Driving a Ferrari 599 GTO!

So I was just offered the keys to a limited edition, mind-ripping 660hp, Ferrari 599 GTO.  Ok...heavy breathing....try to not act like a giddy, adolescent far too immature and unskilled to pilot a $500,000 Ferrari -- check.  Stay cool -- check.  Coherently acknowledge the owner to accept keys -- Ok, that was definitely not coherent but I got the keys -- check. 

Everyone is sick of hearing the GTO badge history but I'll refresh those who may have been living under a rock, discovered the internet today, and immediately looked up my blog in the deep caverns of the internet stratosphere.  The 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO is the most valuable automobile in history and the 1984 Ferrari 288 GTO is the first in line of the modern day Ferrari supercar; the predecessor to the turbocharged F40, the back-breaking F50, the mighty Enzo and the dumbly named, yet stunningly gorgeous LaFerrari.

So Ferrari, primarily famous these days for tacking their badge onto mugs, coasters and essentially all hot beverage paraphernalia, decided to tack the GTO badge onto a production Ferrari 599 GTB, beef up the performance, build a limited quantity and market it in a way only Ferrari can, naturally selling out all 599 units quicker than you poured your second serving of Lucky Charms this evening for dinner. 

Disclaimer:  I've never driven any one of the aforementioned GTOs, nor a standard 599 GTB.  As a matter of fact, I've never driven any front-engine V12 Ferrari.   I have absolutely no qualifications to review the 599 GTO or deem this car GTO worthy; not that I really really care if the 599 meets the minimum qualifications for GTO worthiness set by self-appointed Ferrari historians on the internet.   

I nervously fumbled the keys from the owner, trying to wipe the smug grin off my face as I approached the intimidating GTO.  Never sitting in a GTO, let alone riding in one, I carefully found myself in the driver's seat.  The GTO interior is carbon fiber mixed with alcantara overload. 

The red engine start button on the steering wheel is invariably cool.  Roaring the V12 to life, I carefully maneuvered the GTO out onto the highway.  First impression:  The GTO is absolutely massive.  Rather than mashing the pedal, subsequently putting the half million dollar Ferrari into a ditch, thus becoming an overnight internet sensation and a new meme caricature, I respected the GTO.  Well, and the owner was sitting next to me.

I quickly felt at ease driving the GTO, downshifting through the winding corners, upshifting on the straightaways with a casual flick of the wrist.  As I became more comfortable, the constant begging of the big V12 was uncontrollable; I obliged.  The sheer speed of the GTO is impossible to describe, impossibly fast.  I've driven fast cars before -- an F50, a 16M Scuderia  --  those were fast, but this was impossibly fast.  The GTO's speed blurred through the double digits, a chorus of symphonic V12 sounds.  Before getting into too much trouble, I backed off the throttle, flicked a quick downshift and the GTO was back in Beverly Hills cruise mode. 

Surprisingly, the 599 GTO didn't require my undivided attention.  No sweaty palms, either.  Thankfully, I guess, as I forgot my $209.99 Ferrari certified leather gloves.  Not to mention that sweaty palms would have inevitably ruined the finely stitched, alcantara wrapped steering wheel.

The GTO is a special car, undoubtedly cool and probably GTO worthy, whatever that means.  The problem with the GTO is that your rock-climbing girlfriend can casually flick her wrists to 60mph in 3.2 seconds -- 0.056 seconds quicker that you did because you spend every afternoon playing Call of Duty.  I don't know if it is the rock-climbing or her unreasonable intake of quinoa, but seriously, she has unbelievably quick wrists.

No doubt, the 599 GTO is a freakishly-fast Ferrari but after 2 days and several hundred miles, it had become boring.  Endless tunnel runs at 8,000 rpms are fantastically fun but the GTO didn't put me in that singular driving state of mind.

