Audi ace McNish samples powerboat on the Solent

Experienced motor racing driver Allan McNish swapped his history-making diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI sports-prototype for a 4½ ton, 1,050-hp powerboat recently.

Audi "factory" ace McNish who leads the American Le Mans Series, took the helm of ARPRO, a Powerboat P1 World Championship SuperSport category machine normally piloted by Hampshire-based husband and wife team, Jackie Hunt (driver/throttles) and Mike Shelton (navigator).

Hunt - one of only two women in the series - and Shelton start the British Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the series at Cowes (26-27 Aug), lying second in the championship standings. McNish sampled the Hampshire duo’s Dragon boat in final preparations on The Solent just off the coast of Southampton.

The 39-foot ARPRO is powered by two, normally-aspirated eight-litre 525hp V8 petrol engines which can propel the boat to speeds in excess of 100mph despite its 4½ ton weight.

"The weather was thankfully kind and The Solent calm for my powerboat baptism," reflected "landlubber" McNish whose only previous experience of sailing was the Larne-Stranraer car ferry crossing.

"I spent about an hour behind the wheel and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience if a little unusual as I just had a steering wheel in front of me while Jackie controlled the foot throttles from the other side of the cockpit - a bit like driving my Audi roadcar on a motorway on cruise control.

"There are many characteristics similar to motor racing with the big variable being weather and the ever-changing water conditions beneath you.

"There were no other boats around me in a wide open expanse of water but it would be a very different scenario with 20 other powerboats dicing for position around a buoy with the important aspect of keeping up the momentum as much as possible."

This is the latest in a line of challenges and new activities McNish who, along with Dindo Capello (Italy) and Tom Kristensen (Denmark) became the first winner of an international endurance sportscar race driving a diesel-powered sports-prototype (Sebring 12 Hours, March 2006), has recently experienced:

Driving the actual Le Mans 24 Hour race winning diesel-powered Audi R10 TDI, Allan was beaten by a mere one-tenth of a second by a Harrier GR7 "Jump Jet" multi-role combat aircraft in a one-kilometre standing start "race" at RAF Wittering in Lincolnshire.

Having driven contemporary Formula One single-seaters in 2001-03 after winning the American Le Mans Series with Audi, Allan drove a 1936 Auto Union C-Type at the Goodwood Festival of Speed - the first-time the Scotsman had ever sat in a fearsomely powerful "Silver Arrow".

A high-speed run down an artificial sleigh run in a four-man "bob" in Salt Lake City as used by the United States of America Winter Olympics team.

Recently lived the "American Dream" in between the latest American Le Mans Series races by riding a Harley-Davidson on a 1,000-mile journey from Utah to Oregon in temperatures of over 40 Celsius temperatures.

Allan concluded: "I’ve experienced for the first time some things I’ve always fancied trying but have never had the time or the opportunity beginning earlier this year with driving the Volkswagen Race Touareg in a Moroccan desert.

"They’ve all been great fun but now it’s time to focus again on winning the American Le Mans Series title for Audi."