Ucla95
09-09-2008, 11:52 AM
Ok first off, I forgot to charge my camera so I have pics from disposable cameras getting developed as I write so I'll add pics later.
I just attended the first World Class Driving Festival in French Lick, IN this past weekend (9/5-7) and here's my review of the cars and the experience in case anyone is interested.
Quick conclusion: glad I did it, everyone should do this once.
Pluses: the driving and the people
Minuses: the organization of the event left a lot to be desired, but they are a young company and some of it was the hotel's fault, and this was the first one so I'm sure it will improve, the managers seemed to understand this
www.worldclassdriving.com
So I signed up for the Platinum package, the biggest one, with 12 drives. The website said that you could take your pick of 12 cars, from 3 different categories, but when I arrived I learned that the cars had been grouped in 3's and therefore you could only choose 4 different groups and therefore had less customization than expected. Also the website said the Tesla would be there, but it was not.
Arrived on Friday for the Gala Dinner, the seating was apparently done at the last minute and therefore they didn't have our reservation. However the hotel did set up a couple extra tables in a snap and so we were in the back. Interesting group of people. I'd say about 25% of the people were in their 30's, and 75% were in their 50's; almost nothing else. The people at my table were 2 electrical contracting company co-owners, 2 industrial tool&dye business owners, 2 life coaches. Most of the people at the event seemed to own their own businesses, far fewer lawyers and finance-types than I expected to see at such an event.
The dinner also had a charity auction where they auctioned off, amongst other things, a 1-hour drive in a Bugatti Veyron (2 people won separate hours for $2750 each), and some interesting Team Poleizei jackets from Alex Roy. There was a small party scene after the dinner, about half the people in the 30's contingent were at the bar for a couple of hours but since the driving slots began at 7am the next morning nobody stayed out too late.
Driving: I arrived at the "Planning Room" at 7am on Sat morning and most of the good mid-day slots had already been picked over, but I was able to squeeze some in, bottom line if you attend this event in the future arrive early on Friday to get some good times/cars. I got one slot of three cars on Saturday and 3 slots on Sunday. In retrospect taking 3 slots (9 cars) all together on Sunday was a mistake. I'd spread them out more in the future.
The routes were all through Indiana backcountry, very well-paved and nicely curvy roads. Sometimes you did encounter traffic and that was terrible, since these are public roads and since they were so curvy a lot of times you were in do-not-pass zones. But in the 25 minutes you get in each car you did get to open it up at some point. My average speed on the drives was 55-60, but since it was curvy you do feel the cars. I did get higher but I'll take the 5th on how high. Knowing this crowd however I think people would say that the top speed I experienced was lower than you'd think. Basically the pace car drives the limit and you can brake and let the car get out ahead and then rev up and get a bit of a run in. Overall though, expect to drive the limit or around there. One plus for those who got tickets (yes they were written) was that in this county the cost of a ticket was the same no matter how much over the limit you are. $110 I think.
The cars I drove (there were others there, 24 to choose from in 8 groupings):
1) Spyker C8 Coupe -- I'd heard a lot of negatives about Spykers before in terms of ergonomics and power so I was very pleasantly surprised. I really loved this car. Best interior by FAR (an orange quilted leather and beautiful guages, and a translucent roof), best looking exterior as well, and the driving experience was rock-solid. The car has no traction control, and no power brakes and basically it feels like a go-kart. Very attached to the road, nice engine note, and good power. Brakes were dangerous the first time since you have to learn them, but after that you get used to it. The pedal spacing is perfect for heel & toeing as well. I rode with the factory rep who was a good guy in his mid-30s, told me only 60 have been sold in the USA to date?? One is on Ebay for about $60K off sticker so they clearly don't hold their value well, but if I had the scratch I'd definitely buy one.
2) Ferrari 599 GTB -- yes the $400K monster. Well I was disappointed. Fantastic engine but the car was too soft for me, and I had it in Sport mode. Suspension needs to be tighter for such a car. Plus with all that weight up front I didn't feel like the car was very balanced. My expectations were huge so that plays a role, but for $400K I'd rather have a F430 and something else. Most people at the event agreed with me.
3) Lambo Gallardo Superleggera -- Fantastic car, great poise and handling and a strong interior as well. I'd read a lot about the E-Gear being choppy but I didn't feel that at all, in fact I thought it was quite smooth. Nice light weight, better than expected visability out of the car as well.
