Only one word describes this experience..."AWESOME". If you get a chance to do this drive I can't recommend anything more highly! :biggrin: :biggrin:
It was a long day lasting from 11:00am-7:30pm. They give a quick briefing about the power and nature of these high end cars and basically tell you to have a great time experiencing and driving them. You drive each car for approximately 25-30 mins. over a course they pre-determined to allow you to open it up and experience curves, etc. Then you ride as a passenger for the next ride and continue to alternate through the 6 cars. And believe me, they let you really get on these cars. I exceeded 125+MPH in each of the cars, and there was one part or our course, out in the middle of nowhere, with a stretch of about 1.5 miles that we would each time, depending on which car you were driving, line up next to the other and all out race. It was amazing to compare a brand new Ferrari vs Lambo vs Z06 vs Porsche vs Bentley vs Aston Martin.
Luckily, we had no accidents, but last month the Ford GT was wrecked in New York, costing them 91K to repair and wasn't ready for us to drive.:frown: Of course, this was the one I was the most looking forward to driving.:frown:
I did run out of gas in the Lambo, they knew it was running low, and was stranded on the side of the road for about 30 mins. I got some great looks and a HWY patrol stopped wondering why I'm sitting next to this exotic. Luckily, he knew the drive was in town and didn't ask for registration, etc.
My quick impression of the cars:
(btw- all were '05-06, most with 2-4K miles each)
1. <u> Ferrari F430</u> - Amazing car. Handling and response was awesome. It had the best gear box(F1) of all the cars. The exhaust note was orgasmic. It took the Lambo easily off the line every time, but not the Z06. Definitely, my favorite!
2. <u>Lambo Gallardo</u> - Best visual lines of all the cars, but least comfortable. Had a lag off the line but handled and drove great. Got the most attention driving in traffic and out of gas on the side of the road.
3. <u>Porsche Carrera S</u> - This replaced the Ford GT (cough) it was fun to drive with good acceleration but exhaust note was weak next to the Ferrari.
4. <u>Bentley GT</u> - Amazing for such a big, luxury car with 550ish HP. It could almost hang with the F-car in speed and still not hear or feel the road under you. I got up to 130 in it and thought I was going 80-90MPH until my passenger noticed the speed. I thought I would hate driving this car but was very impressed! (Twin turbo's-see the pic below)
5. <u>Corvette Z06</u>- Unbelievable raw power! None of these cars could beat it off the line or from a rolling start. Yes, it feels and looks cheap and plasticy inside, but was great fun just because of the power. Each driver fish-tailed the hell out of it. Two of them got mild warnings to be more careful. Front end is way too long.
6. <u>Aston Martin DB9</u> - Pure luxury with cool paddle shifting. It had a little trouble keeping up with the others but had plenty of torque and handled nice. It's convertible roof gave my a nice sunburn.:redface:
The people running this were great. The pace car driver in a Chrysler 300, that exceeded 130mph several times, was a previous Le mans pro driver and made sure you enjoy the drives. They provided a nice lunch, and beverages throughout the day. They take lots of pics and give you two 8x10 group and individual pics, cd rom of all the pics, a hat, and a cool certificate of participation, all included.
They recommend driving the cars when they go to a more rural area to really be able to open the cars up and better experience them, but I can't imagine driving them too much harder than we did around St. Pete. Luckily, no one got a ticket!
I'll do this again in a heartbeat!!
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