Automotive Bucket List

list before. It's you know those things that you want to do before you die, which sounds awful, but you know, the things that you want to do before you die. And a lot of people have things like, you know, skydiving, or they want to go to France, or they want to um, you know, because it usually it involves a lot of travel. Usually it involves um some experiences and that type of thing. But I want to I want to focus today on automotive bucket list. And this could

be just about anything. And uh, I have have talked to several people about, you know, some things that they might want to do, you know, automotive or lated before they are too old to do them, you know, too old to drive, or you know before they kind of lose interest in this sort of thing, because I think that might happen with a lot of people as well. You know,

you just kind of age out of this thing. You know, you get a little bit more um responsible, you know maybe, or you get um, you know, the point where you realize that, you know, maybe you don't necessarily want to drive you know, three miles per hour in the salt flats anymore because you know, you're you're eight years old and your reaction time might not be the best that or the way that it was you know, thirty years prior any something like that. Um. But anyways, there's there's

a huge variety here of things that we can talk about. It. I've I've recently done something that I want to talk about in particular, and uh and I just can't say enough about it. And I'm not gonna I'm not trying to sell this, this package or this deal to anybody by any means, but it is something that that I did recently that that I want to talk about. It was a driving experience and uh and I'll get into that too, But before I talk about my own experience.

I want to talk about, you know, some of these experiences that you know, people that I know have have been able to do in the past, and this is kind of inspiration for me to do this sort of thing as well. And I was excited about it when I heard about it. And you know, when you see somebody else that does something like this and you know they you hear the stories that they tell you of

what it was like, UM, that's pretty interesting. It's it's always fun, and it kind of gets you thrilled, you know, to do the same thing, or it kind of gets you amped up a little bit too to maybe go out and you know, experience some of this stuff yourself.

And what I'm talking about in particular is is I guess these driving packages or these experiences that you can purchase for a day or an hour or you know, even just a couple of laps or whatever, you know, at various race courses around the United States or around the world. Really and um, once that that I'm talking about are um, you know, exotics or maybe it's you know, like the drift cars, or it could be you know, it could be classic cars. It could be just about anything.

There's experiences out there for for just about every type of of you know, race series that is out there, um or every type of vehicle that it's out there, uh, including manufacturers. Sometimes manufacturers will even host these that allow you to drive some of their top end vehicles, you know, all the way down through some of the lower end models, just to be familiar with, you know what the what

they have on their showroom floors at the time. My dad is the one that I want to talk about who has done this most recently, and this is a year ago Father's Day. We gave him as a gift a NASCAR experience and this he lives in Michigan, and this is happening at the Michigan International Speedway and you're you're allowed to get into an actual NASCAR car. You know,

it has every it's a race vehicle. It's d tuned quite a bit, I think, you know, it's it's kind of governed down so that you know, you're not going to maximum speed, you know, like as they would in the in the professional series. But um, it's it's for a user experience that you know, you can buy a package for you know, a half day, half hour, half you know what, whatever the increment of time it was.

I can't remember how many hours it was that he was there, but um got several laps in in a true NASCAR car and really enjoyed the heck out of it. Was a lot of fun. And um, there's a couple of particulars that we're interesting in this and I'll tell you about them later. But my brother did one as well. Um he did one where you know, you go to a parking lot and you get to drive in an exotic car and I don't know how many laps you

get to do in this thing. You know, it's just kind of an autocross course with cones and uh, you know. The dangerous part about this one to me anyways, is that you know, they're light poles and uh, some concrete barriers and things like that around that I would be a little bit concerned about if I was him, But he loved it. He was able to drive a Ferrari and was able to uh you know kind of I guess, not push it to the maximum or anything like that, but but really kind of feel what that car is

capable of. My my father in law he did one also that was a Ferrari, but he also did his it m I s they both live in Michigan, my my dad and my father in law. And that was a birthday gift I think from his wife. And he was able to drive a Ferrari four a d G T B and uh he drove something like a hundred and fifty miles per hour on the track and it was just like super quick accelerating car, you know, zero to sixty and like two point eight seconds or something

like that, really quick. It was just a thrill for him. He's a Corvette owner, so he has a a Corvette. You know that he drives not daily, but you know he drives it often enough. And I said, it's a night and day difference between the Corvette and Ferrari said. It was just an incredible feeling, you know, great sensation to be able to do something like that. And and honestly, you know, these packages, I know that they're kind of expensive.