4) Maser Quattroporte Automatica (the new automatic) -- Fantastic engine and power, but the car had 10,000 miles and was rattling everywhere. Of course these are driven hard but still I got the sense that the car wasn't very well put together. I kept the trans in sport mode and it always was in the right gear, and the engine was perfect, but I'd be scared to own one given the build quality.
5) Audi R8 -- go-kart handling, best in the whole trip, felt like I was on rails. Better power than I expected, a lot of people give the R8 flak for this but I was quite happy with the power, E-Gear was great in manual mode, in Auto mode I felt like I was always 1 gear too high. Interior was not as nice as the Lambo or Spyker, but still very very good. I did hear that the engine had to be replaced at 3000 miles so perhaps reliability is an issue here too (I didn't have a good experience with my last and only Audi). One negative was the steering wheel, it was the worst of all the cars, just oddly shaped and way too thin, uncomfortable to handle.
6) Aston Martin V8 Vantage Convertible -- biggest disappointment in the whole trip. Engine was great, sweet note, interior was TERRIBLE. Chairs were horrific, and few adjustments and the leather quality was surprisingly cheap. I'd always wanted to experience an Aston and I'm very blessed to have had the opportunity but I don't need to drive one again.
7) Ford GT -- Backbreaker! Seriously you need a chiropractor to own this car. The most unrefined suspension of the entire trip. On the flipside the engine was phenomenal. I kept it in 1st gear all the way to 90mph! If you're driving under 80 you're in 1st gear here for sure. Wild. Car has no traction control and would be dangerous for an inexperienced driver, I felt like the tail wanted to break loose all the time. The A/C couldn't cool the car and you couldn't start it with the lights on because the battery couldn't handle it.
8) Corvette Z06 -- Best value of the group, solid mid-pack. Nothing exemplary relative to these cars but nothing subpar also. HUD was more distracting than I expected, had to turn it off. Interior was obviously cheaper than the group but that's the only relative issue. Fun car to drive, great engine, almost as fast as the others. Very nicely done.
9) Porsche 911 GT2 -- that's right a brand new 1000 mile GT2. With this car you had to ride with an instructor (who happens to teach at the BMW M School) and this was my best experience of the trip, I learned a TON. First off the car is all alcantara and has the cage in it. The instructor was telling me that he was faster around a track in a GT3 however because of the weight of the GT2, and I could see why; the power was awesome but not as incredibly awesome as I had expected. Gearshift was magical, suspension was perfect. But frankly I think the R8's handling was still a little better and that was a shock to me. Riding with a pro instructor though was phenomenal, learned a lot. Relative to the $200K you have to shell out for this car I'd rather have a Gallardo Superleggera or an R8.
10) GT-R -- Strangest car I drove, it's hard to explain but this car was driving in a video game. You don't feel anything but 100% grip but also cannot lose control, it seems as if you cannot crash. You don't feel the speed, it's robotic in a sense. I'm sure I could drive faster in this car than any other, but I don't think I'd have as much fun, it's just no challenge. The stereo was the worst I've heard in a new car since the 1980's and I tried playing around with the tone settings. The music was just way off in tone and it didn't have much power either. The NAV screen washed out in the sunlight, and went dim when I turned the lights on, so dim that I couldn't read it. The transmission was good and bad. Good in manual mode, the shifts were instantaneous and you didn't feel them, bad in automatic mode it was always 2-3 gears over what I'd want it to be in, and then the car would feel like an Altima with no power. You cannot drive this car in automatic (and that's a consideration if you live in a city and sometimes have to like I do).
The real kicker with the GT-R is I think if you owned one for 2 years and then went to drive an M3 or something in curves you'd kill yourself because you'd go into every corner too fast, you'd develop bad habits.
11) Regular Gallardo 6-spd -- Horrific gearshift, the gate was ridiculous. For that reason you had to drive with an instructor in this car as well. This car was noticably slower than the Superleggera and not nearly as much fun to drive. Also the seats were either more thickly bolstered or set higher and I had no headroom, whereas in the Superleggera I was fine.
12) F430 Coupe - By FAR the best car I drove over the weekend. Just so much better than all the others in every way except maybe the glued handling of the R8. The engine note when above 4000rpm was perfect (under 4000 was surprisingly quiet); automatic mode was also sluggish, 2 gears too high, but manual was perfect. Everything about this car was just 1000% right. The perfect car period. If someone forced me to say something bad, it's that you can't see out the back of the car, all you see is the sweet engine in the entire rearview mirror. That's fun but probably not good on the highway.
So that's it, but I have to say that meeting Alex Roy and watching his movie that was just submitted to Sundance was also a fantastic experience. His 2000 M5 is fantastic. Worth reading his book if you're a car person. We talked about the Gumball as well, good & bad...
