Video: Sliding a Shelby Cobra 289 around Spa-Francorchamps in the Rain

Christophe Van Riet spends this entire lap very sideways and reeling people in as he navigates an especially slippery Spa-Francorchamps in a 1965 Shelby Cobra 289 at the 2017 Spa Classic.

It hurts, because the treacherous conditions present few opportunities for Van Riet to open that magnificent Ford V8 up. When he does, however, it’s glorious.

What the conditions lack in terms of aural excitement, they more than make up for in an exciting lap. Van Riet is on the edge of traction throughout, steering the car beautifully with his right boot as he makes some very ambitious moves. It’s a great display of respectful and skilled racing from both him and the drivers he passes.

Christian Dumolin qualified the car second for the sixties endurance race, which he co-drove with Van Riet. The pair would ultimately finish fourth, just behind the Cobra 289s pf Philip Oettli, Andrew Beverley and Mike Humphreys, and Pierre-Alain and Erwin France.

MORE: Cobra and E-Type Going Toe to Toe at the 2015 Goodwood Revival