original position. It was all very confusing!

On the restart I made it up to third but my race only lasted one lap. I made a complete error of judgement at Knickerbrook when I touched the kerb and spun into the gravel trap. It was the second time the G50 had bitten me back after my testing blunder.

In the second race, I was determined to put my spin behind me and get a strong result. I started fourth again and the pack was close as we headed up to Old Hall. But I wasn’t prepared for the car in front of me, which was being driven by Ben Elliott, to brake as early as he did. I locked up all four wheels and hit him. I hadn’t been braking that early for Old Hall all weekend so it caught me by a bit by surprise.

That put me down to seventh and I was upset that I’d ruined someone’s race. It was my fault and I was really annoyed at myself for letting it happen.

Within a couple of laps though I started to get back into the race. The car really came to me and I started to push. I set the second fastest lap and picked off two cars to get into fourth.

When I caught up the battle for second place, one of the guys spun off and I took third. Christian Dick was in second but he picked up his pace when I caught him so I settled for third.

Despite the spin and problems in race two I had a brilliant time. The car caught my attention every lap and I was really satisfied with the way it performed.

The 30-minute races are the perfect length, even though I only lasted five minutes in race one. But the time the drivers get for practice and
qualifying is fantastic value for money.

It’s not too physically demanding driving the car but you have to really concentrate to keep the car on the track. So the races probably shouldn’t be any longer than half an hour.

All of the other drivers in the championship did really well at Oulton Park. I was a bit worried about the cold tyres at the start of the race but everyone seems to have got that sorted in testing. I just wish I could do a full season.