Hope this was useful for someone!
I just attended the first World Class Driving Festival in French Lick, IN this past weekend (9/5-7) and here's my review of the cars and the experience in case anyone is interested.
Quick conclusion: glad I did it, everyone should do this once.
Pluses: the driving and the people
Minuses: the organization of the event left a lot to be desired, but they are a young company and some of it was the hotel's fault, and this was the first one so I'm sure it will improve, the managers seemed to understand this
www.worldclassdriving.com
So I signed up for the Platinum package, the biggest one, with 12 drives. The website said that you could take your pick of 12 cars, from 3 different categories, but when I arrived I learned that the cars had been grouped in 3's and therefore you could only choose 4 different groups and therefore had less customization than expected. Also the website said the Tesla would be there, but it was not.
Arrived on Friday for the Gala Dinner, the seating was apparently done at the last minute and therefore they didn't have our reservation. However the hotel did set up a couple extra tables in a snap and so we were in the back. Interesting group of people. I'd say about 25% of the people were in their 30's, and 75% were in their 50's; almost nothing else. The people at my table were 2 electrical contracting company co-owners, 2 industrial tool&dye business owners, 2 life coaches. Most of the people at the event seemed to own their own businesses, far fewer lawyers and finance-types than I expected to see at such an event.
The dinner also had a charity auction where they auctioned off, amongst other things, a 1-hour drive in a Bugatti Veyron (2 people won separate hours for $2750 each), and some interesting Team Poleizei jackets from Alex Roy. There was a small party scene after the dinner, about half the people in the 30's contingent were at the bar for a couple of hours but since the driving slots began at 7am the next morning nobody stayed out too late.
Driving: I arrived at the "Planning Room" at 7am on Sat morning and most of the good mid-day slots had already been picked over, but I was able to squeeze some in, bottom line if you attend this event in the future arrive early on Friday to get some good times/cars. I got one slot of three cars on Saturday and 3 slots on Sunday. In retrospect taking 3 slots (9 cars) all together on Sunday was a mistake. I'd spread them out more in the future.
The routes were all through Indiana backcountry, very well-paved and nicely curvy roads. Sometimes you did encounter traffic and that was terrible, since these are public roads and since they were so curvy a lot of times you were in do-not-pass zones. But in the 25 minutes you get in each car you did get to open it up at some point. My average speed on the drives was 55-60, but since it was curvy you do feel the cars. I did get higher but I'll take the 5th on how high. Knowing this crowd however I think people would say that the top speed I experienced was lower than you'd think. Basically the pace car drives the limit and you can brake and let the car get out ahead and then rev up and get a bit of a run in. Overall though, expect to drive the limit or around there. One plus for those who got tickets (yes they were written) was that in this county the cost of a ticket was the same no matter how much over the limit you are. $110 I think.
The cars I drove (there were others there, 24 to choose from in 8 groupings):
1) Spyker C8 Coupe -- I'd heard a lot of negatives about Spykers before in terms of ergonomics and power so I was very pleasantly surprised. I really loved this car. Best interior by FAR (an orange quilted leather and beautiful guages, and a translucent roof), best looking exterior as well, and the driving experience was rock-solid. The car has no traction control, and no power brakes and basically it feels like a go-kart. Very attached to the road, nice engine note, and good power. Brakes were dangerous the first time since you have to learn them, but after that you get used to it. The pedal spacing is perfect for heel & toeing as well. I rode with the factory rep who was a good guy in his mid-30s, told me only 60 have been sold in the USA to date?? One is on Ebay for about $60K off sticker so they clearly don't hold their value well, but if I had the scratch I'd definitely buy one.
2) Ferrari 599 GTB -- yes the $400K monster. Well I was disappointed. Fantastic engine but the car was too soft for me, and I had it in Sport mode. Suspension needs to be tighter for such a car. Plus with all that weight up front I didn't feel like the car was very balanced. My expectations were huge so that plays a role, but for $400K I'd rather have a F430 and something else. Most people at the event agreed with me.
3) Lambo Gallardo Superleggera -- Fantastic car, great poise and handling and a strong interior as well. I'd read a lot about the E-Gear being choppy but I didn't feel that at all, in fact I thought it was quite smooth. Nice light weight, better than expected visability out of the car as well.
4) Maser Quattroporte Automatica (the new automatic) -- Fantastic engine and power, but the car had 10,000 miles and was rattling everywhere. Of course these are driven hard but still I got the sense that the car wasn't very well put together. I kept the trans in sport mode and it always was in the right gear, and the engine was perfect, but I'd be scared to own one given the build quality.