They cost you know, a couple hundred bucks when you when you do them, but um, and I thought up until the point that I decided to do my own experience or you know, I received it as a gift. I was thrilled with it. I kind of thought, well, it seems like it might be kind of a waste of money, and I think a lot of people feel that way that, you know, why would I spend three fifty or four hundred or even five dollars or more

on something that only lasts a couple of hours. You don't get to keep the car by any means, obviously, you don't get to drive it for the full day. You don't even get to drive it and show off to your friends or anything, you know, driving around you know, the city that you live, unless you're renting a car

for the day, which is something totally different. Um. But these experiences allow you to kind of push that car to the maximum, and you've got you know, professional instructor there with you, and um is, it's a lot of fun.

And I'll be honest with you. I at first I thought, that's an awful lot of money because the experience that I did, um the Porsche driving experience here in Atlanta, and the price was somewhere around three hundred and sixty five dollars I think at the time, three fifties somewhere around there. And again it was a gift, and I thought, oh boy, it's it's really this is an expensive gift. I don't know if I'm gonna enjoy its worth, you know, And just the small amount of time that you get.

You only get an hour on the track, and um, you think that that's not enough time really to fully experience the vehicle. But I was completely wrong, and I'll tell you why in just a moment after we take a break for a word from our sponsor and we're back. And just before the break, we were talking about how I had gone to the Porsche Driving Experience here in Atlanta, and this is kind of a big deal around here.

And I would guess that you know, any town that something like this appears in, it kind of becomes a big deal. And it happens right down by the airport. And I was fortunate enough to get this as a gift, and I'm so thank full that I got it. I probably it's something that I would not have have done on my own. I don't think I would have spent my own money initially to do this. But now now I feel like, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go back again. I know I'm gonna go back again for this because

it was so thrilling. It was just so it was such a fantastic day that it's it's hard to even wrap your mind around it. If you haven't ever done something like this, it's all you can think about, all you can talk about, it's all. It's just it's a it's an incredible experience that it's an immersive experience, which is really really cool. And I think that a lot

of them are this way. I'm not so sure that you know, the one like my brother did, where you know, it's a couple of laps in a parking lot, in a in an exotic is the same way. It's the Sure, it's thrilling, it's fun, but it's not exactly what you get when you go to something like what I did here at the Porsche experience and what other people have done with uh, you know, the NASCAR experiences that happened,

you know at some of the bigger tracks. I don't know if you know, like some of the other tracks do it. I know Michigan International Speedway does it up in Michigan, But I don't know if you know, like Talladegaer Dayton or any of those do it. I think that there are some of these across the United States at different places that you can O two and they are more immersive. You go through a little bit of a schooling process, you know, where they teach you exactly

what to expect when you get out there, etcetera. UM. That's where this one that I'm going to tell you about differs a little bit. But you do get trained on them. You do get you know, the an idea of what what to do, some of the rules of the of the racing. Because you are out there with other people on the track at the same time, it's not that you know you're the only one out there. UM, and that makes it even more exciting for a lot

of people. You know you're getting passed, you're passing. It's just it gives another level to it, you know, the whole different experience again, this one that I did. If you and I'm not selling this by any means, but if you go to the Porsche Experience UM Atlanta or search the keyword and you'll find you know exactly what I'm talking about. Here. You can look at a map of the course that they have, which is it's huge. It's right by the airport here in Atlanta, and they

have several of these. They have one I believe it's in California. They have one in Alabama, and they have one in um, I'm sorry, Louisiana rather and here in Atlanta, of course, and they have for the track. I mean, it's it's a norm, it really is. It's a great big facility and there's an office space down there as well, so people work on the property, you know, daily Monday through Friday, nine five whatever. But the track is also there.

