Best Driving Experience

Well last Saturday I got to drive a 6.0, which was obviously AMAZING. I only got to go slowly, 1st gear, in a parking lot but even then, wow. I don't really have anything to compare it to because besides that the best thing I've driven is a new Impala (which was still fun simply because I love driving). But it was also just absolutely thrilling to ride; I'm not sure how fast we went but it was definitely out of 1st gear. Here's a pic of me driving it
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Do you mean most exciting or what we feel was the overall best car ?

Strangely the car I enjoyed driving more than any other was my Dinan BMW M Roadster. I cant imagine a better overall sports car and wish I never sold it.

As for most exciting..McLaren F1 ( wait that was a dream )...so must be Carrera GT. But it wasnt enjoyable because I was too worried about something going wrong.

J

 

Obviously I loved my first Ferrari 328 drives enough to buy one, but some other very good, affordable driving experiences include:

1. BMW 325Ci coupe. Not super powerful, but the car did everything well, super comfortable, wonderful smooth inline-six engine. (And girls loved it.) It's really a joy just to turn the key and listen to engine purr to life.

2. Mazda Miata. Cheap, yeah, but I remember driving the original Miata and they got the sound right, a very balanced car; it shifted superbly and felt like an old pair of jeans.

3. Porsche 993: Made all the right sounds, and it wasn't hard to drive well, because Porsche had figured out how to keep the car from being tail happy. It's a sweet sound when you rev it, way different than a Ferrari, but you get attached to it. The view over the front fenders is very cool. You forget it's damned fast. But - it is.

4. 1984 VW Rabbit GTI. Sounds stupid now, because it was only 90bhp or so, but compared to the '79 Rabbit I was driving in high school the black GTI (Mark I) was seriously hot stuff, and 14" wheels were big back then. With front wheel drive and an inline 4 I know I'd hate it if I could time travel back and drive it, but I remember getting in one at the dealer and lusting after it.

5. 1981 Fiat X1/9. Another gutless car, but tiny - so you feel fast - and mid-engined, with baby-Ferrari-style Veglia gauges and a counterclockwise tach. Good disc brakes and a targa top. Incredible fun in a poor-man's exotic, although the build quality left a bit to be desired (rust-proofing would have been nice...) No power, so you can push this one to its limits and try to keep the tail under control - weight distribution is something like 30/70 so you'd better pay attention.

6. Boxster S. I'm not a huge fan of the Boxsters in terms of exterior/interior styling, but a friend in Seattle had one of the early ones when it first came out, and I helped him go pick up his BMW bike which was in storage. So, I drove his new Boxster and he drove his bike and we really opened up those engines. That was a thrilling ride - great engine, great gearbox, nice sounds. Easy to drive fast.

 

There is a beautiful little road right by my parents house in Rancho Santa Fe called El Camino del Norte, it connects Del Dios Hwy with Rancho Santa Fe road. It is lined on both sides with very pretty trees and huge estates set back behind them and the road is very good combination of straights and twisty curves and even a hairpin with lots of little hills too. Whenever I am home, I put the top down on the 360 and tear that road up. From there, take Encinitas Blvd. to Hwy 101 and follow that south down the coast through Del Mar to La Jolla, stop in and check out Symbolic's invantory, then shoot back up the 5 and head home on Via de la Valle, also a very pretty road. That route + AC/DC and timing it so that I cruise by Torrey Pines beach just as the sun is setting... yea that's my best driving experience, and I try to recreate it every time I'm home. So my vote is for 360 Spider.

 

My favorite Ferrari experiences...

1. F50 - my absolute favorite car! The sound, the feeling, the precision of steering inputs and feedback from the suspension. It's a really raw car, everything is totally oriented towards the task at hand. I love it I finally got to spend some time around the 50 with the top off (barchetta) this past summer, and it was incredible

2.) Enzo - Incredible to drive, but very dynamic and hard to understand at first with all of the software and traction programs. It took me a little while to get the hang of things. Inexplicably torquey and responsive at low RPM, and tricky for me to drive smoothly below highway speeds. The throttle is like a razor -- incrementally small changes make big differences in speed. Stupendously fast in regards to high speed acceleration -- smooth and unyielding. Largely due to seating/windshield position and high speed stability effects, triple digit speeds seem like dragging through a school zone. The wow factor with this car is off the chart...people will pull up next to the car on the freeway and take pictures constantly!

3.) 348 Challenge - This car belongs to a fellow f-chatter. I have run this car on the road and track, although not extensively, and had a blast! The car has a full cage and is a great drive, a car with a lot of character. The fact that it was on slicks when I drove it made things fun as well

4.) 430 - I am really impressed with how smooth the 430 is considering the amount of power it makes and the kind of grip it maintains. Nothing seemed snappy at all, which is incresingly hard to do with a car at these power levels. The only traction program I drove the car in extensively was sport mode, which wasn't rough at all. The e-Diff thing is a little wierd to me, but seems to function much better than any other first-gen technology I have ever seen in a Ferrari.