5) Audi R8 -- go-kart handling, best in the whole trip, felt like I was on rails. Better power than I expected, a lot of people give the R8 flak for this but I was quite happy with the power, E-Gear was great in manual mode, in Auto mode I felt like I was always 1 gear too high. Interior was not as nice as the Lambo or Spyker, but still very very good. I did hear that the engine had to be replaced at 3000 miles so perhaps reliability is an issue here too (I didn't have a good experience with my last and only Audi). One negative was the steering wheel, it was the worst of all the cars, just oddly shaped and way too thin, uncomfortable to handle.
6) Aston Martin V8 Vantage Convertible -- biggest disappointment in the whole trip. Engine was great, sweet note, interior was TERRIBLE. Chairs were horrific, and few adjustments and the leather quality was surprisingly cheap. I'd always wanted to experience an Aston and I'm very blessed to have had the opportunity but I don't need to drive one again.
7) Ford GT -- Backbreaker! Seriously you need a chiropractor to own this car. The most unrefined suspension of the entire trip. On the flipside the engine was phenomenal. I kept it in 1st gear all the way to 90mph! If you're driving under 80 you're in 1st gear here for sure. Wild. Car has no traction control and would be dangerous for an inexperienced driver, I felt like the tail wanted to break loose all the time. The A/C couldn't cool the car and you couldn't start it with the lights on because the battery couldn't handle it.
8) Corvette Z06 -- Best value of the group, solid mid-pack. Nothing exemplary relative to these cars but nothing subpar also. HUD was more distracting than I expected, had to turn it off. Interior was obviously cheaper than the group but that's the only relative issue. Fun car to drive, great engine, almost as fast as the others. Very nicely done.
9) Porsche 911 GT2 -- that's right a brand new 1000 mile GT2. With this car you had to ride with an instructor (who happens to teach at the BMW M School) and this was my best experience of the trip, I learned a TON. First off the car is all alcantara and has the cage in it. The instructor was telling me that he was faster around a track in a GT3 however because of the weight of the GT2, and I could see why; the power was awesome but not as incredibly awesome as I had expected. Gearshift was magical, suspension was perfect. But frankly I think the R8's handling was still a little better and that was a shock to me. Riding with a pro instructor though was phenomenal, learned a lot. Relative to the $200K you have to shell out for this car I'd rather have a Gallardo Superleggera or an R8.
10) GT-R -- Strangest car I drove, it's hard to explain but this car was driving in a video game. You don't feel anything but 100% grip but also cannot lose control, it seems as if you cannot crash. You don't feel the speed, it's robotic in a sense. I'm sure I could drive faster in this car than any other, but I don't think I'd have as much fun, it's just no challenge. The stereo was the worst I've heard in a new car since the 1980's and I tried playing around with the tone settings. The music was just way off in tone and it didn't have much power either. The NAV screen washed out in the sunlight, and went dim when I turned the lights on, so dim that I couldn't read it. The transmission was good and bad. Good in manual mode, the shifts were instantaneous and you didn't feel them, bad in automatic mode it was always 2-3 gears over what I'd want it to be in, and then the car would feel like an Altima with no power. You cannot drive this car in automatic (and that's a consideration if you live in a city and sometimes have to like I do).
The real kicker with the GT-R is I think if you owned one for 2 years and then went to drive an M3 or something in curves you'd kill yourself because you'd go into every corner too fast, you'd develop bad habits.
11) Regular Gallardo 6-spd -- Horrific gearshift, the gate was ridiculous. For that reason you had to drive with an instructor in this car as well. This car was noticably slower than the Superleggera and not nearly as much fun to drive. Also the seats were either more thickly bolstered or set higher and I had no headroom, whereas in the Superleggera I was fine.
12) F430 Coupe - By FAR the best car I drove over the weekend. Just so much better than all the others in every way except maybe the glued handling of the R8. The engine note when above 4000rpm was perfect (under 4000 was surprisingly quiet); automatic mode was also sluggish, 2 gears too high, but manual was perfect. Everything about this car was just 1000% right. The perfect car period. If someone forced me to say something bad, it's that you can't see out the back of the car, all you see is the sweet engine in the entire rearview mirror. That's fun but probably not good on the highway.
So that's it, but I have to say that meeting Alex Roy and watching his movie that was just submitted to Sundance was also a fantastic experience. His 2000 M5 is fantastic. Worth reading his book if you're a car person. We talked about the Gumball as well, good & bad...
Hope this was useful for someone!