And what's really interesting about this you can you can look at the online and look at the map and um it's I think it's over one point six miles of track that they have, and there's several different modules or experiences that you can do within this track. There isn't a separate off road circuit. So if you're looking at one of the uh, one of the off road vehicles, you know, the the SUVs that that Porcha makes, you

can do that. But the stuff that I was doing it was, you know, the road course and there's some low friction handling circuits and things like that. I'll tell you about us in just a second, but this is one of those experiences where, um, again I don't think I would have paid for this on my own, but I was so happy to get it as a gift, and I went on St. Patrick's Day in two thousand eighteen. So it's been over a years since I've been there, and I still think about it a lot. I mean,

it's something that I want to go back and do again. Um, if you look at the vehicles, you can choose many, many different vehicles, you know, all of the Porta lineup, and and it varies in cost from I guess I think it gets really very expensive up at the top end. But if you scroll all the way to the bottom. And this is not not a knock on anybody who bought me this gift. I'll tell you that I was able to get into the sevent eighteen Boxer, and I think I was in the Boxer s actually for about

three and sixty five dollars, That's what I said. It's an hour and a half. It's a three horsepower car. Zero to sixty is and four point five seconds to top speed is around a hundred and seventy miles per hour. You're not going that fast on this course, but you you're not even gonna notice that, you don't. I'll tell you the whole time that I was doing this, I don't think I ever looked at the spedometer. It just

wasn't a concern. And I don't know you think that that's Uh, it's kind of counterintuitive because you're in a Porsche, you're on a racetrack. You think you want to know how fast you're going. It's more of a sensation thing. It's more of how you feel when you're going that fast and you're learning. You've got an instructor next to you. That's it's kind of teaching you the way, the whole thing right from the very beginning. As soon as you get there. You walk out on the tarmac and you

get in your car. You don't have to go to a course. You don't have to go to like, you know, an hour long course. Of this hour and a half that we're talking about, you know that you're purchasing is a true hour and a half in the car. You're in the seat for an hour and a half. And it's amazing. It's more time than you could you could even imagine. I mean, it feels like you're in there half the day. Really, it does feel like a long

long time. And uh, and that's really good because you get to do just about everything Uh, this course that that I was on, or the you know, the driving experience here in Atlanta. Again, it's right, it's on the property of the airport. Uh so you've got you know, huge jets flying overhead. It's really it's it's a really interesting and beautiful setup that they have. It's a it's a really pretty course, if you want to put it

that way. There is a there's a one mile handling circuit, which is you know, like a big race track that goes all the way around and that's kind of like your well, it's like I guess where you kind of max out the car. Really, I mean, you're able to to test the corner and you're able to test the acceleration, the breaking, all of that and uh and they will kind of help you along as you go. And you know, I tell you points to look at. This is your

your target point. You're gonna want to look at this as you accelerate and then break really hard right here. You know, that kind of instruction is being given to you for several laps until you get the hang of it, and then they kind of let you go on your own with the instructor still next to you. Of course. Uh, They also have a wet or a low friction circle, which is kind of an inward sloping polished concrete area

that has water spraying onto it. And uh, that's where you can kind of test out your drifting capabilities, you know, your your abilities, I should say. Um. They also have a low friction handling circuit, which is imagine that same material that that polished concrete, you know that's slick and

you know it's got water spraying on it. Imagine a low friction handling circuit which has you know, several off camera turns and turns that are that are sloped the right way and the opposite way so that you know, the back end slides out and you can test you know, understeer oversteer in this area. And it's that's really challenging. That's a very difficult part of it, and it's a very small part of the course. But um again it's it's it's very challenging. You can do that over and

over again. There's also I mentioned the you know, the off road circuit. That's one thing I didn't get to the off road circuit obviously in the car that I was in the box r S. There is also a dynamics area, which is where you test the launch control and you can do kind of a solemn course, you know, with with cones set up and h they tell you how to do that. They you know what, there's there's a lot of fun things about each one of these and I'll tell you about that as we get to

it here. And then there's also something this is maybe one of my favorite parts of this whole thing, and it's hard to judge, you know, which one is my favorite part. But they have something called a kickplate, and I'll tell you about the kickplate in just a moment. But when you first get in the vehicle, so when you start this whole thing, you get right in the car and you head out on the course and they tell you, you know, watch for traffic. You know, when

you're when you're passing somebody. Um you always you always wait for my instruction to pass, you know, because they have communication between the vehicles. There are other cars on the course, and there are other different types of vehicles on the course, so you know, there'll be nine elevens out on the course, they'll be boxers out on the course. At the same time, there's gonna be panameras out on

