Simon @ Norris Designs

[Guest CRAIG D]

Is there guy a plum or what. Iv just watched about 3-4 vids on youtube and all he ever does is smash into people or crashed his evo.

Dont get me wrong the guy knows his stuff but cant drive what so ever.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9-9bhZUlavc&...feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OIS_Bcvhmcs&...feature=related

I know its got monster BHP but cum on just take yer time eh

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mkB3mFnZB4A&...feature=related

Money cant buy you driving skills

Edited January 18, 2009 by CRAIG D

[craigdmcd]

A man that has obviously mistaken amition and ability - he wants to a talented driver and doesn't realise he is falling short of the mark. I've been in cars with that kind and it isn't big or clever

[Guest CRAIG D]

Yeah and for his stupidity he take out other people pride and joy

He also drives like spaceman which aint very good Prob busted a few gearboxes too in the process

Edited January 18, 2009 by CRAIG D

[windy1945]

LOL time to hang up the old helmet and suit i think

[Fee]

i dont think he's that bad a driver.... prob better than 95% of the country LOL

Just a couple of unfortunate failures and misjudgements.

[emoe]

I wonder sometimes who allows these people to get ACU or FIA licences!!

[windy1945]

i dont think he's that bad a driver.... prob better than 95% of the country LOL

Just a couple of unfortunate failures and misjudgements.

come on if you watch some of his other videos he is bad, yes they are powerful cars but he cant even keep one of his evo's on the straight and narrow while putting the foot down. Give me his sort of money and time and i guarantee i would do a better job after a while

[diazamet]

i dont think he's that bad a driver.... prob better than 95% of the country LOL

Just a couple of unfortunate failures and misjudgements.

I dunno, on the first video, the three cars are passing a slower driver who has pulled to the left of the track to let them past.

I would say in this situation, you should drive with caution until you are past the slower driver.

Yet in the video you can hear the turbo spin up as he pushes it out of the corner, so much so that he can't hold his line and causes an accident that the slower driver has no way of avoiding. I would say this is bad driving or at the very least reckless.

[StewartyBoy]

Ive seen a good few of his videos now, and reckon this guy may just have too much money. If he cant pull out podium finishes in a car with that sort of power then he should be employing a driver.

[oobster]

When I sold my Subaru 4 months ago after owning it for over 3 years I thought i'd stick around the Scottish SIDC as the banter can be amusing sometimes and I also made a few friends during my time here.

Threads like this iritate me and i'd welcome any comment to see if I am alone in this.

If you browse other car forums you will see that although Mr Norris has had 2 or 3 rather large accidents in the past couple of years he has (as I understand it) offered to recompense the owners of any other cars he has hit. At least he's out there, racing and learning rather that sitting on a car forum boasting about how good he is. He is the one that pays to build/maintain/repair/replace his race cars and just because he is successful with his tuning business it's ok to knock him?

What about all the F1/WRC drivers that crash? I don't see anyone on here posting threads about how Raikonnen/Lewis/Solberg/Atkinson/Massa/Kubica et al have stuffed their car (sometimes taking others out)? You don't see the likes of Coulthard going back to the pits after a shunt and offering to pay for the other competitors car do you? And what about all the accidents in lower formulae? BTCC drivers make mistakes, they dont dip into their own pockets to repair the cars they have damaged.

Give the guy a break, and do some research (please!) before jumping all over him.

All IMHO of course.

[oobster]

Oh, and by the way, since all the videos in the original post are Evos then this whole thread should have gone in the off-topic section.

It doesn't contain anything Subaru related, see?

[emoe]

[StewartyBoy]

Think of a forum as a kalaidescope of opinions. I have one, you have one and everyone else that signs in to comment has one. You cannot expect there to be no criticism, and the few members including me, who have posted on this thread have had an opinion on the matter just like you have. I will however not become offended by your comment, all I will say is that I will NOT take kindly to having my "hand slapped" for making my own opinion or stance on this thread by yourself.