Back tracking a few years, my experience driving the Ferrari F50 was a top 5 moment in my life, yet it is a memory I can barely remember. I was so enveloped with driving the F50 that my mind was singularly focused on that specific moment in time.  I didn't even remember to grab each selfie angle for my Instagram!  The stresses in my life -- work, college finals, how I finished the last of the Lucky Charms yesterday -- were secondary to driving the F50.  To me, I believe that is the true nature of a supercar that is missing in the Ferrari 599 GTO.

Roadtrip: San Francisco to Park City in a Lotus Elise.

I had finally negotiated a price and had bought my ticket.  I was flying to San Francisco to pick up my new to me 2005 Lotus Elise in my favorite color -- Laser Blue.  I caught a one-way flight from Salt Lake City, Utah to San Francisco with a brief layover in Phoenix, Arizona. 

It was simply love at first sight!  I met the current owner at his downtown SF condo and quickly completed all necessary paperwork, finally getting the keys to my new Elise.  After spending two days in San Francisco with my brother and sister-in-law, I headed out of San Francisco via I-80 early on Sunday, March 10, 2013....770 miles away from Park City, Utah.  I had to be at work first thing Monday morning so the journey would be done in a single day; not a bad thing with a new Lotus and hundreds of miles on open roads in Northern Nevada!

The Route:  I would be traversing Northern California, via I-80 through Sacramento, up Donner's Pass to Reno and then race across the vast northern Nevada desert into Utah to the Bonneville Salt Flats and onto Salt Lake City and Park City, Utah.

After leaving downtown San Francisco, I crossed the Bay Bridge, snapping a few shots on Treasure Island with the San Francisco skyline.  Because I left early on a Sunday, I was able to avoid all congestion and was quickly out of the Bay Area.  I made a quick pit stop for gas and a donut in Vacaville, California.  The Elise only has a 10 gallon gas tank so it's range in roughly 250 miles on the highway.  To be safe, I would fill up every 200 miles.  However in Nevada, I would need to fill up more often because the area is so remote.  I would end up filling up 6 times on the trip back to Park City.

I quickly reached Sacramento, California's state capital and continued to race toward Nevada.  I was now in new territory;  I had never driven this stretch of I-80 between Sacramento and Reno.  I-80 quickly rises out of the Central Sacramento Valley into the northern Sierra Nevada mountain range that lies on the California - Nevada border.  Long sweeping 80-90mph turns cover this section of I-80 making for a memorable journey.  Here I made my first friend - a mid 80s Porsche 911.  We continued powering up Donner's Pass before he exited off at Truckee, California.  I made a quick stop at the Donner's Pass rest area to catch a quick view of the amazing scenery.  It was only mid march so snow was still plentiful along the highway.



I quickly dropped down into the Reno valley and stopped for a quick bite at Qdoba.  This was the first time I realized how much attention was garnered by the bright blue Lotus.   I was quickly approached by several people in the restaurant asking what it was and if it was fast.  After a nicely portioned chicken burrito, I filled up the Lotus again and headed east into the Nevada desert. 




I was now in the open country of Northern Nevada.  There is literally nothing out here but long, straight roads.  I was lucky to have sunny skies the whole trip and moderate temperatures.  Air conditioning is not a strength of Lotus and mine is no different.  Thankfully temperature stayed in the mid 60s (unlike my summer trek across Nevada 5 months later).  As I inched across Nevada, I ran into a bit of bad luck, hitting a bird at 90 mph just outside Winnemucca, NV.  I was extremely lucky that the bird got caught in an air dam vent on my front bumper without causing any damage.  Using a napkin, I was able to pull the bird's remains out of the air dam grate.  Good thing I picked up that donut in Vacaville and grabbed some napkins!

I continued racing across the desert through Battle Mountain (town didn't match the name), Elko, Wells and finally to Wendover on the Nevada - Utah border.  This stretch was fairly uneventful other than countless downshifts into 4th gear and quick bursts up to 100mph!  And of course the tunnel just outside Carlin, Nevada.  The Lotus sounds amazing from a cam change at 6,000rpm to redline at 8,000rpm especially with an aftermarket Larini exhaust! 