the course. UM. This place, this facility allows you to if you want to, you can pick up your brand new Porsche there and you can get kind of a little bit of instruct and with your new vehicle and pick up your vehicle from this facility if you want to, if you if you've ordered it here in town or you know somewhere nearby, that you want to do this UM so that you know, you get a little bit of experience behind the wheel in this performance vehicle before

you take it home, which I think is really cool. So you can have new delivery of your vehicle there, or you can just test out all these vehicles. So let's say that you go to the dealership and you want to know what it's like to drive a GT three. UM, you can do that. It's gonna cost quite a bit of money to be able to do that, but you can go and drive you know, their ultimate top end vehicle. UM. Again, it's gonna cost quite a bit more than you know

the Boxer experience. But you know there's every level in between there as well, So you know, choose which one you find most interesting to you're the one that you want to do the most. The Boxer was plenty. I'll tell you to get the full experience that you don't need to worry about that. It's it's a lot of fun. And to be honest, you know, the first thing that you do is you go out on the one mile handling circuit and you don't take it slow, but you

go slower than you will later in the day. Obviously on your first lap, first couple of laps, maybe as the instructor gives you instruction, you know where you should be and how to fall all the right the appropriate lines around the track. And I'll tell you when I first started this, it was it was a dry morning, but it was cloudy, overcast, and eventually later in the day it began to rain, and I thought that would just kind of ruin the experience, but it did not.

It actually made it more interesting to have like half of the day in the dry weather, half the day and the wet weather. And uh later you know, you've got so much experience on this course that uh, some of the times on the wet course we're just as fast, if not faster, than on the dry track. At the beginning of the day, because you become more familiar with the vehicle and you're able to drive it even even uh uh push it more to its maximum, I guess,

um in a lot of ways. And uh So you start out on the handling circuit and you just go pretty much. I mean, you feel like you're going flat out. It's it's unbelievable how quick you can go on this and the feeling of being able to do that in a controlled environment, you know, with with an instructor near you, and you know you've got the insurance in the car and everything, and you feel good about it and you

feel comfortable with it. Um they allow you to kind of push a little for other and if you're hitting your marks, they allow you to go a little bit faster, they allow you to push it a little bit harder, and they kind of back off on the instruction and allow you to do what you want to do with the car. And and that's all very very helpful. It's just it's a it's a blast. It's a lot of fun. So you do several laps of that and then they

take you to all these different modules. You know that maybe they'll take you over to the dynamics area next and allow you to do a launch control start, which I completely flubbed the first time I tried it. You know, it is it's a little bit more difficult to do than you might think. And it sounds really easy. You know. You just mash down the brake and then you turn on certain traction control, turn off trash control. I don't remember what it was I he was operating all that.

I was just focused on getting the thing to go fast and straight. And um, I know it sounds funny, but like all the electronic gadgetry, you can kind of just ignore all of that, you know, you and just experience the drive and the feel of this whole thing. And that's that's really so much fun to do. So I flubbed the launch control in the first time, you know, and and uh, spectacular failure on that one. But but the second tempt it was really good, and and the

third and fourth. And they allow you to do this as many times as you want, because again, you have

an hour and a half ahead of you. And we started to kind of make our way around different things, and we went to you know, the low friction circle and kind of practice that a little bit, and the low friction handling circuit, and they tell you what to expect and each one, and you know when you're supposed to accelerate what you're supposed to do, if you're supposed to stab at the break, or if you're supposed to

slowly push the break, and that type of thing. You know, that type of instruction is given to you all along the way, so you feel very very comfortable with it. And maybe the second or third time through each one of these modules, you know you're on your own. You just do it and UH and it becomes more and more intuitive as you do it and go back to

the dynamics area. You can do this long course. And the fun thing about that is that they tell you the first time, or at least my instructor did, tells me to do it how I think I should do it, you know, do the slow how I felt that I should drive through their uh to do it fastest. And I did, and it was terrible. Did it slow? You know, it did wasn't very quick at all. Um. We go back to the beginning and he gives me right away, gives me like two or three tips to go faster,

