Today, Dustin and a friend of his from work set out on a wild ride... How'd they get to this moment? Well, It started off as a quick hallway conversation at work earlier this year.. "Dustin's friend Cliff asked, Hey you wanna rent sports cars some time? To which Dustin quickly replied.. "@#$% Yeah!!" So not so long afterwards, Dustin, Cliff and his Cliff's brother found themselves standing in front of a fleet of rare sports cars at a local Dealership in Salt Lake that offers Exotic Sports Car Day trips.
The type of cars you only get a glimpse of as they blaze past you on the highway or a curvy back road.
The cars they had lined up for us were: a Dodge Viper SRT-10 Convertible, a Lotus Exige, a Porsche 911 Turbo, an Aston Martin Vantage (Yes James Bond's car of choice), & my personal favorite going in to the trip.. a Ferrari 360 Modena!
I have to tell you some of the best things about these cars.. Lets start with the first car I drove.. The Dodge Viper.. This is a 500HP V10 American made Muscle Car.. Theres so much power behind this car you really had to watch yourselves accelerating (that and there was no traction control system on this car). I think I actually heard this car growl at the other cars. My favorite thing to do in that car was to drive up along the side of a minivan and look over at a "beaten looking Dad driving along just under the speed limit.. and give him a quick wave or a nod.. and then goose it.. Gone before he could even smile or wave back.. So much fun to hear the tires squak in 3rd or 4th gear.
The second car was the Lotus Exige. This is a very curvy sporty looking car.. One that most people have never seen before. Almost looks like a match box car that was zapped with a ray gun to make it life sized. It only had a 4 cylinder engine somewhere around 200HP, but what was fun about this car was the fact that its a super light, seriously agile high reving go-kart on steroids. The interior was not much more than two seats, a steering wheel, some gages and peddles and a stick shift! It pretty much lived in the 5-7000 RPM zone... anywhere out of that and it wasn't happy.. Thats how I was told to drive it and by golly, thats how I drove it! I loved it!
The third car I drove was the 415 HP Porsche 911 Turbo. --Side Note -- Some of you might not know, but Jen and I were starting to wonder if we'd be having kids any time soon.. so we figured if we're not going to have a kid, why not get a sports car!! So last summer we almost bought ourselves a Porsche Boxter!.. Well a few days later Jen told me she was pregnant! Wow, close call. So the next time we want a second baby all we have to do is start looking for new cars again and POW!
Ok back to the Porsche 911... Have you ever wanted to know what it feels like to ride the Space Shuttle? You know how it goes.. 3... 2.... 1...... BLASTOFF! Well thats what it was like in the 911.. As soon as that Turbo would kick in... the whole back end of the car would sink down and you just braced yourself as the car rocketted forward. AWESOME.
Ok so the fourth car at first looked like something a retired golf pro would drive. Sporty looking, and with enough leather inside to have come from at least 3 cows. The Aston Martin Vantage is nothing to pass up if given the chance to drive a luxury power house.. This car was by far the smoothest, most refined sports car of the bunch.. Every creature comfort was satisfied 10+ in this car.. I can see why its a James Bond car.. You seriously feel like you could jump over cars or bust through walls in this sucker.. Its quiet until you punch it, then its like combining a Viper and a Ferrari into one! This was a fun car to drive.
Last but not least was the car I had been waiting for.. The Ferrari 360 Modena.. This is a beautiful car.. One of those type of cars you just want to run your hand down the side and imagine yourself driving along the coast or through the Rocky Mountains in.. The Modena is a V8 400 HP dream car.. The sound it made when you punched the gas is unique and amazing to hear. It turns heads lets just put it that way.. It had paddle shifters just like the professional race cars do which was really fun to drive.. Since this was the last car I drove for the day it was the car I drove back into Salt Lake City.. After driving through Park City, Heber and a few other beautiful curvy back roads of Utah I found myself squaking the tires around corners at street lights "just because".. This almost was a bad thing though.. Around one of the corners I gunned a little too much and totally fish tailed or as I like to say "drifted" around the corner making a loud squeeling noise.. It was AAAAWWEESOOOMMEEE!!! ........... Ok I almost crapped my pants.. Nobody wants to wreck a $170,000.00 car in front of a ton of people.. hah.. It looked cool.. thats what counts.. I didn't punch it as much on the remaining corners before returning for the day... hah!
