Driving a Million Dollars Worth of Cars
An ad in Car and Driver magazine with the above title caught my eye, along with a photo of a Lamborghini. So I checked out the website to see what it was all about. This outfit, World Class Driving, lets you drive 6 exotic sports cars for 30 minutes each. I looked at the schedule and they were going to be in Vail in a few weeks, right after my birthday, so I said "Birthday present to self!" and signed up.
I scheduled for a Saturday, so played golf in Denver on Friday, then continued on up to Vail afterwards. I stayed at the Holiday Inn, which also turned out to be where the cars were staying.
After little sleep, I arrived at the Tivoli Lodge at 7:00 am on Saturday and saw the most beautiful collection of cars you could possibly imagine, all lined up and ready to go. Porsches, Ferraris, and Astons, Oh My! We're only supposed to be driving six cars and there's a lot more than that sitting in the rising sun. Turns out that last weekend's group got rained out and was rescheduled for today, so there were double the people and double the cars. This meant a shuffling of vehicles and two of the cars I was supposed to drive, the Ferrari F430 and Corvette Z06, were with the other group. Bummer! There was also no Ford GT in sight. Someone wrecked the Ford GT in New York, $75k worth of damage, and parts are still waiting. Another bummer!
We get our morning briefing from the guy running the event, Jean Paul, who tells us we're here to have fun, not race, not burn rubber. Each car is equipped with the Witness car monitoring system that emails his Blackberry if you go over 100. Or so he has us believe. Each group of six out will be led by one of them with race car driver Didier Theys, two-time winner of 24 hours of Daytona, accompanying the driver. This is considered the "pace car" and we were not allowed to pass it. He tells us that if we have an accident, they will be there to deal with the cops and take care of the paperwork. If we get a ticket from the cops for speeding, however, we're on our own, and it will be our final drive of the day. Apparently this was the fate on Friday of the doctor from Doctors Without Borders, who cut off a truck at 125 mph in sight of a Vail policeman.
The 24 participants scheduled for today were separated into groups of six with two in the morning and two in the afternoon. After the group photo, the first six were off while I and the others waited 30 minutes for our turn. My knees were knocking as I got in my first car, a Maserati, and got the obligatory memento photo.
Most of the cars were equipped with Formula 1 type paddle shifters, levers behind the steering wheel, upshift on one side, downshift on the other. These were a little tricky at first and I had to find out where on each car the current gear was indicated on the dashboard. Once I got the hang of these, its just a quick finger flick to change gears, without taking your foot off the accelerator. No clutch.
We sped off down the Interstate for a few miles to the Minturn exit, then wound our way around a couple of roundabouts through Eagle-Vail, then looped back to the Interstate to return to Vail Village. What fun getting up to freeway speed, in like 5 seconds. That section of the highway has a 60 mph speed limit and some fairly tight corners. Piece of cake with these babies doing a bout 80. I never reached the 100 mph limit to generate an email, but came close in a couple of the cars.
By the end of my cars, the traffic had increased quite a bit, and the cops were out in force, so we went up to the top of Vail Pass and back for my last car. I would have preferred doing this route the whole time, as driving 30 to 40 mph in these cars is such a waste. One poor guy in my group had a cop in his tail both directions on the Interstate while he was driving the Ferrari and never got it above 65.
The Cars
Here's a brief of the six cars in the order I drove them.
Maserati GranSport
$100,000, 400 hp. Nice black convertible. First experience with the paddle shifters. Made the mistake of letting off the gas when shifting, which delayed the post shift acceleration. Thick carbon fiber steering wheel. Kept hearing the sweet sound of the Ferrari in front of me every time he stepped on the gas. Nice car, but nothing spectacular.
Porsche 911 Carrera S
$100,000, 355 hp. The only car with a standard manual transmission. Not used to the clutch, I killed it heading out. Carbon fiber everywhere, steering wheel, gearshift, parking brake levere. Lots of power from a flat-6 engine. Great roadholding and seats to keep you in place. Headroom galore. Loved this car.
Bentley Continental GT
$150,000, 550 hp. Didn't know what to expect from this one. Big car, more of a highway luxo-tourer than a sports car. Plush wood-grained interior. Buttons everywhere. I never could find the outside rear-view mirror buttons. I kept this one in automatic. Smooth, quiet ride. Step on the gas, and Oh My God does this thing go. Twelve cylinders will do that. Great for the highway, but not for driving fun. My least favorite car.
Ferrari 360 Modena
$150,000, 400 hp. Didier rode with me in this as the pace car. Corrected my letting off the gas on the paddle shifts. Big difference. Cat quick & fast. Engine is right behind your head and is VERY LOUD! Seat bolsters squeeze you in place. Steering is very responsive, doesn't take much movement to move the car around. A blast to drive.
Lamborghini Gallardo
$175,000, 500 hp. Been waiting for this one. Just barely enough head room. Have no idea where the front of this car is as it slopes away so fast. Not much view out the rear. Engine behind my head, but not as loud as the Ferrari. You feel every little bump in the road. Great air-conditioning. Getting the hang of the paddle shifters and this thing responds like a bat out of hell in accelerating. Another blast to drive.
Aston Martin DB9 Volante
$180,000, 450 hp. I love the looks of all the Aston Martins. Had to leave this in automatic as there is no rev-limiter and someone already ruined one engine down-shifting too fast. Another smooth highway luxo-tourer, but loved the interior of this one, plus its a convertible. We avoided the cops on this drive and went to the top of Vail Pass. Very nice car.
The End
Even without driving a few of the cars I had been expecting, I had a great time. Driving a Ferrari and a Lamborghini was the highlight of the day. Which one would I choose if I could have any of the ones I drove? For pure excitement, fun, and power, I'd take the Lamborghini. For something I could live with driving on a daily basis, it would be the Porsche.