and it immediately works. I mean, it's it's incredible how quickly someone can teach you from the passenger seat how to do something better, and and it works, and you do it, you know, two or three times, and by the end of that two or three times, you feel like a real pro. I mean, it's it's funny, but you gain knowledge and experience that quickly in that vehicle and you have that much more confidence to be able

to do it. And you know, one thing that I want to mention here is that, you know, I said early on that the kickplate was one of my favorite things. I think that, you know, the the one mile handling circuit, of course, is going to be fun because you know, you're really pushing the car and it's it's fast, and it's fun, it's exciting and everything. The kickplate is something different. The kickplate is all about control. And the kickplate is a big flat piece of pavement and I believe it

says you know, Porsche. It's written and read on the on the ground next to you and everything it looks. It looks really dramatic when you see it from a distance, you know, it's really interesting. The water spring on it from all different angles. It's actually it's really it's beautiful.

You know, the green grass all around it, it's really pretty and as you what you do is you drive across are you start very close to the kickplate and you drive into it at it doesn't sound like very very fast, but maybe twenty to thirty per hour at the most. That's the fastest you'll go. And as your car travels over a certain section of the concrete, which is about maybe four or five feet uh you know, in length and uh um wide it's you know, two

cars wide maybe at the most. And as you drive across it, as soon as you're when your rear wheels are on top of the kickplate, it throws you either left or right. It shifts one way or the other, and you don't know which way it's gonna go, and it's not controlled by the person the passenger seat. Is just completely random. You can't watch the car in front of you and determine which way it's gonna go. There's no pattern to it. It's all it's all randomly selected.

So you're going onto this polished concrete surface at twenty or thirty miles an hour in a rear wheel drive car, you know, mid engine in this case, and there's a rear engine too, the uh the back end of the car.

As you travel across, will suddenly either be thrown left or right, and you don't know which way it's gonna be, and they just a lot of this is the and the fun part of this is that, you know, they allow you to drive onto this thing first and they tell you what's going to happen, but they don't tell you how to handle it, you know, they they allow

you to figure it out the first time. So the first time you do it, the car, let's say the car, the back end slides out to the left, and immediately you try to correct and you do the wrong thing. The car spins out, you know, does a full three sixty maybe even more if you're going fast enough, and you kind of slowly, slowly get control of the car

again and then and then pull it out. It's tough to even get traction on this polished concrete that's all wet now, of course, and you you kind of circle your way back around, you know, go to the to the right and drive back around in line and get

in line to do it again. And so there's spectators watching this, and everybody's up, you know, on a on an upper level deck watching and it all looks fun and it's it's kind of exciting to see the car spinning and you know that's it's it's interesting to watch and all different types of Porsches. Right, So the next time you go around to do it, they give you a little bit of a tip and here's the trick to the whole kick plate things. So if you're ever

doing this, you watch dead ahead of you. There's a there's a blue wall. I believe this as Porsche is

somewhere off in the distance. And if you look at that when you're doing when you're doing this kickplate demonstration or this this uh, this this module um, if you look at that and you just keep your eyes focused on that that wall that's dead ahead, no matter what happens to the back end of the car, if you steer towards that wall, if you try to correct to get you as if you're going to go directly at that wall, every time you will straighten it out immediately.

You won't. You won't spin out. The goal is to not spend out on this thing. So you're going thirty miles across it, back end goes left or right. You try to control it, or you do control it on the second or third time, even through and if you don't spend out, that's the that's the best part, right, that's the you've done this successfully. If you do spend out,

you you've been unsuccessful. So after the whole day of of doing this, you know, I got you got pretty decent edit after two or three times, and I wanted to do it many many times, so I did. I did it several times in a row because you get the option to go back and kind of play around on some of these modules however you want. You've got so much time. My family is up watching me on the upper deck and I spun out the first time, and they thought that was really cool. The second time

they said, why didn't you spin out? You know what is they thought that was the object of that part of the that part of the course because everybody was doing it. Everybody's spinning out, and it looked all dramatic and fun. But that was not the goal of that is. The goal was to remain in control and keep the car,

you know, headed straight. And the idea, I guess is that you know, if you do have that one point ahead, you know that that optical point that you're you're staring, you're staring at that one point and you're able to correct and maintain control. You're not going to have that uh um you know that under or oversteer condition that you would have if you just didn't have control the vehicle. It's just it's a fascinating day at the track. It's

