August 29, 2019 • 35 mins
Is there something…anything automotive-related that you’ve always wanted to do, but just haven’t had the time or money? Well, maybe this is the kick-in-the-pants that you need to do it.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to the Fast Track. I'm your host,
Scott Benjamin, and today we're going to um take a
little bit of a turn. I guess we're gonna we're
gonna talk about some but a lot of different things really,
but it's gonna have kind of a broad scope in
this one. And uh, and I think it's something that
almost everybody, at least anybody listening here we'll be able
to relate to, and that is automotive bucket list. And
(00:31):
I know a lot of people have heard of bucket
list before. It's you know those things that you want
to do before you die, which sounds awful, but you know,
the things that you want to do before you die.
And a lot of people have things like, you know, skydiving,
or they want to go to France, or they want
to um, you know, because it usually it involves a
lot of travel. Usually it involves um some experiences and
that type of thing. But I want to I want
to focus today on automotive bucket list. And this could
(00:53):
be just about anything. And uh, I have have talked to
several people about, you know, some things that they might
want to do, you know, automotive or lated before they
are too old to do them, you know, too old
to drive, or you know before they kind of lose
interest in this sort of thing, because I think that
might happen with a lot of people as well. You know,
you just kind of age out of this thing. You know,
you get a little bit more um responsible, you know maybe,
(01:14):
or you get um, you know, the point where you
realize that, you know, maybe you don't necessarily want to
drive you know, three miles per hour in the salt
flats anymore because you know, you're you're eight years old
and your reaction time might not be the best that
or the way that it was you know, thirty years
prior any something like that. Um. But anyways, there's there's
a huge variety here of things that we can talk about. It.
(01:34):
I've I've recently done something that I want to talk
about in particular, and uh and I just can't say
enough about it. And I'm not gonna I'm not trying
to sell this, this package or this deal to anybody
by any means, but it is something that that I
did recently that that I want to talk about. It
was a driving experience and uh and I'll get into
that too, But before I talk about my own experience.
I want to talk about, you know, some of these
(01:55):
experiences that you know, people that I know have have
been able to do in the past, and this is
kind of inspiration for me to do this sort of
thing as well. And I was excited about it when
I heard about it. And you know, when you see
somebody else that does something like this and you know
they you hear the stories that they tell you of
what it was like, UM, that's pretty interesting. It's it's
always fun, and it kind of gets you thrilled, you know,
(02:16):
to do the same thing, or it kind of gets
you amped up a little bit too to maybe go
out and you know, experience some of this stuff yourself.
And what I'm talking about in particular is is I
guess these driving packages or these experiences that you can
purchase for a day or an hour or you know,
even just a couple of laps or whatever, you know,
at various race courses around the United States or around
the world. Really and um, once that that I'm talking
(02:39):
about are um, you know, exotics or maybe it's you know,
like the drift cars, or it could be you know,
it could be classic cars. It could be just about anything.
There's experiences out there for for just about every type
of of you know, race series that is out there,
um or every type of vehicle that it's out there, uh,
including manufacturers. Sometimes manufacturers will even host these that allow
(03:01):
you to drive some of their top end vehicles, you know,
all the way down through some of the lower end models,
just to be familiar with, you know what the what
they have on their showroom floors at the time. My
dad is the one that I want to talk about
who has done this most recently, and this is a
year ago Father's Day. We gave him as a gift
a NASCAR experience and this he lives in Michigan, and
this is happening at the Michigan International Speedway and you're
(03:24):
you're allowed to get into an actual NASCAR car. You know,
it has every it's a race vehicle. It's d tuned
quite a bit, I think, you know, it's it's kind
of governed down so that you know, you're not going
to maximum speed, you know, like as they would in
the in the professional series. But um, it's it's for
a user experience that you know, you can buy a
package for you know, a half day, half hour, half
(03:45):
you know what, whatever the increment of time it was.
I can't remember how many hours it was that he
was there, but um got several laps in in a
true NASCAR car and really enjoyed the heck out of it.
Was a lot of fun. And um, there's a couple
of particulars that we're interesting in this and I'll tell
you about them later. But my brother did one as well.
Um he did one where you know, you go to
a parking lot and you get to drive in an
(04:06):
exotic car and I don't know how many laps you
get to do in this thing. You know, it's just
kind of an autocross course with cones and uh, you know.
The dangerous part about this one to me anyways, is
that you know, they're light poles and uh, some concrete
barriers and things like that around that I would be
a little bit concerned about if I was him, But
he loved it. He was able to drive a Ferrari
and was able to uh you know kind of I guess,
(04:27):
not push it to the maximum or anything like that,
but but really kind of feel what that car is
capable of. My my father in law he did one
also that was a Ferrari, but he also did his
it m I s they both live in Michigan, my
my dad and my father in law. And that was
a birthday gift I think from his wife. And he
was able to drive a Ferrari four a d G
T B and uh he drove something like a hundred
(04:47):
and fifty miles per hour on the track and it
was just like super quick accelerating car, you know, zero
to sixty and like two point eight seconds or something
like that, really quick. It was just a thrill for him.
He's a Corvette owner, so he has a a Corvette.
You know that he drives not daily, but you know
he drives it often enough. And I said, it's a
night and day difference between the Corvette and Ferrari said.
(05:08):
It was just an incredible feeling, you know, great sensation
to be able to do something like that. And and honestly,
you know, these packages, I know that they're kind of expensive.
They cost you know, a couple hundred bucks when you
when you do them, but um, and I thought up
until the point that I decided to do my own
experience or you know, I received it as a gift.
I was thrilled with it. I kind of thought, well,
it seems like it might be kind of a waste
(05:29):
of money, and I think a lot of people feel
that way that, you know, why would I spend three
fifty or four hundred or even five dollars or more
on something that only lasts a couple of hours. You
don't get to keep the car by any means, obviously,
you don't get to drive it for the full day.
You don't even get to drive it and show off
to your friends or anything, you know, driving around you know,
the city that you live, unless you're renting a car
for the day, which is something totally different. Um. But
(05:50):
these experiences allow you to kind of push that car
to the maximum, and you've got you know, professional instructor
there with you, and um is, it's a lot of fun.
And I'll be honest with you. I at first I thought,
that's an awful lot of money because the experience that
I did, um the Porsche driving experience here in Atlanta,
and the price was somewhere around three hundred and sixty
five dollars I think at the time, three fifties somewhere
(06:12):
around there. And again it was a gift, and I thought,
oh boy, it's it's really this is an expensive gift.
I don't know if I'm gonna enjoy its worth, you know,
And just the small amount of time that you get.
You only get an hour on the track, and um,
you think that that's not enough time really to fully
experience the vehicle. But I was completely wrong, and I'll
tell you why in just a moment after we take
(06:34):
a break for a word from our sponsor and we're back.
And just before the break, we were talking about how
I had gone to the Porsche Driving Experience here in Atlanta,
and this is kind of a big deal around here.
And I would guess that you know, any town that
something like this appears in, it kind of becomes a
big deal. And it happens right down by the airport.
(06:56):
And I was fortunate enough to get this as a gift,
and I'm so thank full that I got it. I
probably it's something that I would not have have done
on my own. I don't think I would have spent
my own money initially to do this. But now now
I feel like, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go back again.
I know I'm gonna go back again for this because
it was so thrilling. It was just so it was
such a fantastic day that it's it's hard to even
(07:16):
wrap your mind around it. If you haven't ever done
something like this, it's all you can think about, all
you can talk about, it's all. It's just it's a
it's an incredible experience that it's an immersive experience, which
is really really cool. And I think that a lot
of them are this way. I'm not so sure that
you know, the one like my brother did, where you know,
it's a couple of laps in a parking lot, in
a in an exotic is the same way. It's the Sure,
it's thrilling, it's fun, but it's not exactly what you
(07:39):
get when you go to something like what I did
here at the Porsche experience and what other people have
done with uh, you know, the NASCAR experiences that happened,
you know at some of the bigger tracks. I don't
know if you know, like some of the other tracks
do it. I know Michigan International Speedway does it up
in Michigan, But I don't know if you know, like
Talladegaer Dayton or any of those do it. I think
that there are some of these across the United States
at different places that you can O two and they
(08:01):
are more immersive. You go through a little bit of
a schooling process, you know, where they teach you exactly
what to expect when you get out there, etcetera. UM.
That's where this one that I'm going to tell you
about differs a little bit. But you do get trained
on them. You do get you know, the an idea
of what what to do, some of the rules of
the of the racing. Because you are out there with
other people on the track at the same time, it's
not that you know you're the only one out there. UM,
(08:23):
and that makes it even more exciting for a lot
of people. You know you're getting passed, you're passing. It's
just it gives another level to it, you know, the
whole different experience again, this one that I did. If
you and I'm not selling this by any means, but
if you go to the Porsche Experience UM Atlanta or
search the keyword and you'll find you know exactly what
I'm talking about. Here. You can look at a map
of the course that they have, which is it's huge.
