Meeting Napolis and P4/5 C M at the Nurburgring

I thought I saw your name on the auction site. I'm sorry to hear you had to spend the weekend in the hospital. Hopefully it was for something relatively minor and you have made a complete recovery!

Thank you! Anything in particular you want more of?

You're very welcome. And I'm not trying to sound like some brown nosing fan boy here, but yes, I am extremely grateful. Jim and the entire team are wonderful amazing people. They could not have been better hosts and provided us an unbelievable experience.

I met many people there the whole time. Folks from several different countries that have pretty amazing lives. It was great to spend time and converse with them all. I can honestly say I made friends for life with some of them and was left with the impression that while the cars, race and all that is great, it's the people that really made the trip.

 

There was no choice, buddy. You were going regardless!

 

Some random videos I took.

The press Huayra taking off. I believe they were running some diagnostics on it.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eNtalqiUoc]Pagani Huayra blast off - YouTube[/ame]

McLaren MP4-12C GT3 exiting the pits:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqDzlxNiGW0]McLaren MP4-12C GT3 leaving the pits - YouTube[/ame]

P 4/5C at the roll off prior to the flying start:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PDaq7nSrs1s]P 4/5 C M roll off at the 24 Hours of the Nurburgring - YouTube[/ame]

 

Thank you very much for reading it, you're welcome. I am very pleased to be able to share it with you all and the reception it has received.

I didn't learn the meaning of Jim's username on this trip, but on another a few months later. Stay tuned for part two of this adventure......

Regarding the steak, no we didn't, however, the table next to us did! I had never seen anything like it before and as you will see in the picture below of my friends reaction when it came out it was really something!
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I want to add something regarding Lamborghini. I should have mentioned earlier, but in addition to visiting the museum, we toured the factory and walked the Gallardo and Aventador lines. It was during this that the difference between Lamborghini and Ferrari finally "clicked" with me. I know it's been discussed countless times via various media outlets and internet forums, but seeing was understanding to me.

We had visited Ferrari the day before, and it was a tourist packed place. Lots of people, lots of commotion. The museum employees were in clothes that looked like race suits the F1 drivers wore. Everywhere there were reminders of its storied racing history and the beautiful cars that the company has produced.

Lamborghini was different. When we arrived there were very few tourists. It was a very quiet area with few people milling about. The best way to describe was "laid back."

Just mellow and chill. Valentino Balboni was just hanging around, like he was just some average guy. Shoot, HE came up to US and introduced himself. We saw him later that day at Pagani and again he walked up and asked us if we were enjoying our day. Crazy.

As I am not a Ferrari owner I could not visit the factory, but here I could. We paid a few Euros and got to see the Aventadors and Gallardos in different phases of construction. At one point another tourist asked the guide a question and she didn't know the answer so she just asked the two guys working on a car at one of the production stages. They each told her a different answer just to mess with her. A humorous exchange in Italian occurred. It's a bit hard to explain but it had a different vibe to it.

So to sum up, where Ferrari is all about maintaining a mystique and reminding everyone of how their success in racing translates to the road cars, Lamborghini is just sort of like "Screw it, let's go drive! And we're going to look awesome doing it and make stupid amounts of noise and be fast as hell." It finally all made sense.

I liked that.
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