so much fun. And and I had so much time left over, you know, once we had done all these modules that I was able to pick and choose and I was able to go back on the road handling circuit, you know, and and do that as many times as I wanted, as fast as I wanted. Of course, at that time it's it's raining, and I was a little bit nervous about it, but um, it was just it

was so much fun. What a day. I mean, you can't believe the adrenaline rush you have, are the high that you feel the rest of the day from doing something like that. And I would encourage you. And this is just you know, my my one experience with this whole thing, but I would encourage you if if you can, or if you have somebody in your life that you know would would like something like this, would it would enjoy a similar situation. Maybe it's maybe it is the

NASCAR thing. Maybe it is just driving a an exotic at the at the mall on an autocross course, or you know whatever. I would encourage you to do stuff like this. I mean, it's so much fun and it's something that I will probably remember the rest of my life. I don't think I can ever forget my day there. And if I go to do it again, it's going to be a different experience. It's gonna be different vehicle, it's going to be a different um, you know, weather

conditions is going to be a different altogether. It's still going to stand out. As you know, the first one was was still its own separate thing that was really fascinating and fun and exciting, and the second one will be something completely different and equally exciting. It's just it's it's worthwhile to do it. I know it's a little expensive. You know, it's still a couple hundred dollars to do

something like this, and it sounds outrageous. But if there is again, if there's somebody in your life that that loves this type of thing, any of these experiences that you can find across the US, across the world, wherever it happens to be, these type of days are worth it in somebody's life if they are, um, you know, an auto enthusiast, you know, or even maybe somebody who just wants to give it a shot and you know,

check that off their their bucket list. Maybe in fact, let's let's let's take a break for a wordsmo our sponsor. We'll come back and talk about a few more of these automotive bucket list items that that might interest some people that are you know, car guys, car girls. And we're back and you're listening to the Fast Track. I'm your host, Scott Benjamin, And just before we left, we were talking about the uh, I guess the Porsche driving experience and my experience on the track, and I hope

none of that really came across as bragging. I mean, it was just it's just so much fun that you can't help but talk about it once you do it. And uh and I hope that you know a lot of you out there get the chance to do something like that, if if not as you know, a gift you know, from somebody else, if you know it's maybe it's a gift idea you can kind of float out there for you know, Christmas or your birthday or whatever it happens to be Father's day. Some them like that.

If you can do it, i'd say, I'd say, definitely get yourself out to do it, you know, whether it happens to be something that's uh, you know, localized to where you are. You know, we're here in Atlanta, so it's relatively easy for me to get to that that portray experience. But there's you know, skip barber schools all over the place. You can go to many NASCAR tracks

where they have Nascar experiences like my dad did. And I want to mention one thing about that in just a moment, because there was there's something really different and interesting about that one that I had never heard of before until until then. I was just amazed by what they could do. I'll get back to that, I promise. But you can go to rally schools, you can go to drift schools, you can go to all kinds of different schools and and check this stuff out. It doesn't

necessarily mean a huge time commitment either. Uh. Some of this can be just a few hours. It can be you know, a half day, it could be a weekend experience. You know, whatever it happens to be. But we're not talking about something where you have to enroll and you know, spend a month doing Uh. This is just you know, getting out there and getting some seat time and getting you know that that adrenaline flowing through your body a little bit, and and feeling good about your hobby, about

your interest, about your excitement. You know. It's it's something I felt like. Maybe this is uh wandering a little bit off track here, but I'm going to anyways, just for a minute. You know, listeners of of car stuff will remember that I had a Yeah, I had a project car and uh and the project car, of course, I went the way as most project cars do that you know, I never really found enough time or money to put into it, and uh, it just never really

went anywhere. And I ended up donating it to a children's charity in the end, and I felt really good about doing that. It helped out a lot of people, so um, it worked out well. You know. It was always a car that I always kind of dreamed of taken out of the road and driving. And you know, I thought it was gonna be more of an experience, I guess, and I wasn't getting, you know, the experience that I thought I was going to get out of this thing is just parked in the garage kind of

