When watching racing on TV it can be easy to get the magnitude of the car's performance confused by comparing the cars to each other and not stepping back to realize just how fast they really are. I always used to show my friends a few videos to get them to understand just how big of a gap existed between F1 cars and other racing series or even the cars we can drive ourselves.
I made my friends watch many videos, one of which put an F1 car, a Rally Car and a street car together on a track to show just how big of a difference there is between the three. I found this video from Top Gear to be a great way to show all of my friends just how fast an F1 car really is, not just speed, but pure acceleration, in the straight or a hairpin. Despite being produced in the late 1990s, the message of the comparision is still incredibly relevant today (if not exacerbated even more by newer technologies developed in the last 10+ years).
To add to the discussion, this new video put together by a fellow F1 fan shows famous Eau Rouge turn at the Spa circuit in Belgium with different race cars and F1 cars put together. The camera position is not exactly the same, but the speed difference is very apparent. Keep in mind, the F1 cars are approaching that turn at 180+ MPH...
There are a few more videos out there, including one from Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes and of course Fifth Gear, but I think it's time for a new one to be made. Why don't we put an Sebastian Vettel's RB6 vs Ken Block's WRC Ford Focus and a standard street legal Ford Mustang on the new Austin track? That would be a sight to see, in HD or course!