 

http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=115503

 

Did it happen to be the black one ??

 

Any BMW M car...they give you great performance with reliability you can count on...

 

I was pretty lucky (inheritence) when I was your age...I had a new 1967 Corvair Monza at 18 and I loved it. (I know; it is joke car to many but I loved it - the closest thing to a real sports car I had ever driven). It never gave a bit of trouble & could go just over 100mph, given enough room. It was also about the best handling American car of its time, other than the Corvette.

At age 20, I got a brand new Porsche 911T Targa. The dealer would not even let me drive it until we signed the papers. I was in big hog heaven driving it home. But, in many ways, this may have been the biggest let-down of any car I have ever owned. It drove and sounded just great - just like you would imagine from the legend. The problem was keeping it running. It had 6 straight through Weber carbs, no chokes, and no electronic ignition whatsoever. It was always either flooding on start or loading up those cold semi-racing sparkplugs. Every saturday you pulled the plugs, cleaned or replaced them, and tried to retune those carbs. It finally stuck a piece of carbon in an exhaust valve and burned a channel in the valve and seat at about 25,000 miles. It cost more to fix the engine than I could really afford from my job, so it had to go. The only time it really ran right was when you could get out on the open road and let it rip at full throttle for long periods of time. I sometimes wish I still had it. Over the years, I have had more than 10 911s since and still drive a 993 as my daily.

So, my point is this - when you are young, maybe the most enjoyable car to have is something that drives well and is also well within your lifestyle. The exotics will come to you in time, given education and work ethics. But, they all come with some kind of downside.

Have you tried a MazdaSpeed Miata or a Honda S2000?

 

I'd have to say that regardless of how cheap they are compared to all the high dollar iron and carbon fiber on this board, my favorite rides/drives have to be:

Lotus Elise: An absolute make-you-sh*t-your-pants grip machine...simply mind boggling. It's like sitting in an aluminum bathtub occupied by hornets who are constantly buzzing about and the resonance is amplified ten fold. Exhaust note is verrrry cool.

Honda Fit Sport: This thing is akin to an Aprilia RS50...the suspension is way too much for the motor which is an absolute joy to toss around. The optional paddle shifters are so much fun to play with as well.

1998 Toyota Corolla: My old boss has two daughters and on occasion he'd let me drive their cars. One had a Corolla and the other a Civic. No b.s. this was a grin machine for me, I just couldn't stop smiling. The thing felt like a go-cart and didn't have the harshness or cold, empty feeling of the Civic.

 

Webby...that is a beautiful pic!! The front is down...rear is slightly up...what an aggressive look to the greatest Diablo of all time.

 

I was about 5. And it was the first time I had ever driven a go cart. I was hooked instantly! Never could beat that feeling.



Darrell.

 

I haven't driven much, really. My favorite has been my '96 Impala SS-- so torquey, so fun!!!

I drove my dad's '75 Vette but I was so scared with him shotgun I couldn't drive it properly.

Favorite ride has been a.... 348 spider. I rode in a 355 Spider too but the 348 was a stick and the 355 was F1. But the 355 had the top down............. GAH THEY BOTH ROCKED!! MUST HAVE FERRARI!!!!!!!

 

Ahhhh, my kind of thread. Most interesting rides in no particular order.....
McLaren F1. Had my friends car for three days and drove the socks off it. Has to be the best ride ever.
F50
F40
360 Challenge
Stradale
348 Challenge
355 Challenge
Enzo
Fuel altered roadster---23 t-bucket with big block
Countach
Diablo


Many more Ferraris, Lambos, muscle cars, BMW sport sedans, M3's, M5's, M6 Mercedes, Audis and all.

I was in the high end car business for 23 years, 17 years with BMW and three years with Ferrari. Met a lot of neat people who shared their cars. It has been a wonderful life...........

 

Surprisingly... I would actually have to say that the Mazda RX-8, with only slight modification, is an absolutely amazing car to drive. Just stick an aftermarket semi-racing suspension on it, and some stickier rubber and you have a car that handles like you wouldn't believe. It just never gives up, and if it does ever break loose, its predictable and amazingly easy to control. Plus being able to rev that little engine up to 9200 rpm always puts a smile on my face. it may not have the most torque or horsepower out there, but man it eats curves for breakfast.

For my age, I've been lucky enough to have driven several exotics... an F1 360 spider (my dads... driven extensively, on and off the track), a stick 360 Spider, Maserati Coupe and Spyder, Gallardo Spider e-gear, and a Merc SL65 AMG... and I tend to have more fun in our RX-8s then any of them (except for maybe the F1 360 spider...).