I went to the LA AutoShow. Honestly, new cars don’t really thrill me all that much, so it’s a pretty quick show for me. I got to relive the exhilaration of the F430s I got to drive over the summer and now that it has been shown, I can mention that I got to drive the Maserati Gran Turismo, too. So, when I saw it at the show, I convinced the gal to let me into the booth so I could show my husband the car I’d thought was so nifty. I think my husband would still rather have an Astin. I can’t say which I’d rather have because I haven’t driven the Astin yet…but oh, how I want to.

Of course, I also stopped by the Lotus booth… I love the Elise. Someday, I will definitely own one. Absolutely. It’s not the fastest car on the planet, but it’s unique, sporty and little: Just like me.

I’m gonna get me one of them thar cute little cars… I love ‘em!

The other highlight of the show for me was the ‘08 Viper. I wanted to see what the new metallic green looked like in person and oh hell yeah, that’s my color for the car.

However, the single most important thing I did at the show was get in the car and ram the seat forward to see if I could easily get the clutch all the way in without sitting on a pillow, without platform shoes, etc.

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See how much distance there is behind the seat? I know it screws up the aesthetics, but darn it all, I’m a little girl, so I’m forced to go to drastic measures to drive a big man’s car. I really don’t care how silly it looks as long as the car go, go, goes!

I’m sure I’ll be getting a green Viper at some point, too. I’ll likely swap my ‘03 for it as soon as I can. It’s about time Dodge put an interesting color on the Viper.

I forgot one photo. Due to the nature of the project, I don’t have any shots of me actually driving any of the cars, but I do have this one of the other cars, so you can assume which one I was in…

I don’t foresee being so lucky as to get to do this a second time, but my fingers are crossed and I’m really hoping for another run. It was like a dream come true, except I’d never dreamt of driving so many of that caliber cars within such a short period of time. I suppose that’ll teach me for dreaming small, huh?!

Here’s how this gig worked… I got up at 1:45AM every morning. And, as I drove the hour and change to work, there were days I wondered why the hell I tortured myself like that. Then, I got in to work and saw the cars ready to go and it never ceased to amaze me. I’ve had jobs that I loved before, but never quite like this. It was like a surreal dream or part of a movie or something. It wasn’t supposed to happen in real, waking life!

I was pre-assigned which car I’d be driving on whichever day, so I’d get it and my paperwork ready to roll out the door within about ten minutes of my arrival. We drove about 8 hours on the same course every day… Some city streets… Some freeway… Some canyon roads… A little bit of traffic… Filled out the necessary paperwork with my findings and such and then went home.

Because I was so into my experience, I drove different cars to and from the job in order to compare. My Viper and ‘66 Vette got a workout as did my ‘68 Mustang fastback. But even my Prowler helped me sort out what I liked, didn’t like, expected or didn’t expect. A lot was personal preference and expectations, but not entirely. I was chosen for the gig based on my enthusiasm for cars, probably a few other things on my resume, too, but it was what I’d brought to the table that made my opinion valid and that was pretty freakin’ nifty to me. I got to help shape the future of high end automobiles. If only that one week and a half, I got to do my part and I will likely still be amazed I even had the opportunity to do so years and years from now.

By not much of a margin, this was my favorite car of the project.

For me, the only thing wrong with the car was the driver’s seat. This car was equipped with essentially the race package–which was awesome–but the seat was too low. I had trouble seeing out of the car!

Notice my eyes are only barely above the steering wheel?

I really needed a pillow! For part of the time, I sat on my 10 CD case because all I needed was about an inch more height. The seat itself was plenty comfortable, though. This would’ve been a great application for one of those turkey baster, blood pressure bellows thingies. I can’t remember what they’re called, but my ‘94 Viper had one to raise the bottom of the seat. Just inflate the bladder and lock it off.

Aside from the little seat-too-low problem, I loved everything about this car. I really did. I mostly compared it to my Viper and aside from having less torque, the two cars weren’t much different in the go department. The weight distribution was obviously much different. The Ferrari was a lot more forgiving in fast corners because of it.

However, the Ferrari’s steering was an orgasmic joy compared to the Viper. There’s a few spots by my house I either change lanes to avoid the cracks or death grip the wheel so I don’t end up out of control. And that’s just normal driving. The Ferrari had all the feel and response of the Viper wheel without the twitching and grabbing. I was also amazed that the oval, not round, steering wheel didn’t really bother me much. I shuffle steer, so I figured I’d be annoyed that the wheel was traveling unevenly through my hands, but that wasn’t the case…or at least it never felt like a big issue.

My preferences are in how the car runs and drives. I went over paddle shifting earlier. I’ve been absolutely converted to it. I can’t wait until it trickles down into cars I can afford!

