Although the location was way more convenient for us, the smaller parking lot meant that the course was much more confined and quite a bit slower. It was just a figure-eight and the "road" marked out by the cones was very narrow. On the upside though, the slower speed and tighter corners made it even easier to play around with the car at the limit.
I drove the Lamborghini first - a black Gallardo convertible. It had tons of power and sounded fantastic. The traction control (they wouldn't let me turn it off) still allowed me to slide the car around through corners, which was a lot of fun.
The Ferrari F430 was second and had a bit of a rocky start. As soon as I started to pull away, the car stalled! I started it again and gave it a bit more gas this time, and the engine note sounded really strange. On top of that, when I tried to get on the gas it would only give me about 20% power. The Gotham Dream Cars guy had me pull it in right away and they opened up the hood to figure out what was wrong. After about five minutes of waiting, they had it working again.
I blipped the throttle a few times while I was sitting there waiting to go on track. We were sitting underneath a highway overpass, so the engine note of the revving Ferrari was just fantastic. On track, it was actually not quite as nice to drive as the Ferrari I drove last year. I don't know if it was the tires or the tighter track or what, but it seemed to squirm a lot under braking, and the traction control was a lot more intrusive as I tried to accelerate out of the corners.
I'm surprised to say it, but I think if I magically had $150k of disposable income I might actually buy the Gallardo instead of the the Ferrari. Not only was it the more fun car to drive today, but I absolutely love how the Gallardo looks.
As much fun as it was for me, the most important thing was that my mom, who also drove the Ferrari, had a blast. I got her the Dream Car Sprint for Christmas this year partly because she missed an opportunity 10+ years ago to ride in a Dodge Viper around Lime Rock Park driven by an actual race car driver. I was hoping this would make up for that missed opportunity and she seemed to really enjoy the whole experience.
I blipped the throttle a few times while I was sitting there waiting to go on track. We were sitting underneath a highway overpass, so the engine note of the revving Ferrari was just fantastic. On track, it was actually not quite as nice to drive as the Ferrari I drove last year. I don't know if it was the tires or the tighter track or what, but it seemed to squirm a lot under braking, and the traction control was a lot more intrusive as I tried to accelerate out of the corners.
I'm surprised to say it, but I think if I magically had $150k of disposable income I might actually buy the Gallardo instead of the the Ferrari. Not only was it the more fun car to drive today, but I absolutely love how the Gallardo looks.
As much fun as it was for me, the most important thing was that my mom, who also drove the Ferrari, had a blast. I got her the Dream Car Sprint for Christmas this year partly because she missed an opportunity 10+ years ago to ride in a Dodge Viper around Lime Rock Park driven by an actual race car driver. I was hoping this would make up for that missed opportunity and she seemed to really enjoy the whole experience.