taken up space for a long long time. And um, I never got, you know, the feeling that I that I really wanted to get out of having a toy like that. And a lot of people have toy cars, or they have a fascination or they have, you know, a car that they even drive daily that they just love. Like my wife drives a Jeep Wrangler that she absolutely loves. She's she's always wanted to have a Wrangler again, she had one in the past, and she she finally bought

one recently and and just loves the thing. I just enjoys driving it every day. And I think that's fantastic if you can do that, if you can get you know, a Corvette, or you can get whatever type of car it is, maybe it's a luxury car that you really enjoy a lot, and you enjoy driving that vehicle and you can get out and do that and have fun

and it that's really what's important. And and I wasn't getting that type of feeling from, you know, my project vehicle, and a lot of people, I think are stuck in that same position. It's almost like it's not it's not hurting you to have it, but it's just not providing

the excitement, the thrill that you wanted it too. And so I was kind of in um, kind of in a bad spot, I guess, you know, I just wasn't feeling too good about you know, I'm talking about all this really cool stuff every day at work, and I'm reading about all this stuff, and I'm having a lot of fun, you know, talking with other car people about things, but I wasn't getting the experience. I wasn't getting out and doing what I wanted to do in a car.

And and this Porsche driving experience, it's kind of like rekindled that fire. You know, it made me more excited

about it. Maybe um feel alive again, if that's you know, it's kind of a funny way to say it, but it really did make you feel alive and fresh and excited about you know, the car thing is a hobby, and I've just been excited about everything since then, and you know, wanting to do it again and and telling people about it, and you know, even again kind of chipping in on gifts for my father, my brother, you know, that type of thing, so they could do these types

of things as well. Actually I didn't chip in on my brother, it's just my dad's. But my dad's experience. Getting back to that, I guess one thing that was was able to happen at this NASCAR experience. He did this at M I S. And that did require a little bit of, you know, a schooling, I guess ahead

of time. I don't know if it was like an hour how long it was, but he did have to go to a class to kind of learn the rules of the of the track and how to do it and um, you know, the safety procedures and all that. And you know, there's a lot of safety procedures when you're out there. They're very careful about that. But in this, in this a sense, he was able to go out on his own. He there's nobody with him in the vehicle at the time, and later he did do a

ride along and I'll tell you about that too. But when he was out there on his own and driving, he had communication with a spot or they had a spotter that was up in the stands, just like they would for a NASCAR race, and they're telling him if he's hitting his marks, if he's going too fast, too slow, you know what's going on. But they do have the cars governed to a certain speed. And I don't know what that speed is. I'm going to make something up. Now.

Let's say it's a hundred and thirty. Let's say they got him governed to a hundred and thirty to begin with, and they make sure that you're able to handle it at that speed. Well, as he was driving and he was doing maybe his you know, five, ten or fifteen laps, however many it was, I don't remember. As he was doing his laps, the spotter was realizing that he's doing a pretty good job out there, as were you know,

several other drivers. They were doing the same thing, and uh, he was hitting his marks every time and he went around. He was doing really well, and they said, this is this is amazing to me that they can do this. He told him that he's going to dial up the governor to allow him to go a little bit faster and to be ready for it when it when it happens. And I didn't know that they could do this remotely. He didn't have to come into the pits, didn't have

to do anything remotely. They were able to kind of up the performance level of the v equal that he was in at that moment on the track and allow him to go faster. And he said it was a noticeable difference. He could feel it. I don't know how many more miles per hour it will. It allowed him to go, you know, if it was twenty or thirty more miles per hour faster, but he said it was a notable difference in the speed. And I was just blown away by that that they could even do that remotely, uh,

and kind of allow him to go faster. And they were doing that for certain people on the track at the same time. It's just such a cool thing and and they're making so many advances with this stuff. It's just fun to get out there and do it. It's it's so much fun. And I know I'm I sound like I'm gushing about all this stuff, and I really am, because there are so many different experiences that you can do and so many interesting things that you can do.

