You might remember the race between Mike and myself(The Duel – Infiniti FX vs Paraglider), racing a sports car with a paraglider. Well three years on Infiniti cars asked us to repeat the race. This time we went to Austria and whereas three years ago in Verbier the race was more of an XC challenge, this time it was a purely downhill event. We switched roles with me behind the wheel of the roaring 365BHP sports car and Mike flying. A new challenge with this race was that it was in winter so for me the roads were icy and for Mike the speeds were going to be a lot more exciting than my flight across the valley three years ago. For him to beat me down the mountain he was going to need something faster than a paraglider. Yep you guessed it, this time the race was done on a speed wing.
The race was exciting from start to finish with some extremely close moments between the car and the glider. The roads were closed of course and I drove the car as fast as I dared with one eye on the icy bends and the other watching Mike as he came more and more daringly close. At some moments it was almost as though we were trying to nudge each other out of the way…all at over 100km/hr!
What made this race so good compared to the last one was the ‘close contact’ nature of it. We were neck to neck all the way down. Sometimes Mike would be in my rear view mirror and then as I rounded a corner he would cut aross the road and I would find myself racing towards him…sometimes having to hit the brakes to avoid hitting him.
Once again…a very special thanks to Infiniti for believing in us again! What are you going to get us to do next?