Tracking My Barchetta

I drive my 993 Turbo at various DE days at Miller Motorsports Park. I’ve wanted to try it in a Ferrari, but it’s really rare to see one on the track in Utah and I’ve been nervous about bringing it. I’ve tried to get the local dealer to sponsor a Ferrari track day, but they’ve told me they did it occasionally in the past, but didn’t have enough interest to continue.

The day before Mother’s Day I was at a NASA HPDE in my Porsche. It was sparsely attended and I heard complaints that there were even fewer cars signed up for the next day, since it was Mother’s Day. Apparently whoever scheduled it must have been single because they hadn’t realized that some spouses of the female gender might threaten to remove cherished body parts of those that dared to spend time at the track on such a hallowed day.

A light bulb went on in my small, reptilian brain as I hatched a cunning plan. I saw a unique opportunity to join the rarified ranks of Those That Have Tracked Their Ferrari, and the even thinner ranks of those doing so in an open F car. First I asked the officials if they would let me drive a roadster. “Does it have roll bars?” they asked. Does a Barchetta have roll bars? Does Dolly Parton have … well, you know.

Without informing my wife, whom I decided it was better to shock and surprise than to try to convince, I stopped for flowers on the way home. I strategically placed them on the Barchetta between the two roll hoops. The next morning, Mother’s Day, I woke her up at 6AM and happily announced I had something special planned. She groggily got up, got dressed and stumbled out to the garage. The flowers woke her up, pleasing her greatly, but also making her suspicious. “What are we doing?” she said while eyeing me with the same scrutiny that would accompany a query about where I’d been if I had snuck in at 2 in the morning with lipstick on my collar.

“Well, Sweetheart, we’re going to the track!” I said in my most cheerful voice. It was a cool Utah morning, so we bundled up, turned the heater on full and set out on the forty minute drive. Once there, I got the car teched, warmed up with some coffee and taped on some numbers. The officials, amazed to see a wife there, invited her up into the race control tower and generally kept her entertained.

Several DE classes and several race classes had originally been scheduled, but there were so few people that they combined the DE into one and the racers into one. So we ran with only half an hour between and were done with the four sessions by noon. It was great! I told the other drivers that the Barchetta was really a GT, not a track car and I let them on the track first. Depending on the session there were only 3 to 5 other cars on the 2.2 mile long track.

It was FUN! The Ferrari sounded awesome and after driving my AWD 993 it was great to be able to slide the rear wheel drive car around a little. I expected the brakes to be a weak point and they were. They were good for a lap, then faded (I was just equipped with standard pads and fluid). But they still worked, so I just started slowing down sooner for the corners. There were two straights where I could hit just over 100 mph. I’m 5-10 mph faster in the Porsche because its brakes are incredible and I brake later and have more courage to enter turns faster. But considering it all, the Ferrari did pretty well. I had it in “Sport” mode, of course, and it handled quite well, without as much roll as I expected (it has the FHP option). I love the gated shifter and the engine likes to rev; I even hit the rev limiter once.

People loved seeing the Ferrari at the track and said those 12 cylinders sounded really good accelerating down the straight. Shockingly, I still got a couple of rubber marks on the car, but they came right off (don’t tell anyone or I’m sure the value just dropped $5K). I’d like to try it again if I can figure out another opportunity when traffic is light. If I do, I’ll switch to SRF brake fluid and maybe try some different pads. The other mandatory thing would be to adjust the brake pedal so heel/toe is possible. As it comes from the factory the too-low brake pedal does not allow it.

Since my wife was so cool about it and actually had fun, what do you think I could do to repay her? I thought maybe for Father’s Day I’d let her take me to Ikea to look at furniture or something equally torturous…
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