Make your defence against our opinions, if not able to express them dont post at all.

[oobster]

Think of a forum as a kalaidescope of opinions. I have one, you have one and everyone else that signs in to comment has one. You cannot expect there to be no criticism, and the few members including me, who have posted on this thread have had an opinion on the matter just like you have. I will however not become offended by your comment, all I will say is that I will NOT take kindly to having my "hand slapped" for making my own opinion or stance on this thread by yourself.

Make your defence against our opinions, if not able to express them dont post at all.

Absolutely. Everyone is entitled to their opinions. But comments like "is this guy a plum", "all he ever does is smash" and "Money can't buy you driving skills" would appear to have been formed from the youtube clips alone.

My defence against the OP's opinions are: "all he ever does is smash" - so the OP has seen Simon's entire driving experience since he first got into a car? No, of course not, so you can't possibly claim that all he does is smash. I don't know Simon, I have never met him or talked to him but I would be fairly comfortable saying that there have probably been many occasions on and off the track where Simon hasn't had an accident.

Furthermore - "Money can't buy you driving skills". So what does then? EXPERIENCE. No-one could be believed if they said they were a racing driver and never had a lairy moment. Why single out Mr Norris in particular?

Also - "just take yer time eh" - aye, because the first thought of any racer is to take his/her time.

Accidents happen, I dare say Simon will either learn from his mistakes or pack in the racing when money becomes an issue. I just don't see the point of the criticism when he is the one out there spending his own money and taking the chances.

I once read a comment attributed to Donald Trump when someone made a remark about the colour of Bentley he'd bought. "Oh, so what colour is your Bentley then?".

[Fee]

I think my point is that he clearly can drive in some of the video evidence. A lot of the clips of the SWB snot green car suggest that the cars handling was very iffy.

The clip with the two evo's getting smashed. He was commended by the track marshals for his actions. He had no brakes (no warning signs either apparently) coming into the corner. He then tried to avoid people and scrub off speed by takig the grass. He knew he was in for a big smash, and tried to avoid others.

The 106/saxo one was just unfortunate. With hindsight he prob would left off the gas. BUT he was competing in a race... a close fought race. The owner of the 106 new the risks involved and was lucky to get help from Simon. Perhaps its not the best run series though having such differeing cars/classes on track at one time.

ALL were racing incidents though. If he was doing this on public roads i'd go as far to call him a plum, but he isnt. Fair game to him... I'm jelous.

PS - Its Adam, not Fee

[RA Dunk]

at least he has the balls to get out there and do it him self and dosent just "talk the talk" so to speak!

[emoe]

I have to agree with the Original poster.

The man in question obviously does have money, BUT HE CANT DRIVE, therefore needs to SLOW DOWN and progress his skill level till he is able to hammer round the track in a car that is capable of doing faster than his reactions.

As a racer myself i have watched the clips and the first two show someone who barrelled into a corner WAY too fast for both the ability of his skills and reactions.

Any racer will tell you that you cannot run before you walk, no matter how much money you have. Competent racers will also tell you that sometimes slower is better.

It does not make viable sense to any racer to up the risk of crashing to the level this man is going into corners at. It simply puts you and maybe others out of the contention and that basically leaves you at the back of the pack and you NEVER learn sitting on the pit wall or in the ambulance.

MY OPINION is that the comments made are fair and not at all being detremental to this person. However it does sound like either YOU are this person and dont take critisism well or you are known to this person and are taking the comments personally.

End of the story is, this man cannot drive in the class he is in, and should lower his level to gain experience. I race, and used to regularly, and on motorcycles was racing International level with Factory sponsorship, but that does not mean i am the best , not by a long shot, and i would not enter into something that i wasnt capable of doing.

Over and out.

[Fee]

HE HAD NO BRAKES!!!! Hence entering corner to hot!

The first clip was a cockup on his part (red 106/saxo crash)... and he has been man enough to admit that as far as i'm aware. To fast perhaps but cliping the dirt and bouncing the car wouldt have helped either... he then understeered in to the side of it.