(08:45):
It's right by the airport here in Atlanta, and they
have several of these. They have one I believe it's
in California. They have one in Alabama, and they have
one in um, I'm sorry, Louisiana rather and here in Atlanta,
of course, and they have for the track. I mean,
it's it's a norm, it really is. It's a great
big facility and there's an office space down there as well,
so people work on the property, you know, daily Monday
(09:07):
through Friday, nine five whatever. But the track is also there.
And what's really interesting about this you can you can
look at the online and look at the map and
um it's I think it's over one point six miles
of track that they have, and there's several different modules
or experiences that you can do within this track. There
isn't a separate off road circuit. So if you're looking
at one of the uh, one of the off road vehicles,
(09:27):
you know, the the SUVs that that Porcha makes, you
can do that. But the stuff that I was doing
it was, you know, the road course and there's some
low friction handling circuits and things like that. I'll tell
you about us in just a second, but this is
one of those experiences where, um, again I don't think
I would have paid for this on my own, but
I was so happy to get it as a gift,
and I went on St. Patrick's Day in two thousand eighteen.
(09:47):
So it's been over a years since I've been there,
and I still think about it a lot. I mean,
it's something that I want to go back and do again. Um,
if you look at the vehicles, you can choose many,
many different vehicles, you know, all of the Porta lineup,
and and it varies in cost from I guess I
think it gets really very expensive up at the top end.
But if you scroll all the way to the bottom.
And this is not not a knock on anybody who
(10:08):
bought me this gift. I'll tell you that I was
able to get into the sevent eighteen Boxer, and I
think I was in the Boxer s actually for about
three and sixty five dollars, That's what I said. It's
an hour and a half. It's a three horsepower car.
Zero to sixty is and four point five seconds to
top speed is around a hundred and seventy miles per hour.
You're not going that fast on this course, but you
you're not even gonna notice that, you don't. I'll tell
(10:29):
you the whole time that I was doing this, I
don't think I ever looked at the spedometer. It just
wasn't a concern. And I don't know you think that
that's Uh, it's kind of counterintuitive because you're in a Porsche,
you're on a racetrack. You think you want to know
how fast you're going. It's more of a sensation thing.
It's more of how you feel when you're going that
fast and you're learning. You've got an instructor next to you.
That's it's kind of teaching you the way, the whole
(10:49):
thing right from the very beginning. As soon as you
get there. You walk out on the tarmac and you
get in your car. You don't have to go to
a course. You don't have to go to like, you know,
an hour long course. Of this hour and a half
that we're talking about, you know that you're purchasing is
a true hour and a half in the car. You're
in the seat for an hour and a half. And
it's amazing. It's more time than you could you could
(11:10):
even imagine. I mean, it feels like you're in there
half the day. Really, it does feel like a long
long time. And uh, and that's really good because you
get to do just about everything Uh, this course that
that I was on, or the you know, the driving
experience here in Atlanta. Again, it's right, it's on the
property of the airport. Uh so you've got you know,
huge jets flying overhead. It's really it's it's a really
(11:30):
interesting and beautiful setup that they have. It's a it's
a really pretty course, if you want to put it
that way. There is a there's a one mile handling circuit,
which is you know, like a big race track that
goes all the way around and that's kind of like
your well, it's like I guess where you kind of
max out the car. Really, I mean, you're able to
to test the corner and you're able to test the acceleration,
(11:51):
the breaking, all of that and uh and they will
kind of help you along as you go. And you know,
I tell you points to look at. This is your
your target point. You're gonna want to look at this
as you accelerate and then break really hard right here.
You know, that kind of instruction is being given to
you for several laps until you get the hang of it,
and then they kind of let you go on your
own with the instructor still next to you. Of course. Uh,
They also have a wet or a low friction circle,
(12:13):
which is kind of an inward sloping polished concrete area
that has water spraying onto it. And uh, that's where
you can kind of test out your drifting capabilities, you know,
your your abilities, I should say. Um. They also have
a low friction handling circuit, which is imagine that same
material that that polished concrete, you know that's slick and
you know it's got water spraying on it. Imagine a
(12:34):
low friction handling circuit which has you know, several off
camera turns and turns that are that are sloped the
right way and the opposite way so that you know,
the back end slides out and you can test you know,
understeer oversteer in this area. And it's that's really challenging.
That's a very difficult part of it, and it's a
very small part of the course. But um again it's
it's it's very challenging. You can do that over and
over again. There's also I mentioned the you know, the
(12:55):
off road circuit. That's one thing I didn't get to
the off road circuit obviously in the car that I
was in the box r S. There is also a
dynamics area, which is where you test the launch control
and you can do kind of a solemn course, you know,
with with cones set up and h they tell you
how to do that. They you know what, there's there's
a lot of fun things about each one of these
and I'll tell you about that as we get to
it here. And then there's also something this is maybe
(13:17):
one of my favorite parts of this whole thing, and
it's hard to judge, you know, which one is my
favorite part. But they have something called a kickplate, and
I'll tell you about the kickplate in just a moment.
But when you first get in the vehicle, so when
you start this whole thing, you get right in the
car and you head out on the course and they
tell you, you know, watch for traffic. You know, when
you're when you're passing somebody. Um you always you always
wait for my instruction to pass, you know, because they
(13:39):
have communication between the vehicles. There are other cars on
the course, and there are other different types of vehicles
on the course, so you know, there'll be nine elevens
out on the course, they'll be boxers out on the course.
At the same time, there's gonna be panameras out on
the course. UM. This place, this facility allows you to
if you want to, you can pick up your brand
new Porsche there and you can get kind of a
little bit of instruct and with your new vehicle and
(14:01):
pick up your vehicle from this facility if you want to,
if you if you've ordered it here in town or
you know somewhere nearby, that you want to do this
UM so that you know, you get a little bit
of experience behind the wheel in this performance vehicle before
you take it home, which I think is really cool.
So you can have new delivery of your vehicle there,
or you can just test out all these vehicles. So
let's say that you go to the dealership and you
want to know what it's like to drive a GT three. UM,
(14:22):
you can do that. It's gonna cost quite a bit
of money to be able to do that, but you
can go and drive you know, their ultimate top end vehicle. UM. Again,
it's gonna cost quite a bit more than you know
the Boxer experience. But you know there's every level in
between there as well, So you know, choose which one
you find most interesting to you're the one that you
want to do the most. The Boxer was plenty. I'll
tell you to get the full experience that you don't
(14:43):
need to worry about that. It's it's a lot of fun.
And to be honest, you know, the first thing that
you do is you go out on the one mile
handling circuit and you don't take it slow, but you
go slower than you will later in the day. Obviously
on your first lap, first couple of laps, maybe as
the instructor gives you instruction, you know where you should
be and how to fall all the right the appropriate
lines around the track. And I'll tell you when I
(15:04):
first started this, it was it was a dry morning,
but it was cloudy, overcast, and eventually later in the
day it began to rain, and I thought that would
just kind of ruin the experience, but it did not.
It actually made it more interesting to have like half
of the day in the dry weather, half the day
and the wet weather. And uh later you know, you've
got so much experience on this course that uh, some
(15:24):
of the times on the wet course we're just as fast,
if not faster, than on the dry track. At the
beginning of the day, because you become more familiar with
the vehicle and you're able to drive it even even
uh uh push it more to its maximum, I guess,
um in a lot of ways. And uh So you
start out on the handling circuit and you just go
pretty much. I mean, you feel like you're going flat out.
(15:44):
It's it's unbelievable how quick you can go on this
and the feeling of being able to do that in
a controlled environment, you know, with with an instructor near you,
and you know you've got the insurance in the car
and everything, and you feel good about it and you
feel comfortable with it. Um they allow you to kind
of push a little for other and if you're hitting
your marks, they allow you to go a little bit faster,
they allow you to push it a little bit harder,
and they kind of back off on the instruction and
(16:06):
allow you to do what you want to do with
the car. And and that's all very very helpful. It's
just it's a it's a blast. It's a lot of fun.
So you do several laps of that and then they
take you to all these different modules. You know that
maybe they'll take you over to the dynamics area next
and allow you to do a launch control start, which
I completely flubbed the first time I tried it. You know,
it is it's a little bit more difficult to do
(16:27):
than you might think. And it sounds really easy. You know.
You just mash down the brake and then you turn
on certain traction control, turn off trash control. I don't
remember what it was I he was operating all that.
I was just focused on getting the thing to go
fast and straight. And um, I know it sounds funny,
but like all the electronic gadgetry, you can kind of
just ignore all of that, you know, you and just
experience the drive and the feel of this whole thing.