Just a few miles east of Wendover is the Bonneville Salt Flats.  I was lucky to reach them just as the sun was setting and get some awesome photos of the Lotus on the salt flats.  Being that is was early March, most of the flats were covered in water except for a cool stretch on the western flats. 

I had just two hours left from Bonneville to Salt Lake City but unfortunately the sun had set and I had to dial down the speed.  The Lotus doesn't have the best headlights and hitting wildlife at 80mph would be disaster.  I finally reached home just after 9PM mountain time and carefully tucked away the new Lotus into my garage.  What a trip!  The Lotus was uncomfortable and loud but I couldn't have had a better trip.  I put just under 800 miles on it my first weekend and have continued driving it, amassing 15,000 miles on it in my first year of ownership!  It only had 27,000 miles when I bought it, now it has 42,000!

Check out my YouTube for videos of my Lotus:  youtube.com/TheStradman

I caught it! The new Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4 driving in Southern California.

Two days ago, a picture surfaced on exoticspotter.com of the brand new Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4 driving in camouflage on the street in Oxnard, California.  The Huracan has yet to be unveiled to the general public; it is anticipated that it will debut at the 2014 Geneva Auto Show.  Because of this, filming the Huracan would be cool for my YouTube channel (youtube.com/TheStradman) .  When the picture surfaced, I was in Beverly Hills, California chasing cars. 

 

 

Of course I didn't want to sprint up to Oxnard uninformed.  The chance of randomly crossing paths with the Huracan was too slight.  I did my research.  A quick Google search of "Oxnard Lamborghini" led me to the discovery of a Volkswagen Test Facility in Oxnard.  Lamborghini is a subsidiary of the parent company Volkswagen.  Now, I needed to find an address for the test facility.  This should have been an easy task but it turned to be difficult.  I eventually found an article in the Ventura, California newspaper that provides the address.  It was 7PM and I began the 45 minute drive to Oxnard.

 

 

Now I don't live in Oxnard so I would need to find a place to camp out in my car for the night.  I wanted to be in Oxnard early in the morning in case the Lamborghini left the test facility early.  I found a quiet Babies R'Us parking lot without street lights and went to bed.  I slept quite well even though my car is pretty small; a 2002 Audi TT.

 

I woke up at 6AM and headed to the Volkswagen Test Facility on the outskirts of town.  It is located in a quiet industrial park with plenty of parking.  I did a quick patrol of the building to learn the entrances and exits.  After witnessing a few Audis and Volkswagen test cars arriving and leaving, I determined which gate the Lamborghini would most likely exit.  And then I began to wait....

Fifteen minutes into my wait time, the gate began to open......I could see an array of LED headlights (Huracan has LEDs) and I could hear the roar of a loud V10!  I quickly grabbed my video camera and reached for the door handle of my TT.  The gate continued to open further....it was an Audi R8 V10 Plus.  The Audi R8 and Lamborghini Gallardo (Huracan predecessor) share many of the same components.  The R8 V10 Plus is a cool car that I would have liked to film but I didn't want to blow my cover.  I had my eyes set on the Huracan.

 

Two hours into waiting, a Volkswagen Van arrived at the facility.  As the gates were opening, a camouflaged, sleek car was driving in the back of the facility.  It was the Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4!  I had struck gold, the Huracan was at the facility!  Then the gate closed.  And I continued to wait.  But now I was sure I was in the right place.

Two more hours passed; I continued to wait.  Every 15 minutes or so, the gate would open and close and I would grab my camera in anticipation.  I was eating a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos when it happened.  The gates opened, the menacing V10 monster with the V shaped LED headlights appeared.  I threw the bag of Doritos onto the passenger seat and sprang out of my TT with video camera in hand.  I calmly filmed the car leaving the test facility then raced back to my car to chase it for a few miles.   

 

Here is my video: The 2015 Lamborghini Huracan LP610-4 on the road in California!