[scientific steve]

I'm with oobster, Acid, Adam and Fee here

Maybe he's had a few monents but so have a lot of other folk who do race on a weekly basis.

What about our great hero Colin Macrash? Were we all baiting for him to hand in his rally licence afer yet another off?

NO

By all means sit there and judge him by a couple of youtube vids

[frank c]

And to think McRae barely made the top ten for crashes % wise over a career.

An old link..

http://bbs.22b.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?...=1;t=004899;p=1

[StewartyBoy]

Its all I have to go on, and the videos in the post display bad driving. I understand one of the clips had no brakes, fair point. I really hope this guy can drive, I honestly do because I feel sorry for the people who seem to be getting used as a crash barrier for his incompetence. Thats my take lads!

Edited January 20, 2009 by StewartyBoy

[scientific steve]

Just a thought, see when these folk are racing, be it F1 or just carting. How many make it to the top by just taking it easy and keeping it “within the limits”?

I’m not saying that you don’t need a heap of talent to back it up BUT are the folk in the top 10% not there due to taking calculated risks? And sometimes just downright silly risks to win?

Also, when you enter onto a race track there will be an element of risk no matter how good you are.

Thats why we watch it, first couple of laps of the F1 is when most folk are watching it as they are waiting for the BIG pile up .......

Just thinking out loud is all

[StewartyBoy]

A completely fair point. These guys go out in expensive equipment all the time, and without crashes there would be no lessons learnt but I dont think that every single person on the track driving weekly, are fully competent of handling the performance within the car and that having a lot of money and professional looking vehicle doesnt mean you can drive mate. From the outside it just looks like he may be one of them.

Edited January 20, 2009 by StewartyBoy

[scientific steve]

A completely fair point. These guys go out in expensive equipment all the time, and without crashes there would be no lessons learnt but I dont think that every single person on the track driving weekly, are fully competent of handling the performance within the car and that having a lot of money and professional looking vehicle doesnt mean you can drive mate. From the outside it just looks like he may be one of them.

I'll concur with that point underlined mate.

[Guest CRAIG D]

OOOOO i see that some people have taken my comments personally eh.

Ok i admit that i maybe have posted it up abit like a chav with comments but all i was trying to say was that yes for what i can see from the vids that its like he doesnt like for sumone to get 1 up on him so he oversteps the mark and for that he takes someone out. Which i think is pritty poor thing to do. Its easy for some1 that has alot of money and that has the ability to build as many cars as he likes. So crashing it doensnt really bother him he just builds an other one. But for the person that he crashes into who is taken the time or has a slower car has to suffer for it. The one with the pug/saxo i think he was in the heat of the race i thought as he had a much fast car he commited to the corner/put on the power down and maybe under estimated the car and for his mistake he locked up hits the grass and bobs yer aunt. Yes he was in a close fought race and yes he was racing but uv got to remember that its not just him thats racing.

its Like any other track. Uv got to respect the others that are on the track no matter how fast/slow other cars are... END OF.

And yes he is a good driver for sure and much better than me and yes he has the balls to get out there and talk the talk doesnt he other people have to suffer for it.

ALSO i do have an opinion who doesnt ??????? either you have had a scooby for 10mins or 10 years this is a public forum to which anyone can voice there own opinion no 1 is better than anyone we all have an interest in subaru's as a whole sooo whats the problem???? This is the problem when people get on there high horses and moans about things IV BEEN ON THIS FORUM FOR THIS MANY YEARS AND IV DONE THIS FOR THIS AND ALL THIS b******s AN HATE WHEN THESE people DO THIS. WHO CARES ???

Life is far too short to worry about things, Yes i might come across as a tosser and people may/may not like me for say this but who cares.

If you dont like any of my posts then dont reply to them. This forum like any other depends on people posting up things ok and stupid post aswell and i am guilt for it but at the end of the day it gets the numbers up which is a good thing.

END OF MY RANT