Do I have to hand in my car enthusiast card?
 

I drove a Ferrari. And didn't like it.

My buddy and I found a Groupon type deal to take a couple of autox laps of a F430. I don't think I've ever been less impressed with a ~200k car. Granted, I had to use it in automatic mode and the traction control stayed on. Top speed was 65-75ish. It was absolutely gutless under 5k rpm, then it put you back in your seat pretty good. Handling was good, not great. Interior was not anywhere close to what I would find acceptable in a car that costs as much as my house.

Has anyone else here had a chance to get behind the wheel of one of these? Am I missing something? Did the fact I couldn't fiddle with all of the settings make that much of a difference? Was the car I drove just ragged out and tired? The only thing I really loved was the noise it made. There is no doubt in my mind a boosted 370 would run away from one of these (on a closed course, of course).

wow...I want that experience. Too cool

Now that I've done it, I'd sooner autox the Z than pay to drive the F430. Just not worth the $100. Now if it's a 458, count me in.

Although I've never driven a Ferrari I drove a lambo superlaggera.....that ride is awesome! Drove it in Vegas at the exotics racing. Its paddle shifters and prolly the fastest they let you hit is about 100 on a small straight away but holy hell does that car pick up speed quick. I recommend if you get a chance try a lambo!

They had a gallardo I could have driven. If they do the event again I'll try that one. I just wanted to drive a Ferrari since they're supposed to be the pinnacle of sports cars.

Perhaps you set your expectations too high. And the 430 wasn't Ferrari's track warrior, it was made as a very balanced car for regular (rich) folks.

I remember a couple years ago, my parents told me one of my uncles got a 911 in Taiwan. Just assumed it was a Carrera. Finally visited my family there last winter with expectations of seeing a Carrera. Much to my surprise, it turned out to be a 911 Turbo. WAY exceeded my expectations. Best day of driving ever.
On the other hand, before I bought the Z, I was looking at GTi's. Reviews were amazing for the car, about how nimble and fast it was. But when I drove it, the handling was still like any other FWD car I'd driven, just with less roll, and straight line speed wasn't much better than my old V6 camry. So I ended up being pretty disappointed.

Definitely wish I could attend an event to drive supercars, but they dont really do that in Knoxville. The Gallardo would probably have a bigger wow factor though. That's Lamborghini's whole thing.

My expectations were as high as the window sticker of the car. I didn't realize how much of the Ferrari mystique was based on marketing. They're the Kimber of cars. It would have been a fantastic ~$120k car. Not $200k.

I think it is partially the car, those 'experiences' use whatever car they can borrow, and also the controls they put on.
Cannot go over 75, could you redline the car? Able to push the pedal to the floor in 1st and let it rip?

Those limits kill any fun experience you could have had, and I understand they are there for legal reasons but that sucks.

The course design didn't allow higher speeds. In auto mode, it got out of first too quickly. You could run up to redline in second though. There's just no power under 4500-5k rpm. I was shocked. It honestly felt like a really powerful Honda motor. Nothing until VTEC kicks in.

Lol, you gotta understand that the reason why those cars have lets say 600hp out of a 4 Liter NA motor is because the bìtch revs so high... And even then they'll have 600HP, and 380ft lbs of torque.

I knew I was going to have to rev it to get any power out of it, but I was still surprised by how little torque there was. Oh well. Cross one off my dream car list. Googled dyno results for one and it's 400whp/260trq. wow.

What I'd love to find a test-ride like that in is a Lexus LFA. They get so-so reviews from the rich supercar buyers, but I hear it's an insanely fun drive on a track.

I did this exact thing. Gotham Dream Cars, right? That's what it was out here.

I had a blast. Yes, the track was small, too few laps, but also I found it easy to go from my Z to the Ferrari as far as drivability around that track. The paddle shifters were easy to get use to... they didn't make us stay in AT mode though, we could shift manually via the paddles. You didn't have that option?

Edit: Plus, we hit about 90 on the straight.

It def. was very linear. Which isn't too bad though.

I still had fun. I didn't want to drive the AWD Gallardo, as I wanted to try and push that Ferrari a bit and kick out the rear, which I did. :tup:

You could always drive up to St. Louis. They do it there all the time.