Driving exotics with the hoi polloi: a Prodigal affair?
By Straight-Six, published on 23 July 2011
“You!”
“Who me?”
“Yes you. Ferrari 599 or Lamborghini Gallardo?!”
“Um, I think I’ll go for the Gallardo. But the Superleggera, please…”
“Fine. It’s over there. Hurry up and get in.”
And who were we to refuse? You see, this bizarre and absolutely original exchange took place during a driving day of exotic cars hosted by Driving Box at the Circuit de Genk in Belgium. Gifted to our very own Straight-Six as a birthday surprise from his recently-returned-home wife, the format was simple: EUR250 gets you three laps in the exotic car of your choice, preceeded by sighting laps in a Hummer (foul, foul car…), driving simulator laps, Sedgeway rides and hot laps in a Clio RS. Turns out you could pick these tickets up on Groupon for a mere EUR100.
And the car selection wasn’t lacking, folks. At all. You could pick from three Ferraris (F430, 599 GTB, 458 Italia), two Lambos (standard and Superleggera Gallardo), an Aston Martin V8 and a rather out-of-place Porsche Cayman. The only surprise was discovering that that the Circuit de Genk was a karting circuit. Shit. Double shit.
The reality is that we’ve been blessed when it comes to cars. Straight-Six has been blessed with having reviewed cars for a number of years, befriended Alois Ruf and tasted his fabulous offerings and driven on a number of track days and generally been spoilt when it comes to accessing fine automotive machinery and fabulous drives. Your editors have also enjoyed several Prodigal Runs across Europe and even ventured across the Pond, driving across the US in 5 days disguised as over-sexed drunks before ending up in Vegas at 3 in the morning violently trying to extract cash from a roomful of obstreperous ATMs.
And? How was it, you ask?
We’ll dispense with the 30 minute wait in the line, the rather shambolic dash for the cars themselves and the many peripheral activities that interested us not one jot. Instead, we’ll focus on the brief bits of thrill and frustration that accompanied our minutes-long time in the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera.
Here goes: tiny footwell; cheap-looking instrument panel; old Audi switchgear; nice co-pilot; thunderous noise; incredible traction; barely touch 3rd gear before we’re hard in the brakes for the first turn; total lack of initial bite in brakes due to constant riding of brakes by other previous drivers; tight, taut steering; easy to place nose on the track; you forget there’s a big, bad V10 out back very quickly and then…we’re back in the pits.
This is when the frustration sets in. You’re hot, bothered, wired and ready to start stroking some pedals and caressing the Alcantara-covered wheel. But no. It’s off to the cold shower with you or, in this case, a spot on the spectator steps nursing a Chimay Bleu while you watch the cars mostly creep round the circuit, probably as nonplussed as you.
Let’s be clear: this is the closest many of the punters will ever get to a quick car, let alone an exotic like those that were on offer. The average level of driving ability means that a karting circuit is not only safe, but is about as much as these folk can handle. But while this works for the majority it’s nowhere near enough for enthusiasts and those who have a bit of track driving under their heels and toes.
You see, at the other end of the dip-your-auto-wick spectrum lies the exclusive car clubs, in which you slap down wads of cash for points to redeem against time with your pick of a typical exotic car pool. This all makes good sense, and the rides are usually fab, but the buy-in is high. Rapidly moving into five figures, you may not desire a year-long commitment.
It appears Driving Box has already considered this and is now working on a day-long rallye format in which you get 30 minutes in each car making up a convoy, with support cars in the lead and end of the convoy to ensure everyone stays together. Warmer indeed.
But what we’d really like to see is a stepwise approach that weeds out drivers on the basis of their skills and comfort levels, matching them with an appropriate car that they can have sufficient time to explore and thereby bond with over a a ouple of hours, or even a full day. We firmly believe this will also be significantly easier on the poor cars than the stop-start, brake-riding horror that is your traditional driving day mechanical massacre.
Anyone out there want to co-organise a Prodigal track day/rallye with us? We’re cheap. And easy like Sunday morning. We just need the cars, the structure and the babes…
Driving exotics with the hoi polloi: a Prodigal affair?
We’ve been to the track again. But this one left little Straight-Six a little frustrated: “You’re hot, bothered, wired and ready to start stroking some pedals and caressing the Alcantara-covered wheel. But no. It’s off to the cold shower with you or, in this case, a spot on the spectator steps nursing a Chimay Bleu while you watch the cars mostly creep round the circuit, probably as nonplussed as you.”
