Whut's a po boy to do?

Thanks for asking. Actually, I came to two conclusions about a year and a half ago. First, I needed to simplify my life. I had been juggling between seven to ten vehicles for a while, and I needed to pull the plug on such nonsense. Hell, my car insurance was running me over $1,000 a month.

The second realization was that driving stupid fast cars on the street was not a good idea. Just rowing the gears on my old Maranello would see me exceeding the ton within a few blocks of my house. Sooner or later, bad things were bound to happen. I also started getting serious about racing about the same time.

Putting these two together, I decided to downsize to various daily drivers for my wife, son, and daughter, and a moderately-powerful sports car daily driver for myself. Thus, I decided to sell out. This included my Maranello and a ‘67 GTC because neither car fit the role of being a daily driver.

My first idea was to find a used Porsche 996 Turbo with a TIP. I used to own one, and it was a hoot to drive. I needed the TIP in case my wife had to drive the car in a pinch. But, one test drive in a Cayman with the PDK was all it took. Yes, I admit it. I’m a car slut.

I can’t say enough good things about the PDK. The first thing you need to know is DON’T USE THE FLIPPERS. You will never be able to beat the computer. Try this on for size, It is a two-lane country highway. You’re in 7th. You pull out to pass at 70 mph and floor it. The car will downshift to 3rd faster than you can think it. You will not feel a thing except for the engine revving toward the red line. The second thing you need to learn is how to downshift with the throttle. A blip will downshift one gear. A harder blip downshifts two. I haven’t tried it yet, but this rascal is made for left-foot braking.

Why didn’t I buy a Ferrari? Simple, while I know you can use a Ferrari as a daily driver, this doesn’t make any sense for me. I have owned the Cayman for seven months and have over 7,500 error-free miles.

Plus, run the numbers. For the first time in my life, I leased a car. Bottom line is I have a 36-month/45,000 mile walk-away car that has a full warranty for $410 a month. This works out to a door-to-door cost of, say, $15,000, which at 45,000 miles will cost me 33 CENTS a mile. Compare that to 3 DOLLARS a mile for a Ferrari.

Finally, I’m a driver, not a lover. Don’t get me wrong. I love hearing the old Ferrari stories. But I’m not willing to spend one dollar of my money for yesterday’s wine. All I care about is how much fun a car is to drive. The badge is meaningless.

Does this mean I probably never buy another Ferrari? Yeah, in the short term, probably not. If the price of a good F430 Challenge car gets down to $100,000, I might have not be able to control myself. Even then, a GT3 for $20,000 less buys a lot of tires.

Do I think that Ferrari cares about my choices? BAWHAHAHAHA! Neither Ferrari Spa nor FNA gives a damn about those who spend seven figures on Ferraris, much less a punk like me.

Here’s the bottom line: If some of you have this unhealthy attachment to a car company, hey, it’s a free country. But don’t yell at me for telling the truth. Frankly, reading most of these posts made for a good laugh. I hope some of you were just kidding, right? I mean, you were kidding, weren’t you?

All in all, it is interesting to see how Ferrari Chat has changed. Five or six years, I could (and did) make a post about Ferraris being stupid money cars and get nothing but positive responses. (Come on, there is no way to rationalize spending this much money on a sports car. The only reason for buying a Ferrari is because (1) you want to, and (2) you can.) I dunno why most people on F-Chat were less defensive back then, but they were.

So, there you have it. I love driving Porsches, but prefer hanging out with Ferrari crazies.

Dale

 

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