(16:49):
And that's that's really so much fun to do. So
I flubbed the launch control in the first time, you know,
and and uh, spectacular failure on that one. But but
the second tempt it was really good, and and the
third and fourth. And they allow you to do this
as many times as you want, because again, you have
an hour and a half ahead of you. And we
started to kind of make our way around different things,
(17:10):
and we went to you know, the low friction circle
and kind of practice that a little bit, and the
low friction handling circuit, and they tell you what to
expect and each one, and you know when you're supposed
to accelerate what you're supposed to do, if you're supposed
to stab at the break, or if you're supposed to
slowly push the break, and that type of thing. You know,
that type of instruction is given to you all along
the way, so you feel very very comfortable with it.
And maybe the second or third time through each one
(17:32):
of these modules, you know you're on your own. You
just do it and UH and it becomes more and
more intuitive as you do it and go back to
the dynamics area. You can do this long course. And
the fun thing about that is that they tell you
the first time, or at least my instructor did, tells
me to do it how I think I should do it,
you know, do the slow how I felt that I
should drive through their uh to do it fastest. And
I did, and it was terrible. Did it slow? You know,
(17:53):
it did wasn't very quick at all. Um. We go
back to the beginning and he gives me right away,
gives me like two or three tips to go faster,
and it immediately works. I mean, it's it's incredible how
quickly someone can teach you from the passenger seat how
to do something better, and and it works, and you
do it, you know, two or three times, and by
the end of that two or three times, you feel
like a real pro. I mean, it's it's funny, but
(18:15):
you gain knowledge and experience that quickly in that vehicle
and you have that much more confidence to be able
to do it. And you know, one thing that I
want to mention here is that, you know, I said
early on that the kickplate was one of my favorite things.
I think that, you know, the the one mile handling circuit,
of course, is going to be fun because you know,
you're really pushing the car and it's it's fast, and
it's fun, it's exciting and everything. The kickplate is something different.
(18:37):
The kickplate is all about control. And the kickplate is
a big flat piece of pavement and I believe it
says you know, Porsche. It's written and read on the
on the ground next to you and everything it looks.
It looks really dramatic when you see it from a distance,
you know, it's really interesting. The water spring on it
from all different angles. It's actually it's really it's beautiful.
You know, the green grass all around it, it's really
pretty and as you what you do is you drive
(18:58):
across are you start very close to the kickplate and
you drive into it at it doesn't sound like very
very fast, but maybe twenty to thirty per hour at
the most. That's the fastest you'll go. And as your
car travels over a certain section of the concrete, which
is about maybe four or five feet uh you know,
in length and uh um wide it's you know, two
(19:19):
cars wide maybe at the most. And as you drive
across it, as soon as you're when your rear wheels
are on top of the kickplate, it throws you either
left or right. It shifts one way or the other,
and you don't know which way it's gonna go, and
it's not controlled by the person the passenger seat. Is
just completely random. You can't watch the car in front
of you and determine which way it's gonna go. There's
no pattern to it. It's all it's all randomly selected.
(19:42):
So you're going onto this polished concrete surface at twenty
or thirty miles an hour in a rear wheel drive car,
you know, mid engine in this case, and there's a
rear engine too, the uh the back end of the car.
As you travel across, will suddenly either be thrown left
or right, and you don't know which way it's gonna be,
and they just a lot of this is the and
the fun part of this is that, you know, they
allow you to drive onto this thing first and they
(20:03):
tell you what's going to happen, but they don't tell
you how to handle it, you know, they they allow
you to figure it out the first time. So the
first time you do it, the car, let's say the car,
the back end slides out to the left, and immediately
you try to correct and you do the wrong thing.
The car spins out, you know, does a full three
sixty maybe even more if you're going fast enough, and
you kind of slowly, slowly get control of the car
(20:24):
again and then and then pull it out. It's tough
to even get traction on this polished concrete that's all
wet now, of course, and you you kind of circle
your way back around, you know, go to the to
the right and drive back around in line and get
in line to do it again. And so there's spectators
watching this, and everybody's up, you know, on a on
an upper level deck watching and it all looks fun
and it's it's kind of exciting to see the car
spinning and you know that's it's it's interesting to watch
(20:46):
and all different types of Porsches. Right, So the next
time you go around to do it, they give you
a little bit of a tip and here's the trick
to the whole kick plate things. So if you're ever
doing this, you watch dead ahead of you. There's a
there's a blue wall. I believe this as Porsche is
somewhere off in the distance. And if you look at
that when you're doing when you're doing this kickplate demonstration
or this this uh, this this module um, if you
(21:08):
look at that and you just keep your eyes focused
on that that wall that's dead ahead, no matter what
happens to the back end of the car, if you
steer towards that wall, if you try to correct to
get you as if you're going to go directly at
that wall, every time you will straighten it out immediately.
You won't. You won't spin out. The goal is to
not spend out on this thing. So you're going thirty
miles across it, back end goes left or right. You
(21:30):
try to control it, or you do control it on
the second or third time, even through and if you
don't spend out, that's the that's the best part, right,
that's the you've done this successfully. If you do spend out,
you you've been unsuccessful. So after the whole day of
of doing this, you know, I got you got pretty
decent edit after two or three times, and I wanted
to do it many many times, so I did. I
did it several times in a row because you get
(21:51):
the option to go back and kind of play around
on some of these modules however you want. You've got
so much time. My family is up watching me on
the upper deck and I spun out the first time,
and they thought that was really cool. The second time
they said, why didn't you spin out? You know what
is they thought that was the object of that part
of the that part of the course because everybody was
doing it. Everybody's spinning out, and it looked all dramatic
and fun. But that was not the goal of that is.
(22:14):
The goal was to remain in control and keep the car,
you know, headed straight. And the idea, I guess is
that you know, if you do have that one point ahead,
you know that that optical point that you're you're staring,
you're staring at that one point and you're able to
correct and maintain control. You're not going to have that
uh um you know that under or oversteer condition that
you would have if you just didn't have control the vehicle.
It's just it's a fascinating day at the track. It's
(22:36):
so much fun. And and I had so much time
left over, you know, once we had done all these
modules that I was able to pick and choose and
I was able to go back on the road handling circuit,
you know, and and do that as many times as
I wanted, as fast as I wanted. Of course, at
that time it's it's raining, and I was a little
bit nervous about it, but um, it was just it
was so much fun. What a day. I mean, you
can't believe the adrenaline rush you have, are the high
(22:58):
that you feel the rest of the day from doing
something like that. And I would encourage you. And this
is just you know, my my one experience with this
whole thing, but I would encourage you if if you can,
or if you have somebody in your life that you
know would would like something like this, would it would
enjoy a similar situation. Maybe it's maybe it is the
NASCAR thing. Maybe it is just driving a an exotic
at the at the mall on an autocross course, or
(23:20):
you know whatever. I would encourage you to do stuff
like this. I mean, it's so much fun and it's
something that I will probably remember the rest of my life.
I don't think I can ever forget my day there.
And if I go to do it again, it's going
to be a different experience. It's gonna be different vehicle,
it's going to be a different um, you know, weather
conditions is going to be a different altogether. It's still
going to stand out. As you know, the first one
(23:41):
was was still its own separate thing that was really
fascinating and fun and exciting, and the second one will
be something completely different and equally exciting. It's just it's
it's worthwhile to do it. I know it's a little expensive.
You know, it's still a couple hundred dollars to do
something like this, and it sounds outrageous. But if there
is again, if there's somebody in your life that that
loves this type of thing, any of these experiences that
(24:01):
you can find across the US, across the world, wherever
it happens to be, these type of days are worth
it in somebody's life if they are, um, you know,
an auto enthusiast, you know, or even maybe somebody who
just wants to give it a shot and you know,
check that off their their bucket list. Maybe in fact,
let's let's let's take a break for a wordsmo our sponsor.
We'll come back and talk about a few more of
these automotive bucket list items that that might interest some
(24:22):
people that are you know, car guys, car girls. And
we're back and you're listening to the Fast Track. I'm
your host, Scott Benjamin, And just before we left, we
were talking about the uh, I guess the Porsche driving
experience and my experience on the track, and I hope
none of that really came across as bragging. I mean,
it was just it's just so much fun that you
(24:43):
can't help but talk about it once you do it.
And uh and I hope that you know a lot
of you out there get the chance to do something
like that, if if not as you know, a gift
you know, from somebody else, if you know it's maybe
it's a gift idea you can kind of float out
there for you know, Christmas or your birthday or whatever
it happens to be Father's day. Some them like that.
If you can do it, i'd say, I'd say, definitely
get yourself out to do it, you know, whether it
(25:04):
happens to be something that's uh, you know, localized to
where you are. You know, we're here in Atlanta, so
it's relatively easy for me to get to that that
portray experience. But there's you know, skip barber schools all
over the place. You can go to many NASCAR tracks
where they have Nascar experiences like my dad did. And
I want to mention one thing about that in just
a moment, because there was there's something really different and
interesting about that one that I had never heard of
(25:26):
before until until then. I was just amazed by what
they could do. I'll get back to that, I promise.
But you can go to rally schools, you can go
to drift schools, you can go to all kinds of
different schools and and check this stuff out. It doesn't
necessarily mean a huge time commitment either. Uh. Some of
this can be just a few hours. It can be
you know, a half day, it could be a weekend experience.
You know, whatever it happens to be. But we're not
(25:47):
talking about something where you have to enroll and you know,
spend a month doing Uh. This is just you know,
getting out there and getting some seat time and getting
you know that that adrenaline flowing through your body a
little bit, and and feeling good about your hobby, about
your interest, about your excitement. You know. It's it's something
I felt like. Maybe this is uh wandering a little
bit off track here, but I'm going to anyways, just
(26:07):
for a minute. You know, listeners of of car stuff
will remember that I had a Yeah, I had a
project car and uh and the project car, of course,
I went the way as most project cars do that
you know, I never really found enough time or money
to put into it, and uh, it just never really
went anywhere. And I ended up donating it to a
children's charity in the end, and I felt really good
(26:28):
about doing that. It helped out a lot of people,
so um, it worked out well. You know. It was
always a car that I always kind of dreamed of
taken out of the road and driving. And you know,
I thought it was gonna be more of an experience,
I guess, and I wasn't getting, you know, the experience
that I thought I was going to get out of
this thing is just parked in the garage kind of
taken up space for a long long time. And um,
I never got, you know, the feeling that I that
I really wanted to get out of having a toy
(26:50):
like that. And a lot of people have toy cars,
or they have a fascination or they have, you know,
a car that they even drive daily that they just love.
Like my wife drives a Jeep Wrangler that she absolutely loves.
She's she's always wanted to have a Wrangler again, she
had one in the past, and she she finally bought
one recently and and just loves the thing. I just
enjoys driving it every day. And I think that's fantastic
(27:10):
if you can do that, if you can get you know,
a Corvette, or you can get whatever type of car
it is, maybe it's a luxury car that you really
enjoy a lot, and you enjoy driving that vehicle and
you can get out and do that and have fun
and it that's really what's important. And and I wasn't
getting that type of feeling from, you know, my project vehicle,
and a lot of people, I think are stuck in
that same position. It's almost like it's not it's not
(27:30):
hurting you to have it, but it's just not providing
the excitement, the thrill that you wanted it too. And
so I was kind of in um, kind of in
a bad spot, I guess, you know, I just wasn't
feeling too good about you know, I'm talking about all
this really cool stuff every day at work, and I'm
reading about all this stuff, and I'm having a lot
of fun, you know, talking with other car people about things,
but I wasn't getting the experience. I wasn't getting out
and doing what I wanted to do in a car.
(27:53):
And and this Porsche driving experience, it's kind of like
rekindled that fire. You know, it made me more excited
about it. Maybe um feel alive again, if that's you know,
it's kind of a funny way to say it, but
it really did make you feel alive and fresh and
excited about you know, the car thing is a hobby,
and I've just been excited about everything since then, and
you know, wanting to do it again and and telling
(28:13):
people about it, and you know, even again kind of
chipping in on gifts for my father, my brother, you know,
that type of thing, so they could do these types
of things as well. Actually I didn't chip in on
my brother, it's just my dad's. But my dad's experience.
Getting back to that, I guess one thing that was
was able to happen at this NASCAR experience. He did
this at M I S. And that did require a
(28:34):
little bit of, you know, a schooling, I guess ahead
of time. I don't know if it was like an
hour how long it was, but he did have to
go to a class to kind of learn the rules
of the of the track and how to do it
and um, you know, the safety procedures and all that.
And you know, there's a lot of safety procedures when
you're out there. They're very careful about that. But in this,
in this a sense, he was able to go out
on his own. He there's nobody with him in the
(28:55):
vehicle at the time, and later he did do a
ride along and I'll tell you about that too. But
when he was out there on his own and driving,
he had communication with a spot or they had a
spotter that was up in the stands, just like they
would for a NASCAR race, and they're telling him if
he's hitting his marks, if he's going too fast, too slow,
you know what's going on. But they do have the
cars governed to a certain speed. And I don't know
what that speed is. I'm going to make something up. Now.
(29:15):
Let's say it's a hundred and thirty. Let's say they
got him governed to a hundred and thirty to begin with,
and they make sure that you're able to handle it
at that speed. Well, as he was driving and he
was doing maybe his you know, five, ten or fifteen laps,
however many it was, I don't remember. As he was
doing his laps, the spotter was realizing that he's doing
a pretty good job out there, as were you know,
several other drivers. They were doing the same thing, and uh,
(29:36):
he was hitting his marks every time and he went around.
He was doing really well, and they said, this is
this is amazing to me that they can do this.
He told him that he's going to dial up the
governor to allow him to go a little bit faster
and to be ready for it when it when it happens.
And I didn't know that they could do this remotely.
He didn't have to come into the pits, didn't have
to do anything remotely. They were able to kind of
(29:58):
up the performance level of the v equal that he
was in at that moment on the track and allow
him to go faster. And he said it was a
noticeable difference. He could feel it. I don't know how
many more miles per hour it will. It allowed him
to go, you know, if it was twenty or thirty
more miles per hour faster, but he said it was
a notable difference in the speed. And I was just
blown away by that that they could even do that remotely, uh,
(30:19):
and kind of allow him to go faster. And they
were doing that for certain people on the track at
the same time. It's just such a cool thing and
and they're making so many advances with this stuff. It's
just fun to get out there and do it. It's
it's so much fun. And I know I'm I sound
like I'm gushing about all this stuff, and I really am,
because there are so many different experiences that you can
do and so many interesting things that you can do.
(30:40):
And and if you're not one to drive, let's say
that you're not one that he wants to go out
and take the risk. Initially, maybe you're you're a little
bit tapid about it. You're you're nervous about it. A
lot of these have an experience that you can pay for.
It's often a lot less money that you can ride
along with an instructor. And you may think that's kind
of a kind of a wimpy way to start, right,
but that's not necessarily the case for everybody. Maybe they
(31:01):
just want to get the get out there and get
the field for it before they do it themselves. And
that's completely worthwhile too, because you have a professional that
knows what they're doing. They can instantly go out there
and and turn fast laps and you can have a
fantastic time doing that as well. Um My dad opted
to pay a little bit extra on that same day
for a ride along with somebody because the speed was
going to be so much greater. And he said, it
(31:22):
really was a dramatic difference in the way that the
professional driver was driving versus the way he was driving.
And I don't I don't know if it came down to,
you know, the way the car was governed or not,
but he said, you know, you're getting close enough to
the wall with a professional driver that you could reach
out and almost touch the wall, or you could reach
out and touch the wall. If you wanted to do
that at you know, a hundred and eighty miles an
hour or whatever it was, you wouldn't want to do that,
(31:43):
but he said that it was. It was so worth
whatever the extra amount was. I think it was just
kind of an add on thing at that point, but
he said it was actually worthwhile to do it, even
though he had driven himself. He said, it was just
that much more thrilling to be going that much faster
and with somebody who had ultimate control of this thing,
and you know, you could feel comfortable in it and
really experienced the track to its maximum I guess at
(32:03):
that point, or the car to its maximum. But you know,
I again, I know I sound like I'm gushing about this,
and I really am. It's just it's a lot of fun.
I know it's not for everybody. But if you if
you do have kind of an automotive checklist that you
want to do certain things before you pass away or
too old to do them, or you know, whatever your
your situation, maybe I say it's worthwhile. And whether you
know whether that's even getting like I like, in my case,
(32:25):
I got that project car. But let's say that you
want to buy a car that's, you know, fully operational,
and you want you just you just want that experience
of owning something. I talked to our producer Kirk before
the show here and I said, do you have any
kind of an automotive wish list? And he said that
he has always wanted a nineteen to nineteen fifty seven Chevy,
preferably a Nomad of some kind. You know, it's it's
a beautiful car. And I agree with him, But it
would be fun to own something like that at some point,
(32:46):
before you know, you're done owning cars, maybe if you want,
I guess that's a polite way to put it, you know,
before you're too old to drive on really, Kurt Um
and I have cars like that too. I would love to, uh,
you know, at some point in my life, I'd love
to own a Lotus vehicle, whether that happens to be,
you know, a newer model or something that's older. I
would love to have a Lotus of leven at some point. Um.
(33:07):
I think just about everybody has a vehicle like that
or has you know, something that they want to do.
Maybe it's a road trip on Root sixty six, or
it's the Pacific Ghost Highway or you want to go
to Europe and drive around, you wanted to, um, just
experienced driving in a car that is a left hand
drive versus a right hand drive. UM, just you know,
whatever it happens to be. I think everybody has at
least something like this that they want to do while
(33:30):
they're driving, while they're still a driving agent. And I
think it rekindles that fire. It brings that spark back
to your automotive interest and your your your enjoyment of
life and it and it really does help. And I'm
definitely gonna find myself back at the at the Porsche
driving experience, I know, sometime in the near future, probably
on my own dime. I don't know if I'm gonna
get it as a gift anymore, but but it was
(33:50):
so worthwhile that I will be back at some point
to do that again. It was just it was a blast,
and I recommend it to anybody that can do it.
I really do. And you know, I know that's been
a lot of information to take in today, but check
around and I'd love to hear from listeners that you know,
get out and do something like this or have a
car that was kind of on a bucket list of
vehicles for them, or have taken a road trip that
(34:11):
they've always wanted to do. Maybe it's drive to the
Grand Canyon, or you know, whatever it happens to be,
I would love to hear about it. And there's a
couple of different ways that you can connect with us.
And we were on social media of course, if you
want to find us on Twitter, we are the fast
Track Pod, and on Facebook and on Instagram we are
the fast Track Show. And we also have a new
website and that's called the fast Track Show dot Com.
(34:32):
So if you go to the fast Track Show dot com,
you can find all of our podcasts there and that's
where we're going to archive all of this information. You know,
as we grow more and more podcasts in our archive.
We're still early days here, but we're going to get
to the point where there's a lot of them there
at some point. And of course, you know, if you
want to leave a review on Apple podcast or on
iHeart Radio app, we would love it if you would
be able to do that, or just wherever you're listening
(34:54):
to your podcast. We'd like to hear from you, you know,
good or bad. We can always take some constructive criticism.
We can also, UH always appreciate some some compliments. That's
always nice as well. If you happen to have one,
I appreciate it, If you leave it there, and if
you do, like we you're hearing, tell your friends because
we're trying to grow this audience. We're trying to get
more listeners every day, and uh, I really do appreciate
that you're here, so thank you very much
Hello, and welcome to the Fast Track. I'm your host,
Scott Benjamin, and today we're going to um take a
little bit of a turn. I guess we're gonna we're
gonna talk about some but a lot of different things really,
but it's gonna have kind of a broad scope in
this one. And uh, and I think it's something that
almost everybody, at least anybody listening here we'll be able
to relate to, and that is automotive bucket list. And
(00:31):
I know a lot of people have heard of bucket
list before. It's you know those things that you want
to do before you die, which sounds awful, but you know,
the things that you want to do before you die.
And a lot of people have things like, you know, skydiving,
or they want to go to France, or they want
to um, you know, because it usually it involves a
lot of travel. Usually it involves um some experiences and
that type of thing. But I want to I want
to focus today on automotive bucket list. And this could
(00:53):
be just about anything. And uh, I have have talked to
several people about, you know, some things that they might
want to do, you know, automotive or lated before they
are too old to do them, you know, too old
to drive, or you know before they kind of lose
interest in this sort of thing, because I think that
might happen with a lot of people as well. You know,
you just kind of age out of this thing. You know,
you get a little bit more um responsible, you know maybe,
(01:14):
or you get um, you know, the point where you
realize that, you know, maybe you don't necessarily want to
drive you know, three miles per hour in the salt
flats anymore because you know, you're you're eight years old
and your reaction time might not be the best that
or the way that it was you know, thirty years
prior any something like that. Um. But anyways, there's there's
a huge variety here of things that we can talk about. It.
(01:34):
I've I've recently done something that I want to talk
about in particular, and uh and I just can't say
enough about it. And I'm not gonna I'm not trying
to sell this, this package or this deal to anybody
by any means, but it is something that that I
did recently that that I want to talk about. It
was a driving experience and uh and I'll get into
that too, But before I talk about my own experience.
I want to talk about, you know, some of these
(01:55):
experiences that you know, people that I know have have
been able to do in the past, and this is
kind of inspiration for me to do this sort of
thing as well. And I was excited about it when
I heard about it. And you know, when you see
somebody else that does something like this and you know
they you hear the stories that they tell you of
what it was like, UM, that's pretty interesting. It's it's
always fun, and it kind of gets you thrilled, you know,
(02:16):
to do the same thing, or it kind of gets
you amped up a little bit too to maybe go
out and you know, experience some of this stuff yourself.
And what I'm talking about in particular is is I
guess these driving packages or these experiences that you can
purchase for a day or an hour or you know,
even just a couple of laps or whatever, you know,
at various race courses around the United States or around
the world. Really and um, once that that I'm talking
(02:39):
about are um, you know, exotics or maybe it's you know,
like the drift cars, or it could be you know,
it could be classic cars. It could be just about anything.
There's experiences out there for for just about every type
of of you know, race series that is out there,
um or every type of vehicle that it's out there, uh,
including manufacturers. Sometimes manufacturers will even host these that allow
(03:01):
you to drive some of their top end vehicles, you know,
all the way down through some of the lower end models,
just to be familiar with, you know what the what
they have on their showroom floors at the time. My
dad is the one that I want to talk about
who has done this most recently, and this is a
year ago Father's Day. We gave him as a gift
a NASCAR experience and this he lives in Michigan, and
this is happening at the Michigan International Speedway and you're
(03:24):
you're allowed to get into an actual NASCAR car. You know,
it has every it's a race vehicle. It's d tuned
quite a bit, I think, you know, it's it's kind
of governed down so that you know, you're not going
to maximum speed, you know, like as they would in
the in the professional series. But um, it's it's for
a user experience that you know, you can buy a
package for you know, a half day, half hour, half
(03:45):
you know what, whatever the increment of time it was.
I can't remember how many hours it was that he
was there, but um got several laps in in a
true NASCAR car and really enjoyed the heck out of it.
Was a lot of fun. And um, there's a couple
of particulars that we're interesting in this and I'll tell
you about them later. But my brother did one as well.
Um he did one where you know, you go to
a parking lot and you get to drive in an
(04:06):
exotic car and I don't know how many laps you
get to do in this thing. You know, it's just
kind of an autocross course with cones and uh, you know.
The dangerous part about this one to me anyways, is
that you know, they're light poles and uh, some concrete
barriers and things like that around that I would be
a little bit concerned about if I was him, But
he loved it. He was able to drive a Ferrari
and was able to uh you know kind of I guess,
(04:27):
not push it to the maximum or anything like that,
but but really kind of feel what that car is
capable of. My my father in law he did one
also that was a Ferrari, but he also did his
it m I s they both live in Michigan, my
my dad and my father in law. And that was
a birthday gift I think from his wife. And he
was able to drive a Ferrari four a d G
T B and uh he drove something like a hundred
(04:47):
and fifty miles per hour on the track and it
was just like super quick accelerating car, you know, zero
to sixty and like two point eight seconds or something
like that, really quick. It was just a thrill for him.
He's a Corvette owner, so he has a a Corvette.
You know that he drives not daily, but you know
he drives it often enough. And I said, it's a
night and day difference between the Corvette and Ferrari said.
(05:08):
It was just an incredible feeling, you know, great sensation
to be able to do something like that. And and honestly,
you know, these packages, I know that they're kind of expensive.
They cost you know, a couple hundred bucks when you
when you do them, but um, and I thought up
until the point that I decided to do my own
experience or you know, I received it as a gift.
I was thrilled with it. I kind of thought, well,
it seems like it might be kind of a waste
(05:29):
of money, and I think a lot of people feel
that way that, you know, why would I spend three
fifty or four hundred or even five dollars or more
on something that only lasts a couple of hours. You
don't get to keep the car by any means, obviously,
you don't get to drive it for the full day.
You don't even get to drive it and show off
to your friends or anything, you know, driving around you know,
the city that you live, unless you're renting a car
for the day, which is something totally different. Um. But
(05:50):
these experiences allow you to kind of push that car
to the maximum, and you've got you know, professional instructor
there with you, and um is, it's a lot of fun.
And I'll be honest with you. I at first I thought,
that's an awful lot of money because the experience that
I did, um the Porsche driving experience here in Atlanta,
and the price was somewhere around three hundred and sixty
five dollars I think at the time, three fifties somewhere
(06:12):
around there. And again it was a gift, and I thought,
oh boy, it's it's really this is an expensive gift.
I don't know if I'm gonna enjoy its worth, you know,
And just the small amount of time that you get.
You only get an hour on the track, and um,
you think that that's not enough time really to fully
experience the vehicle. But I was completely wrong, and I'll
tell you why in just a moment after we take
(06:34):
a break for a word from our sponsor and we're back.
And just before the break, we were talking about how
I had gone to the Porsche Driving Experience here in Atlanta,
and this is kind of a big deal around here.
And I would guess that you know, any town that
something like this appears in, it kind of becomes a
big deal. And it happens right down by the airport.
(06:56):
And I was fortunate enough to get this as a gift,
and I'm so thank full that I got it. I
probably it's something that I would not have have done
on my own. I don't think I would have spent
my own money initially to do this. But now now
I feel like, yeah, I'm gonna I'm gonna go back again.
I know I'm gonna go back again for this because
it was so thrilling. It was just so it was
such a fantastic day that it's it's hard to even
(07:16):
wrap your mind around it. If you haven't ever done
something like this, it's all you can think about, all
you can talk about, it's all. It's just it's a
it's an incredible experience that it's an immersive experience, which
is really really cool. And I think that a lot
of them are this way. I'm not so sure that
you know, the one like my brother did, where you know,
it's a couple of laps in a parking lot, in
a in an exotic is the same way. It's the Sure,
it's thrilling, it's fun, but it's not exactly what you
(07:39):
get when you go to something like what I did
here at the Porsche experience and what other people have
done with uh, you know, the NASCAR experiences that happened,
you know at some of the bigger tracks. I don't
know if you know, like some of the other tracks
do it. I know Michigan International Speedway does it up
in Michigan, But I don't know if you know, like
Talladegaer Dayton or any of those do it. I think
that there are some of these across the United States
at different places that you can O two and they
(08:01):
are more immersive. You go through a little bit of
a schooling process, you know, where they teach you exactly
what to expect when you get out there, etcetera. UM.
That's where this one that I'm going to tell you
about differs a little bit. But you do get trained
on them. You do get you know, the an idea
of what what to do, some of the rules of
the of the racing. Because you are out there with
other people on the track at the same time, it's
not that you know you're the only one out there. UM,
(08:23):
and that makes it even more exciting for a lot
of people. You know you're getting passed, you're passing. It's
just it gives another level to it, you know, the
whole different experience again, this one that I did. If
you and I'm not selling this by any means, but
if you go to the Porsche Experience UM Atlanta or
search the keyword and you'll find you know exactly what
I'm talking about. Here. You can look at a map
of the course that they have, which is it's huge.
(08:45):
It's right by the airport here in Atlanta, and they
have several of these. They have one I believe it's
in California. They have one in Alabama, and they have
one in um, I'm sorry, Louisiana rather and here in Atlanta,
of course, and they have for the track. I mean,
it's it's a norm, it really is. It's a great
big facility and there's an office space down there as well,
so people work on the property, you know, daily Monday
(09:07):
through Friday, nine five whatever. But the track is also there.
And what's really interesting about this you can you can
look at the online and look at the map and
um it's I think it's over one point six miles
of track that they have, and there's several different modules
or experiences that you can do within this track. There
isn't a separate off road circuit. So if you're looking
at one of the uh, one of the off road vehicles,
(09:27):
you know, the the SUVs that that Porcha makes, you
can do that. But the stuff that I was doing
it was, you know, the road course and there's some
low friction handling circuits and things like that. I'll tell
you about us in just a second, but this is
one of those experiences where, um, again I don't think
I would have paid for this on my own, but
I was so happy to get it as a gift,
and I went on St. Patrick's Day in two thousand eighteen.
(09:47):
So it's been over a years since I've been there,
and I still think about it a lot. I mean,
it's something that I want to go back and do again. Um,
if you look at the vehicles, you can choose many,
many different vehicles, you know, all of the Porta lineup,
and and it varies in cost from I guess I
think it gets really very expensive up at the top end.
But if you scroll all the way to the bottom.
And this is not not a knock on anybody who
(10:08):
bought me this gift. I'll tell you that I was
able to get into the sevent eighteen Boxer, and I
think I was in the Boxer s actually for about
three and sixty five dollars, That's what I said. It's
an hour and a half. It's a three horsepower car.
Zero to sixty is and four point five seconds to
top speed is around a hundred and seventy miles per hour.
You're not going that fast on this course, but you
you're not even gonna notice that, you don't. I'll tell
(10:29):
you the whole time that I was doing this, I
don't think I ever looked at the spedometer. It just
wasn't a concern. And I don't know you think that
that's Uh, it's kind of counterintuitive because you're in a Porsche,
you're on a racetrack. You think you want to know
how fast you're going. It's more of a sensation thing.
It's more of how you feel when you're going that
fast and you're learning. You've got an instructor next to you.
That's it's kind of teaching you the way, the whole
(10:49):
thing right from the very beginning. As soon as you
get there. You walk out on the tarmac and you
get in your car. You don't have to go to
a course. You don't have to go to like, you know,
an hour long course. Of this hour and a half
that we're talking about, you know that you're purchasing is
a true hour and a half in the car. You're
in the seat for an hour and a half. And
it's amazing. It's more time than you could you could
(11:10):
even imagine. I mean, it feels like you're in there
half the day. Really, it does feel like a long
long time. And uh, and that's really good because you
get to do just about everything Uh, this course that
that I was on, or the you know, the driving
experience here in Atlanta. Again, it's right, it's on the
property of the airport. Uh so you've got you know,
huge jets flying overhead. It's really it's it's a really
(11:30):
interesting and beautiful setup that they have. It's a it's
a really pretty course, if you want to put it
that way. There is a there's a one mile handling circuit,
which is you know, like a big race track that
goes all the way around and that's kind of like
your well, it's like I guess where you kind of
max out the car. Really, I mean, you're able to
to test the corner and you're able to test the acceleration,
(11:51):
the breaking, all of that and uh and they will
kind of help you along as you go. And you know,
I tell you points to look at. This is your
your target point. You're gonna want to look at this
as you accelerate and then break really hard right here.
You know, that kind of instruction is being given to
you for several laps until you get the hang of it,
and then they kind of let you go on your
own with the instructor still next to you. Of course. Uh,
They also have a wet or a low friction circle,
(12:13):
which is kind of an inward sloping polished concrete area
that has water spraying onto it. And uh, that's where
you can kind of test out your drifting capabilities, you know,
your your abilities, I should say. Um. They also have
a low friction handling circuit, which is imagine that same
material that that polished concrete, you know that's slick and
you know it's got water spraying on it. Imagine a
(12:34):
low friction handling circuit which has you know, several off
camera turns and turns that are that are sloped the
right way and the opposite way so that you know,
the back end slides out and you can test you know,
understeer oversteer in this area. And it's that's really challenging.
That's a very difficult part of it, and it's a
very small part of the course. But um again it's
it's it's very challenging. You can do that over and
over again. There's also I mentioned the you know, the
(12:55):
off road circuit. That's one thing I didn't get to
the off road circuit obviously in the car that I
was in the box r S. There is also a
dynamics area, which is where you test the launch control
and you can do kind of a solemn course, you know,
with with cones set up and h they tell you
how to do that. They you know what, there's there's
a lot of fun things about each one of these
and I'll tell you about that as we get to
it here. And then there's also something this is maybe
(13:17):
one of my favorite parts of this whole thing, and
it's hard to judge, you know, which one is my
favorite part. But they have something called a kickplate, and
I'll tell you about the kickplate in just a moment.
But when you first get in the vehicle, so when
you start this whole thing, you get right in the
car and you head out on the course and they
tell you, you know, watch for traffic. You know, when
you're when you're passing somebody. Um you always you always
wait for my instruction to pass, you know, because they
(13:39):
have communication between the vehicles. There are other cars on
the course, and there are other different types of vehicles
on the course, so you know, there'll be nine elevens
out on the course, they'll be boxers out on the course.
At the same time, there's gonna be panameras out on
the course. UM. This place, this facility allows you to
if you want to, you can pick up your brand
new Porsche there and you can get kind of a
little bit of instruct and with your new vehicle and
(14:01):
pick up your vehicle from this facility if you want to,
if you if you've ordered it here in town or
you know somewhere nearby, that you want to do this
UM so that you know, you get a little bit
of experience behind the wheel in this performance vehicle before
you take it home, which I think is really cool.
So you can have new delivery of your vehicle there,
or you can just test out all these vehicles. So
let's say that you go to the dealership and you
want to know what it's like to drive a GT three. UM,
(14:22):
you can do that. It's gonna cost quite a bit
of money to be able to do that, but you
can go and drive you know, their ultimate top end vehicle. UM. Again,
it's gonna cost quite a bit more than you know
the Boxer experience. But you know there's every level in
between there as well, So you know, choose which one
you find most interesting to you're the one that you
want to do the most. The Boxer was plenty. I'll
tell you to get the full experience that you don't
(14:43):
need to worry about that. It's it's a lot of fun.
And to be honest, you know, the first thing that
you do is you go out on the one mile
handling circuit and you don't take it slow, but you
go slower than you will later in the day. Obviously
on your first lap, first couple of laps, maybe as
the instructor gives you instruction, you know where you should
be and how to fall all the right the appropriate
lines around the track. And I'll tell you when I
(15:04):
first started this, it was it was a dry morning,
but it was cloudy, overcast, and eventually later in the
day it began to rain, and I thought that would
just kind of ruin the experience, but it did not.
It actually made it more interesting to have like half
of the day in the dry weather, half the day
and the wet weather. And uh later you know, you've
got so much experience on this course that uh, some
(15:24):
of the times on the wet course we're just as fast,
if not faster, than on the dry track. At the
beginning of the day, because you become more familiar with
the vehicle and you're able to drive it even even
uh uh push it more to its maximum, I guess,
um in a lot of ways. And uh So you
start out on the handling circuit and you just go
pretty much. I mean, you feel like you're going flat out.
(15:44):
It's it's unbelievable how quick you can go on this
and the feeling of being able to do that in
a controlled environment, you know, with with an instructor near you,
and you know you've got the insurance in the car
and everything, and you feel good about it and you
feel comfortable with it. Um they allow you to kind
of push a little for other and if you're hitting
your marks, they allow you to go a little bit faster,
they allow you to push it a little bit harder,
and they kind of back off on the instruction and
(16:06):
allow you to do what you want to do with
the car. And and that's all very very helpful. It's
just it's a it's a blast. It's a lot of fun.
So you do several laps of that and then they
take you to all these different modules. You know that
maybe they'll take you over to the dynamics area next
and allow you to do a launch control start, which
I completely flubbed the first time I tried it. You know,
it is it's a little bit more difficult to do
(16:27):
than you might think. And it sounds really easy. You know.
You just mash down the brake and then you turn
on certain traction control, turn off trash control. I don't
remember what it was I he was operating all that.
I was just focused on getting the thing to go
fast and straight. And um, I know it sounds funny,
but like all the electronic gadgetry, you can kind of
just ignore all of that, you know, you and just
experience the drive and the feel of this whole thing.
(16:49):
And that's that's really so much fun to do. So
I flubbed the launch control in the first time, you know,
and and uh, spectacular failure on that one. But but
the second tempt it was really good, and and the
third and fourth. And they allow you to do this
as many times as you want, because again, you have
an hour and a half ahead of you. And we
started to kind of make our way around different things,
(17:10):
and we went to you know, the low friction circle
and kind of practice that a little bit, and the
low friction handling circuit, and they tell you what to
expect and each one, and you know when you're supposed
to accelerate what you're supposed to do, if you're supposed
to stab at the break, or if you're supposed to
slowly push the break, and that type of thing. You know,
that type of instruction is given to you all along
the way, so you feel very very comfortable with it.
And maybe the second or third time through each one
(17:32):
of these modules, you know you're on your own. You
just do it and UH and it becomes more and
more intuitive as you do it and go back to
the dynamics area. You can do this long course. And
the fun thing about that is that they tell you
the first time, or at least my instructor did, tells
me to do it how I think I should do it,
you know, do the slow how I felt that I
should drive through their uh to do it fastest. And
I did, and it was terrible. Did it slow? You know,
(17:53):
it did wasn't very quick at all. Um. We go
back to the beginning and he gives me right away,
gives me like two or three tips to go faster,
and it immediately works. I mean, it's it's incredible how
quickly someone can teach you from the passenger seat how
to do something better, and and it works, and you
do it, you know, two or three times, and by
the end of that two or three times, you feel
like a real pro. I mean, it's it's funny, but
(18:15):
you gain knowledge and experience that quickly in that vehicle
and you have that much more confidence to be able
to do it. And you know, one thing that I
want to mention here is that, you know, I said
early on that the kickplate was one of my favorite things.
I think that, you know, the the one mile handling circuit,
of course, is going to be fun because you know,
you're really pushing the car and it's it's fast, and
it's fun, it's exciting and everything. The kickplate is something different.
(18:37):
The kickplate is all about control. And the kickplate is
a big flat piece of pavement and I believe it
says you know, Porsche. It's written and read on the
on the ground next to you and everything it looks.
It looks really dramatic when you see it from a distance,
you know, it's really interesting. The water spring on it
from all different angles. It's actually it's really it's beautiful.
You know, the green grass all around it, it's really
pretty and as you what you do is you drive
(18:58):
across are you start very close to the kickplate and
you drive into it at it doesn't sound like very
very fast, but maybe twenty to thirty per hour at
the most. That's the fastest you'll go. And as your
car travels over a certain section of the concrete, which
is about maybe four or five feet uh you know,
in length and uh um wide it's you know, two
(19:19):
cars wide maybe at the most. And as you drive
across it, as soon as you're when your rear wheels
are on top of the kickplate, it throws you either
left or right. It shifts one way or the other,
and you don't know which way it's gonna go, and
it's not controlled by the person the passenger seat. Is
just completely random. You can't watch the car in front
of you and determine which way it's gonna go. There's
no pattern to it. It's all it's all randomly selected.
(19:42):
So you're going onto this polished concrete surface at twenty
or thirty miles an hour in a rear wheel drive car,
you know, mid engine in this case, and there's a
rear engine too, the uh the back end of the car.
As you travel across, will suddenly either be thrown left
or right, and you don't know which way it's gonna be,
and they just a lot of this is the and
the fun part of this is that, you know, they
allow you to drive onto this thing first and they
(20:03):
tell you what's going to happen, but they don't tell
you how to handle it, you know, they they allow
you to figure it out the first time. So the
first time you do it, the car, let's say the car,
the back end slides out to the left, and immediately
you try to correct and you do the wrong thing.
The car spins out, you know, does a full three
sixty maybe even more if you're going fast enough, and
you kind of slowly, slowly get control of the car
(20:24):
again and then and then pull it out. It's tough
to even get traction on this polished concrete that's all
wet now, of course, and you you kind of circle
your way back around, you know, go to the to
the right and drive back around in line and get
in line to do it again. And so there's spectators
watching this, and everybody's up, you know, on a on
an upper level deck watching and it all looks fun
and it's it's kind of exciting to see the car
spinning and you know that's it's it's interesting to watch
(20:46):
and all different types of Porsches. Right, So the next
time you go around to do it, they give you
a little bit of a tip and here's the trick
to the whole kick plate things. So if you're ever
doing this, you watch dead ahead of you. There's a
there's a blue wall. I believe this as Porsche is
somewhere off in the distance. And if you look at
that when you're doing when you're doing this kickplate demonstration
or this this uh, this this module um, if you
(21:08):
look at that and you just keep your eyes focused
on that that wall that's dead ahead, no matter what
happens to the back end of the car, if you
steer towards that wall, if you try to correct to
get you as if you're going to go directly at
that wall, every time you will straighten it out immediately.
You won't. You won't spin out. The goal is to
not spend out on this thing. So you're going thirty
miles across it, back end goes left or right. You
(21:30):
try to control it, or you do control it on
the second or third time, even through and if you
don't spend out, that's the that's the best part, right,
that's the you've done this successfully. If you do spend out,
you you've been unsuccessful. So after the whole day of
of doing this, you know, I got you got pretty
decent edit after two or three times, and I wanted
to do it many many times, so I did. I
did it several times in a row because you get
(21:51):
the option to go back and kind of play around
on some of these modules however you want. You've got
so much time. My family is up watching me on
the upper deck and I spun out the first time,
and they thought that was really cool. The second time
they said, why didn't you spin out? You know what
is they thought that was the object of that part
of the that part of the course because everybody was
doing it. Everybody's spinning out, and it looked all dramatic
and fun. But that was not the goal of that is.
(22:14):
The goal was to remain in control and keep the car,
you know, headed straight. And the idea, I guess is
that you know, if you do have that one point ahead,
you know that that optical point that you're you're staring,
you're staring at that one point and you're able to
correct and maintain control. You're not going to have that
uh um you know that under or oversteer condition that
you would have if you just didn't have control the vehicle.
It's just it's a fascinating day at the track. It's
(22:36):
so much fun. And and I had so much time
left over, you know, once we had done all these
modules that I was able to pick and choose and
I was able to go back on the road handling circuit,
you know, and and do that as many times as
I wanted, as fast as I wanted. Of course, at
that time it's it's raining, and I was a little
bit nervous about it, but um, it was just it
was so much fun. What a day. I mean, you
can't believe the adrenaline rush you have, are the high
(22:58):
that you feel the rest of the day from doing
something like that. And I would encourage you. And this
is just you know, my my one experience with this
whole thing, but I would encourage you if if you can,
or if you have somebody in your life that you
know would would like something like this, would it would
enjoy a similar situation. Maybe it's maybe it is the
NASCAR thing. Maybe it is just driving a an exotic
at the at the mall on an autocross course, or
(23:20):
you know whatever. I would encourage you to do stuff
like this. I mean, it's so much fun and it's
something that I will probably remember the rest of my life.