And and if you're not one to drive, let's say that you're not one that he wants to go out and take the risk. Initially, maybe you're you're a little bit tapid about it. You're you're nervous about it. A lot of these have an experience that you can pay for. It's often a lot less money that you can ride along with an instructor. And you may think that's kind of a kind of a wimpy way to start, right,

but that's not necessarily the case for everybody. Maybe they just want to get the get out there and get the field for it before they do it themselves. And that's completely worthwhile too, because you have a professional that knows what they're doing. They can instantly go out there and and turn fast laps and you can have a fantastic time doing that as well. Um My dad opted to pay a little bit extra on that same day for a ride along with somebody because the speed was

going to be so much greater. And he said, it really was a dramatic difference in the way that the professional driver was driving versus the way he was driving. And I don't I don't know if it came down to, you know, the way the car was governed or not, but he said, you know, you're getting close enough to the wall with a professional driver that you could reach out and almost touch the wall, or you could reach

out and touch the wall. If you wanted to do that at you know, a hundred and eighty miles an hour or whatever it was, you wouldn't want to do that, but he said that it was. It was so worth whatever the extra amount was. I think it was just kind of an add on thing at that point, but he said it was actually worthwhile to do it, even

though he had driven himself. He said, it was just that much more thrilling to be going that much faster and with somebody who had ultimate control of this thing, and you know, you could feel comfortable in it and really experienced the track to its maximum I guess at that point, or the car to its maximum. But you know, I again, I know I sound like I'm gushing about this, and I really am. It's just it's a lot of fun.

I know it's not for everybody. But if you if you do have kind of an automotive checklist that you want to do certain things before you pass away or too old to do them, or you know, whatever your your situation, maybe I say it's worthwhile. And whether you know whether that's even getting like I like, in my case, I got that project car. But let's say that you want to buy a car that's, you know, fully operational, and you want you just you just want that experience

of owning something. I talked to our producer Kirk before the show here and I said, do you have any kind of an automotive wish list? And he said that he has always wanted a nineteen to nineteen fifty seven Chevy, preferably a Nomad of some kind. You know, it's it's

a beautiful car. And I agree with him, But it would be fun to own something like that at some point, before you know, you're done owning cars, maybe if you want, I guess that's a polite way to put it, you know, before you're too old to drive on really, Kurt Um and I have cars like that too. I would love to, uh, you know, at some point in my life, I'd love to own a Lotus vehicle, whether that happens to be, you know, a newer model or something that's older. I

would love to have a Lotus of leven at some point. Um. I think just about everybody has a vehicle like that or has you know, something that they want to do. Maybe it's a road trip on Root sixty six, or it's the Pacific Ghost Highway or you want to go to Europe and drive around, you wanted to, um, just experienced driving in a car that is a left hand drive versus a right hand drive. UM, just you know,

whatever it happens to be. I think everybody has at least something like this that they want to do while they're driving, while they're still a driving agent. And I think it rekindles that fire. It brings that spark back to your automotive interest and your your your enjoyment of life and it and it really does help. And I'm definitely gonna find myself back at the at the Porsche driving experience, I know, sometime in the near future, probably

on my own dime. I don't know if I'm gonna get it as a gift anymore, but but it was so worthwhile that I will be back at some point to do that again. It was just it was a blast, and I recommend it to anybody that can do it.

I really do. And you know, I know that's been a lot of information to take in today, but check around and I'd love to hear from listeners that you know, get out and do something like this or have a car that was kind of on a bucket list of vehicles for them, or have taken a road trip that they've always wanted to do. Maybe it's drive to the Grand Canyon, or you know, whatever it happens to be, I would love to hear about it. And there's a couple of different ways that you can connect with us.

And we were on social media of course, if you want to find us on Twitter, we are the fast Track Pod, and on Facebook and on Instagram we are the fast Track Show. And we also have a new website and that's called the fast Track Show dot Com. So if you go to the fast Track Show dot com, you can find all of our podcasts there and that's where we're going to archive all of this information. You know, as we grow more and more podcasts in our archive.

We're still early days here, but we're going to get to the point where there's a lot of them there at some point. And of course, you know, if you want to leave a review on Apple podcast or on iHeart Radio app, we would love it if you would be able to do that, or just wherever you're listening to your podcast. We'd like to hear from you, you know, good or bad. We can always take some constructive criticism. We can also, UH always appreciate some some compliments. That's

always nice as well. If you happen to have one, I appreciate it, If you leave it there, and if you do, like we you're hearing, tell your friends because we're trying to grow this audience. We're trying to get more listeners every day, and uh, I really do appreciate that you're here, so thank you very much