Okay, now here’s where I share why I liked this car the most…even over the Spider. And I know it’s kind of a silly reason, but darnit all, even I was amazed at how much of a difference this one little, tiny detail made… When you look in the rearview mirror, this is what you see:

Sorry the picture kind of sucks, but that’s the engine back there. You can see it in the rearview mirror whenever you want to look at it!!!! You hear it roaring along and can look up and there it is! That was pure visual sex for me! I dunno. I didn’t expect that little perk to be so important. The Spider had different lines, so the engine was hidden from inside the car although covered by glass so it could be seen from outside of the car.

Here’s a shot I took while parked:

I just really find this car incredibly orgasmic.

Yes, I spelled it right… Spider with an ‘i’. It doesn’t say it anywhere on the car except in the Owner’s Manual. Several of my co-workers and I were curious enough to hunt down the correct spelling!

I loved this car. Oh. My. Good. Ness. I loved this car. I get chills just thinking about how much I truly loved this car.

Ignore the dirt in the pic above. We were at least 1200 miles into the journey without hosing down the cars. That was actually one of the things I liked about the experience–the lack of needing to diaper down the car every ten minutes to keep it shiny. I wanted to see how it’d hold up with some good ‘ol daily driver dirt on it. The darn thing was still gorgeous even with the road grime.

This particular one had the cushy red leather seats which were soooooooooooo well done I almost felt bad sitting on them.

I had the top down most of the time. I love convertibles, what can I say? But due to the nature of the project, I did have to put the top up and note the differences. Mostly, I was amazed by the very little wind noise and the fact that it had just the right amount of wind in the cabin. I realize that was partly because of the wind break between the roll bars, but even so, if the car were mine, that wind break would be an instant uninstall. Two allen or torx screws held it in and I’d've uninstalled it within a mile of wherever I picked the car up from. I simply couldn’t see through both the plastic wind break and the vinyl rear window. The Lamborghini’s shape allowed for a glass rear window, but the F430 was styled differently such that a window needed to fold in order to hide the top away.

Paddle shifting this car was an absolute dream. And on top of that, I could choose automatic mode if I didn’t want to shift.

I sure do hope that the technology used in this car will get passed down the line to everyday cars. That’ll be the only way I can afford it! But I suppose that money’s the price you pay for the mystique of owning a Ferrari, not just the pure, orgasmic, driving pleasure of it.

I loved this car. I really did…

I took a lot of pictures (a lot more than I’m posting here), but not as many as my favorite of this whole project…which I’ll get to in a later post, of course.

There just aren’t any bad angles of this car. I mean, the styling isn’t my favorite, but the car sure is photogenic. I don’t even like yellow, but on this car, it fits. I think of this car as all show with respectable go. Everybody sees it. Most people give a wave or a thumbs-up or whip out a cell phone camera to snap a picture–one guy on a sportbike even did a wheelie at freeway speed!!!!! This car incites passion. It really does…

However, it still wasn’t my favorite of the experience. I did, however, enjoy it much more than the 911. I mean, the 911 isn’t even on the map with the Gallardo.

This car had one of my favorite driving experiences ever…except for the showy factor. I like showing up at a party wearing the loudest dress, but in this car, I felt like it was difficult to top it when I got out. This car is a little more show-focused rather than driving-focused. Which is fine for what it is.

Don’t get me wrong, it was fast. I had great fun going back and forth between paddle shifting and automatic mode depending on the road conditions (what I wouldn’t give for my Viper to have the same option when I’m in traffic or just too damn tired after a long day). I particularly enjoyed flying through corners at warp speed. In automatic mode, it was so agressive–even double-clutching!–I was in ecstasy. Of course, paddle shifting it myself was awesome, too, but having the option and having it do the work and me only correcting it occasionally was certainly an amazing experience.

But I had a little bit of trouble with some of the little things. Like, I just couldn’t trust the car sometimes. There were a lot of small things that either were uh…unrefined that should have been or things that flat out went wrong or broke that they made me lose faith in the car. Sure, if I owned one, I’d also have to have the money for maintenance, but the things that were less-than-favorable were the kind of things even my ‘68 Mustang doesn’t have trouble with. And that’s sayin’ something…

All in all, great car. I wouldn’t own one, but I might rent one for a day or two just ’cause it was so much fun.

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.

I could be wrong, but I believe I finally transferred my whole blog over here.

I’m currently experiencing some odd car woes, but I don’t have the time to actually get under the car again just yet.

My Prowler shredded the a/c belt about a month ago. No real surprise. It had almost 50K on it. Guess I should change the other accessory belt, too, while I’m at it, huh?

