Pre Rolex Material Rolex 04/02/2001   Ross Bentley On The Crawford SSC   ©Andrew S. Hartwell Andy Hartwell asked Ross Bentley to recap his first real hands-on time with the new Crawford SSC. Bentley is very upbeat about the new design and he even reveals the car has a good problem - too much downforce. "The Crawford is going to be very fast! For the initial test at Daytona, it had too much front downforce (something most sports cars would love to have a problem with), but they are producing the low-downforce bodywork before we come back for the race. And when we get to the other tracks that need the downforce... look out! "Probably the best thing about the car so far is how reliable it is. We haven't had a single problem - no minor bugs, nothing. That's certainly a great sign, but not really all that surprising when you consider who built the car and Max's background. When you look at the way it is designed and built, you can tell a lot of thought was put into making it reliable and easy to work on - it is so tidy. And the gearbox is awesome. "The great thing was we were able to just put miles on it, learning what it likes, what needs changing, and so on, without having to chase any mechanical problems. Driving it, you can tell right away it is going to be bloody fast - it just feels right.” So looking at the raw practice times from the Tests doesn’t tell the full story of the Crawford SSC. With the downforce right for the banking, could we be looking at a debut win? Like that other Bentley team (the Le Mans EXP Speed 8), Ross and friends probably wouldn’t dare contemplate that thought for long. But you just never know….and unlike the Bentley boys, Doran, Lienhard, Theys, Baldi, Bentley R. and Crawford will have many other chances of a win this year. Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport