This was my least favorite car of the bunch. Such my least favorite that I unknowingly got only one pic of the car without any of the others…and it was taken by a co-worker with me next to the car.

Hey! Don’t skewer me for my opinion. I’ve never really liked 911s and hadn’t driven one until this experience. I wanted to like it. I tried to like it. But it’s got nothing for me. Nothing. Not even creature features. My iPhone wasn’t compatible and I couldn’t hook in my iPod, either. Maybe that was this particular vehicle, but still, the car lacked what I desire most.

I’m used to immediate go-fast carbureted cars whether manual or automatic. The ‘lag’ in ‘turbo lag’ still means LAG…as in waiting for the turbo to make the car go. I understand the mechanics behind it, but bottom line, if I press the gas pedal, I expect to go immediately, not take a number and wait my turn. Screw that. In fact one of the things that pissed me off the most was that I spent a lot of time in the range just before the turbo kicked in and when trying to modulate my speed, would end up having to brake because I didn’t need the ‘help’ of the turbo at that moment.

Now, my other reason for hating this car is likely a reason people like it. The driving experience on the whole.

To me, it was completely lacking in any sort of character. For all I was concerned, I was driving my toaster down the road. The car was more like an appliance than a car. No road feel–even after I discovered the button that supposedly adjusts the suspension. When I’m haulin’ ass down the road, I wanna feel everything. Every crack in the road, the hum of the tires, a good roar from the engine, too. Instead, I felt nothing and heard nothing. When I was stuck in this car, I found myself tailgating the F430s or Gallardo just to hear them because the 911 was so tame in comparison.

One of my co-workers was practically offended by my hatred of the 911. He’s been a 911 guy forever and absolutely loved the car. And y’know, it wasn’t a bad car. It really wasn’t. It’s just that when I go out to my garage, I’ve got a ‘68 Mustang I’d much rather be driving. Hell, even my Viper leaves the 911 in the dust as far as my personal preference is concerned. And when the 911 is juxtaposed with a couple of Ferraris and a Lamborghini, come on…who cares about the 911. It never got so much as a glance while in line with the others.

So, if you must skewer me for my opinion, go ahead, but your skewerings are falling on deaf ears. I know what I like and the 911 Turbo just ain’t it. If it’s what you like, that’s great! I’m happy for ya! Drive the hell out of it, for me, too!

Now that I have your attention, let me say that I actually got paid to drive these cars. Yeah! Can you believe it?! Once in a lifetime experience, I bet, too. That’s why when I had the opportunity, I cleared my schedule and went all out for this gig.

Given the hush hush nature of the gig, I can’t really talk about the experience. I took a fair amount of pictures, though, and will be posting them here. This is the kind of thing I still can’t believe I did this last summer or ever in my life and I wanna share it with people who’d be as interested as I was. I drove these cars for about 8 hours per day for almost two weeks.

In the order of the top picture, that’s a Ferrari F430 Coupe, Porsche 911 Turbo, Lamborghini Gallardo and a Ferrari F430 Spider. And yes, Spider is spelled with an ‘i’ for this car. We looked it up on the Owner’s Manual because we were curious.

Here’s a few more shots of the cars next to each other:

When I showed some of the pics I’d taken to my husband, he said they looked like magazine shots. I agreed, but not because I know how to take a picture. I don’t…and some of these were shot with my cell phone. The cars are just so darn photogenic. They don’t have a bad side!

As I post more, I’ll get more in depth about the cars themselves without giving away the details of what I was doing in the driver’s seat putting miles on these incredible machines.