I took a look at it from the top side while starting to drain the oil (it’s time for an oil change, too). I figured I’d do both at the same time. Then, I got under the car and looked up at the belt system. I went back up top. I went back underneath…

It’s no secret that I love old technology better when it comes to cars. It’s a lot easier to troubleshoot. Not to mention that it’s usually easier to see what the problem is and how to fix it without needing a manual.

But I’m feeling pretty stupid right now. The tensioners are not spring-loaded, so a simple prybar shove isn’t going to work. I loosened the bolts it looked like I should loosen, but the tensioner pulley still wouldn’t budge…neither of them. Of course, there’s no room to get my head in there to get a real look at the problem. I mean, there’s no wires. It should be completely mechanical–my favorite to work on. How did this simple belt change get so difficult?

So, there the car sits until I have more time. Poor car. I love that silly thing. I’m really starting to miss driving it.

Good golly, I had a wonderful time as a test driver. This was my first little gig doing it and I not only wanna talk about how great of a job it was for me, but I also wanna talk about the cars, too. It’s really hard not to jump for joy and shout to the world, but since future employment likely depends on my tight lips, I’ll refrain.

The cars were truly amazing, though. I’ll be in the showroom a few years from now when the convertibles are supposed to release. Oh hell yeah. Sexy, sexy cars… Coulda been a little faster, but hey, would I be a sportscar girl if I said the car was plenty fast enough? What’re you, nuts?

That’d be hilarious, though…

Toolwench: “Y’know, I just really thought the car was too fast. I mean, I pressed the gas pedal and the car actually moved. Do you make one where the accelerator doesn’t do anything? Gosh, I just really hate fast cars. I enjoy pulling out into traffic and cutting people off because my car is so slow. That just really turns me on. And can it handle so poorly that I take the corners at 2 mph to avoid scraping door handles on curbs? Please? I mean, who would want a car that holds the road and gives me the ability to get out of the rest of the world’s way? Then I might have to learn how to drive or something. Can’t have that now can I? I’m far too slow and lazy for that.”

More like it: “Well, it was rated at 450 horsepower, but it just didn’t go anywhere when I slammed the pedal. I threw it into a corner and only barely broke the back end loose. I mean, come on, if it’s gonna be slow, at least make it feel like it’s got a lot of torque or something. Sheesh.”

The cars we drove…well, the lowest horsepower was 360 or 390–I’m getting the 6 and 9 mixed up and it’s not really that important anyway–and the highest was supposedly over 500. Quite a range, but at least I could consider them all my speed. The main differences were in the handling no matter whether I was in Sport mode or whatever the car called its non-Sport mode…and the weight of the vehicle.

Refined driving experiences are for people who don’t really appreciate driving. I’ll take my old 400hp ‘68 Mustang fastback over any of the cars I got to test drive, but that’s mostly because I want zero refining. I want a pure, completely raw driving experience without computer controls filtering anything out or resetting to …uh… compensate for my driving.

However, I gotta admit being able to talk to the cars to get them to do stuff was pretty darn nifty.  At one point in one of the cars, I felt like I needed a smoking jacket and a cigar. I was already sitting on a heated, fluffy chair with end tables under each elbow while watching a lame-ass drama about a drive through a few canyons while I told my butler which songs to play through the sound system and watched my progress on a separate video screen. I feel enlightened for having had that experience, however, I choose not to make that my everyday driving experience.

I wanna break it loose. I wanna fly through the canyons and I don’t care if my hands are too full to change the song on the player. Drive baby, drive!!!!

Okay, enough of talking about what I can’t really talk about… Suffice it to say that the important cars kicked major ass and the benchmarks were so-so. I wanna be on the list for when the awesome cars are available as convertibles. They ain’t cheap, though. I gotta start saving right now.

It was a somewhat secret project, but we were allowed to take pictures for personal use. The cars we drove were all production models without masking, too, so it’s not like they were uber secret with us driving them all day and into the night. I mean, a few people did talk to us at gas stations and lunch breaks, etc.

Hopefully, I won’t get in trouble for this, but here’s a cropped pic of the car I thought was so incredible that before this gig, I never would’ve imagined myself going into a dealership to check one out, but now I really want one. Ignore the dirt… This was many, many miles into the testing process.

Oh, so bitchin’. I can’t wait ’til next week when I get to do this again with a different batch of cars. Good golly, I’m such a driver, I get all tingly just thinkin’ about it!!!

In an effort to consolidate, I’m moving my blog here to my website. It’s gonna take awhile to move all the archives, so please be patient.

I’ve got a lot of projects open right now. Unfortunately, other than changing the oil in the ‘06 Mustang GT vert, I haven’t done much other than drive my cars in the last week or so. I suppose that can be a good thing!!!!

However, I did just get a temporary test driving gig. I don’t know yet how much I can blog about if any at all. The job hasn’t started yet.