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03.09.2007 by Jeremy Hart for
The Sunday Times
 Can
Nick Mason of Pink Floyd power a Roller round the Nurburgring faster
than you can play one of his band’s classic songs?
Nick Mason is impatiently gunning the engine of a black Rolls-Royce
Phantom. He is at the start line of one of the most challenging race
tracks on the planet and the clock is about to start ticking.
The challenge is simple: he must complete one lap of the Nürburgring
in Germany before the end of the first half of the Pink Floyd track
Shine on You Crazy Diamond. This is not as obscure a challenge as it
might at first appear, for the ring is the longest race course in
the world, measuring more than 14 miles, while the song in question
is one of the very longest in rock’n’roll history.
And each is a rollercoaster ride of twists and turns, peaks and
troughs. It is a perfect opportunity for the Mason to mix his twin
passions of music and motors. Mason, of course, is the human
metronome who drums Pink Floyd - arguably the world’s biggest
progressive-rock band - through marathon sets at venues such as
Earls Court and Madison Square Garden. But he is also the owner of
one of the biggest car collections in Britain and about as big a car
nut as you can get.
 “Normally,
when I am touring I have to forget about cars and racing. It’s even
stipulated in my tour contract,” he says.
In one of his Ferraris or Porsches (even the classic ones) today’s
battle of racing and rock would be weighted in favour of the car.
Sports cars easily lap the ring in 10min, while the song, which was
written in honour of Syd Barrett, the band’s founder member, who
died last year, weighs in at 13min 33sec in duration. Actually,
that’s just the first part: the full version, which was so long it
was split into two parts on the album Wish You Were Here, lasts for
more than 26min.
But in a car such as a Phantom, the duel is more equal. The Rolls
was tested round the Nürburgring as part of its development
programme, though the reason for choosing it this time is to allow
us to enjoy the playing of Shine on You Crazy Diamond precisely as
it was meant to be enjoyed.
And that means not drowned out by an Italian banshee engine wailing
inches behind the driver’s head, but instead to the accompaniment
only of fresh Eifel Mountain air rushing past the windows, and the
faint purring of the Phantom’s glorious V12 6.75 litre engine way
off in the distance – somewhere between us and the Flying Lady up
front.
Mason nods, and that means we are ready to gig. I hit Play on the CD
player and he pushes the start button on his stopwatch while jabbing
a foot down onto the accelerator. The power reserve indicator on the
dashboard leaps from its resting 100% to 25% (the Phantom has no rev
counter, but simply tells you how much power is still available for
you to use).
 The
453bhp engine growls at such unsophisticated treatment and near
three tons of motor car lifts from the start line and ploughs
forward towards the first chicane of the track with a surprising
amount of verve. Meanwhile the song has got off to a far more
leisurely start. In fact it is several seconds before the first
synthesised notes are even audible. It’s not for lack of power from
the sound system, as the nine-channel amplifier generates 420 watts,
playing through 15 speakers.
As the music swells into the cabin, Mason is plunging into corners
and over blind crests at speeds that no self-respecting chauffeur
would consider either safe or desirable.
“For the size of car and its image as a luxury cruiser, the
steering is very positive and overall it’s a very controllable
vehicle,” he says. “It takes a while to build up confidence
with it, but once you have done it’s almost as good to handle as an
M-badged BMW.”
Two minutes and 17 seconds have passed, and the haunting guitar
played by Floyd’s Dave Gilmour fills the 100mph auditorium as Mason
steers the Phantom through the back section of the track between the
Flugplatz (meaning airfield) and through the corkscrew bends at
Adenauer Forst.
As the four-minute mark passes, Mason is now multitasking, beating
out the rhythm of the song on the steering wheel with his thumbs
while wrestling the big car through a series of bends and dips. The
speedo rarely dips below three digits.
Unlike most racetracks, the Nürburgring is not a series of straights
and corners; rather it is, as Mason describes, “a series of
corners followed by more corners”.
 And
the most famous of these is Carousel. More bobsleigh bend than
racing corner, it is a hairpin that flicks the car about its apex by
a full half-turn while banking inwards to about 30 degrees.
It sucks in and then spits out both car and driver, and reminds one
of the track’s frightening nickname: Green Hell. The lyrics cut in
and we are still only two-thirds of the way round the track. But not
once has Mason made the Phantom do anything brash or grating.
As an accomplished but small dancer would waltz with a large lady,
he uses technique rather than brawn to get the Rolls through the
track as rapidly yet as smoothly as he can. Ten minutes have come
and gone, the lyrics have now stopped and the song feels as if it is
beginning to wind down. Only three corners now lie between us and
the finish line.
“It’s going to be tight,” he blurts as we exit the last bend.
Now it’s a straight drag race down the mile-long Döttinger Höhe and
straight to the line. The engine seems to be louder, but that might
just be my imagination. The wheels are burning the tarmac, eating up
a dozen yards per second.
But it’s a mile too far. Within sight of the finish, all 15 speakers
go silent. I turn up the volume in desperation, hoping to find a
last, lingering note but Shine on You Crazy Diamond has finished,
and we have not. The car roars across the finish line and Mason
releases his grip on the wheel for the first time.
“Maybe we should have used the live concert version we used to
play,” he says, wiping the sweat from his face. “That one is about
17 minutes long.”
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