My kind father has recently made it an annual tradition to visit driving schools and experiences around our lovely home state. This year, we drove three hours to GingerMan Raceway in South Haven, MI, for the “Xtreme Xperience.” Even though the company moniker is a little too hip for me, I can overlook that because I got to do three laps in a 458 Italia. Here they are. This was my first time around the track, and I had to get used to not only it, but a Ferrari I’ve never driven. I think I did OK after a warmup lap.
Of course, a man in his large-sized helmet sometimes just has to wait around, and I’m no exception. If you don’t want to wait through my “easing into it,” feel free to start the video at 2:30 or so.
And here I am entering said Ferrari for my laps. Good times. I recommend it if you have a few hundred dollars lying around that you don’t want to put into your fleet of junkers. After all, few modern cars sound as mellifluous as a 458.
Here’s the Lamborghini Huracan my dad drove, just in case you prefer those over Ferraris.
What fun! Is that an automatic with paddle shifters?
Yes it is…I don’t think you can even get a 458 in a manual anymore. This one did all the shifting and rev matching for me. I don’t think they could run this business if the cars were straight sticks, because you’d have drivers breaking things all the time: overrevving on downshifts, synchronizer brutality, clutches, etc.
Sounds like a fun day. Any experience to push someone else’s sports car (let alone a Ferrari) to the limits is a thrilling experience.
Hey! I did the same thing a couple of years ago myself. My daughter bought me a session for a Father’s Day gift. I only live about 45 min from South Haven, so it was an easy ride for me to get over there. I think I was the only guy who arrived in an Aztek, as there was lots of fairly heavy duty metal out in the parking lot. No matter, I would have driven a Yugo there just for kicks.
In my youth, I raced with a buddy of mine in everything from dirt track in showroom stock cars to SCCA parking lot racing. At the “drivers meeting” before you get on track they asked if anyone there ever had track time. Out of the 25 or so people there that day, I was the only one who had experience. That was a bit unnerving.
I had the package where we got three laps in a car of my choice. When we got down on the track we were offered the chance to take recon laps with a pace car driver in a stock Ford Mustang. I spent the money and went with the guy. It was a rather interesting tour as I was really trying to get a feel for the track, but the guy was flogging that poor Mustang around like he stole it and I actually found it very difficult to determine braking points, apexes and landmarks. The car was pitching around so heavily on it’s suspension I was in fear of us shooting off of the pavement. Three laps of Gingerman and I really didn’t have a good lay of the land yet.
After the pace car ride, I was a bit queasy but since I had signed up to drive the Lamborghini Murcielago there was a line, so I was able to get my innards back to normal. I waited (and waited…) and finally it was my turn to drive. The guy I got to coach me around the course was nice enough, but he wouldn’t shut the fsck up!
I guess he didn’t know I did the recon lap, and at least had some experience on track… But, he kept on talking about how I was driving a Lamborghini! Yep, I’m pretty sure I was in the car with him and it’s not like I haven’t seen/been in/and actually driven other Lamborghinis (another story for another time). I have my video of this ride somewhere on a SD card, I will have to see if I can find it. Like you, by the time I got to the third lap I was confident I knew where all of the landmarks were and could finally navigate the track on my own. Of course, my time was up.
By the time I got my ride in the Lambo, most of the people who had the three lap ride package had done their time and went home. The ExEx people were offering the stragglers another three laps for $100 as a way to milk out some more money out of their day. So I signed up for another ride, this time in a 997 Porsche. While I found the Lambo to be a bit artificial to drive, the 997 felt like it was connected to my neurons. Also, my “instructor” on this ride was an older gent and he was pretty sure I wasn’t on my first rodeo, so he let me just drive. We talked about kids, grandkids, careers, the meaning of life and all kinds of other stuff and hardly about the car. But that demonstrates just how great the 997 was. I could look down at the instrument panel and find myself driving at 100+ MPH while calmly discussing what our kids had been doing in high school sports…
After all was said and done we’d gone through about $400 that day (in addition to what my daughter spent). My wife bought the hat, the golf shirt, the T shirt, etc, which brought our total way up. The funniest thing to me that day, was the one guy who was close to my age (50+) that was completely dressed head to toe in a Tifosi (Ferrari fan) outfit. He even had red driving shoes. I remembered him from the driver’s meeting and thinking since he was on the older side of the spectrum he’d maybe seen some track time. Nope. This was the first time he ever had been on track or even driven a Ferrari (or any super car). That was a bit unnerving. But we were never on track together, so it was no issue.
I don’t think I would have normally done this activity if my daughter hadn’t “gifted” it to me, and I’m not entirely sure I will do it again, but it was fun for the time I did do it. I think if you’ve got the urge to drive something on track like that, this is a relatively safe way to do it.
Me in a big farkin’ helmet… If you’ve ever wondered what you’d look like as a bobblehead, this is a fast way to find out…
Me getting into the pacer Mustang. May it Rest in Peace.
We had an SS Camaro and an Evo the day I was there. One of the employees said the Camaro was leased! Yikes! I’d hate to be the next owner of that thing…
In Lambo. Not Limbo.
In the 997. This thing was great! I again see why people love these things…
Driving a high powered car around a racetrack wearing a helmet is quite an experience for those of us who are not race car drivers. It certainly affects almost all the senses. Being able to drive a car with automatic and shift paddles would have been great as you can then focus more on the actual driving.
Best track driving experience I had was more than a decade ago at a Porsche event for media at the track in Mission, BC. The top Porsche driver’s of the day were there; Hurley Haywood, David Donohue (met his father many years before at a Trans Am race in Edmonton) and Doc Bundy. My then 17 year old son came with me but could not drive any of the cars. He did ride shotgun and had a wonderful time riding along with David Donohue. Donohue was doing a lot of power slides and just being silly. Never scared my son though, Mike enjoyed every minute in the passenger seat. My pics of that event are filed away. That was well before digital cameras came out.
Good for you Aaron that you got to drive such a great car on a racetrack.
That looks like great fun. And nothing close to the track to hit is really a good thing. Think I’ll put a drive like this on my bucket list.
I had a play day in a V8 Holden race car previouly used in the NZ V8 series great fun but you got an instructor riding shotgun I asked when I ponied up for full insurance cover do they ever get scared? Apparently only if you dont take their lines through corners he certainly went white knuckled when I threw his precious racecar into a hairpin sideways the first time, once he discovered I knew what I was doing he calmed down, silly boy he expected me to try for fast lap times yeah nar I wanted to see how well those things drove with the tail out.
Oh dear, How will we keep Aaron down on the farm after he’s seen Maranello?
Waiting on the next update for the dirty Dart
Ha ha! That’s great! 🙂
Not much to update! I just bought a set of 15×6 steelies for it, brand new, because every other rim I own for that thing is bent. It’s a great car, but shaky on the highway. The tire guys say they’re all kind of wobbly.
Other than that, just a few new transmission seals and a knock down, drag out fight with some rear axle seals and bearings is all I have to report.