Tanner Foust on lightweight cars: “it’s still an amazing time to be a driver”

Whatever the future holds and however heavy and unwieldy modern cars have become, right here, right now is still a good time to be a driver, at least according to Tanner Foust.

The two-time Formula Drift champion and movie stunt driver reckons there are still pockets of fun. “It’s always been more rewarding as a driver,” he told TopGear.com when asked if we’re losing touch with lightweight thinking and its myriad benefits.

“You gain not just acceleration, but in the braking, the cornering and the feel. You gain a lot of options for weight distribution too and you gain the fun factor. When I thought everything was headed towards hypercar numbers and top speed records and things like that, I look at enthusiast car culture and it’s still healthy.

“You go to a Cars and Coffee on a Saturday morning, and it’s remarkable how healthy this culture of enthusiasts really is. Not just from the point of vintage cars, but for drivers who appreciate drivers’ cars. That’s why I think the Radford will work,” he adds. The Radford of course, weighs little over a tonne and boasts the power-to-weight ratio of a Ferrari 296 GTB.

“That market is still there, and it’s being passed down from generation to generation,” he said. “The number of cars that check that box [of being lightweight] are fewer and fewer, so as long as we keep that enthusiast world healthy, I think we’re still going to be able to have fun on these millions of miles of ribbon that have been paved for us around the planet.

“It’s still an amazing time to be a driver,” he said. “Now, the next generation, maybe the generation after that, maybe they won’t get to drive themselves around on all this asphalt, but right now we get to control ourselves, control our own destinies, and enjoy the art of our skillset of driving.”

Need a lightweight car to help extend this skillset? Step this way...