I don't think I can ever forget my day there.
And if I go to do it again, it's going
to be a different experience. It's gonna be different vehicle,
it's going to be a different um, you know, weather
conditions is going to be a different altogether. It's still
going to stand out. As you know, the first one
(23:41):
was was still its own separate thing that was really
fascinating and fun and exciting, and the second one will
be something completely different and equally exciting. It's just it's
it's worthwhile to do it. I know it's a little expensive.
You know, it's still a couple hundred dollars to do
something like this, and it sounds outrageous. But if there
is again, if there's somebody in your life that that
loves this type of thing, any of these experiences that
(24:01):
you can find across the US, across the world, wherever
it happens to be, these type of days are worth
it in somebody's life if they are, um, you know,
an auto enthusiast, you know, or even maybe somebody who
just wants to give it a shot and you know,
check that off their their bucket list. Maybe in fact,
let's let's let's take a break for a wordsmo our sponsor.
We'll come back and talk about a few more of
these automotive bucket list items that that might interest some
(24:22):
people that are you know, car guys, car girls. And
we're back and you're listening to the Fast Track. I'm
your host, Scott Benjamin, And just before we left, we
were talking about the uh, I guess the Porsche driving
experience and my experience on the track, and I hope
none of that really came across as bragging. I mean,
it was just it's just so much fun that you
(24:43):
can't help but talk about it once you do it.
And uh and I hope that you know a lot
of you out there get the chance to do something
like that, if if not as you know, a gift
you know, from somebody else, if you know it's maybe
it's a gift idea you can kind of float out
there for you know, Christmas or your birthday or whatever
it happens to be Father's day. Some them like that.
If you can do it, i'd say, I'd say, definitely
get yourself out to do it, you know, whether it
(25:04):
happens to be something that's uh, you know, localized to
where you are. You know, we're here in Atlanta, so
it's relatively easy for me to get to that that
portray experience. But there's you know, skip barber schools all
over the place. You can go to many NASCAR tracks
where they have Nascar experiences like my dad did. And
I want to mention one thing about that in just
a moment, because there was there's something really different and
interesting about that one that I had never heard of
(25:26):
before until until then. I was just amazed by what
they could do. I'll get back to that, I promise.
But you can go to rally schools, you can go
to drift schools, you can go to all kinds of
different schools and and check this stuff out. It doesn't
necessarily mean a huge time commitment either. Uh. Some of
this can be just a few hours. It can be
you know, a half day, it could be a weekend experience.
You know, whatever it happens to be. But we're not
(25:47):
talking about something where you have to enroll and you know,
spend a month doing Uh. This is just you know,
getting out there and getting some seat time and getting
you know that that adrenaline flowing through your body a
little bit, and and feeling good about your hobby, about
your interest, about your excitement. You know. It's it's something
I felt like. Maybe this is uh wandering a little
bit off track here, but I'm going to anyways, just
(26:07):
for a minute. You know, listeners of of car stuff
will remember that I had a Yeah, I had a
project car and uh and the project car, of course,
I went the way as most project cars do that
you know, I never really found enough time or money
to put into it, and uh, it just never really
went anywhere. And I ended up donating it to a
children's charity in the end, and I felt really good
(26:28):
about doing that. It helped out a lot of people,
so um, it worked out well. You know. It was
always a car that I always kind of dreamed of
taken out of the road and driving. And you know,
I thought it was gonna be more of an experience,
I guess, and I wasn't getting, you know, the experience
that I thought I was going to get out of
this thing is just parked in the garage kind of
taken up space for a long long time. And um,
I never got, you know, the feeling that I that
I really wanted to get out of having a toy
(26:50):
like that. And a lot of people have toy cars,
or they have a fascination or they have, you know,
a car that they even drive daily that they just love.
Like my wife drives a Jeep Wrangler that she absolutely loves.
She's she's always wanted to have a Wrangler again, she
had one in the past, and she she finally bought
one recently and and just loves the thing. I just
enjoys driving it every day. And I think that's fantastic
(27:10):
if you can do that, if you can get you know,
a Corvette, or you can get whatever type of car
it is, maybe it's a luxury car that you really
enjoy a lot, and you enjoy driving that vehicle and
you can get out and do that and have fun
and it that's really what's important. And and I wasn't
getting that type of feeling from, you know, my project vehicle,
and a lot of people, I think are stuck in
that same position. It's almost like it's not it's not
(27:30):
hurting you to have it, but it's just not providing
the excitement, the thrill that you wanted it too. And
so I was kind of in um, kind of in
a bad spot, I guess, you know, I just wasn't
feeling too good about you know, I'm talking about all
this really cool stuff every day at work, and I'm
reading about all this stuff, and I'm having a lot
of fun, you know, talking with other car people about things,
but I wasn't getting the experience. I wasn't getting out
and doing what I wanted to do in a car.
(27:53):
And and this Porsche driving experience, it's kind of like
rekindled that fire. You know, it made me more excited
about it. Maybe um feel alive again, if that's you know,
it's kind of a funny way to say it, but
it really did make you feel alive and fresh and
excited about you know, the car thing is a hobby,
and I've just been excited about everything since then, and
you know, wanting to do it again and and telling
(28:13):
people about it, and you know, even again kind of
chipping in on gifts for my father, my brother, you know,
that type of thing, so they could do these types
of things as well. Actually I didn't chip in on
my brother, it's just my dad's. But my dad's experience.
Getting back to that, I guess one thing that was
was able to happen at this NASCAR experience. He did
this at M I S. And that did require a
(28:34):
little bit of, you know, a schooling, I guess ahead
of time. I don't know if it was like an
hour how long it was, but he did have to
go to a class to kind of learn the rules
of the of the track and how to do it
and um, you know, the safety procedures and all that.
And you know, there's a lot of safety procedures when
you're out there. They're very careful about that. But in this,
in this a sense, he was able to go out
on his own. He there's nobody with him in the
(28:55):
vehicle at the time, and later he did do a
ride along and I'll tell you about that too. But
when he was out there on his own and driving,
he had communication with a spot or they had a
spotter that was up in the stands, just like they
would for a NASCAR race, and they're telling him if
he's hitting his marks, if he's going too fast, too slow,
you know what's going on. But they do have the
cars governed to a certain speed. And I don't know
what that speed is. I'm going to make something up. Now.
(29:15):
Let's say it's a hundred and thirty. Let's say they
got him governed to a hundred and thirty to begin with,
and they make sure that you're able to handle it
at that speed. Well, as he was driving and he
was doing maybe his you know, five, ten or fifteen laps,
however many it was, I don't remember. As he was
doing his laps, the spotter was realizing that he's doing
a pretty good job out there, as were you know,
several other drivers. They were doing the same thing, and uh,
(29:36):
he was hitting his marks every time and he went around.
He was doing really well, and they said, this is
this is amazing to me that they can do this.
He told him that he's going to dial up the
governor to allow him to go a little bit faster
and to be ready for it when it when it happens.
And I didn't know that they could do this remotely.
He didn't have to come into the pits, didn't have
to do anything remotely. They were able to kind of
(29:58):
up the performance level of the v equal that he
was in at that moment on the track and allow
him to go faster. And he said it was a
noticeable difference. He could feel it. I don't know how
many more miles per hour it will. It allowed him
to go, you know, if it was twenty or thirty
more miles per hour faster, but he said it was
a notable difference in the speed. And I was just
blown away by that that they could even do that remotely, uh,
(30:19):
and kind of allow him to go faster. And they
were doing that for certain people on the track at
the same time. It's just such a cool thing and
and they're making so many advances with this stuff. It's
just fun to get out there and do it. It's
it's so much fun. And I know I'm I sound
like I'm gushing about all this stuff, and I really am,
because there are so many different experiences that you can
do and so many interesting things that you can do.
(30:40):
And and if you're not one to drive, let's say
that you're not one that he wants to go out
and take the risk. Initially, maybe you're you're a little
bit tapid about it. You're you're nervous about it. A
lot of these have an experience that you can pay for.
It's often a lot less money that you can ride
along with an instructor. And you may think that's kind
of a kind of a wimpy way to start, right,
but that's not necessarily the case for everybody. Maybe they
(31:01):
just want to get the get out there and get
the field for it before they do it themselves. And
that's completely worthwhile too, because you have a professional that
knows what they're doing. They can instantly go out there
and and turn fast laps and you can have a
fantastic time doing that as well. Um My dad opted
to pay a little bit extra on that same day
for a ride along with somebody because the speed was
going to be so much greater. And he said, it
(31:22):
really was a dramatic difference in the way that the
professional driver was driving versus the way he was driving.
And I don't I don't know if it came down to,
you know, the way the car was governed or not,
but he said, you know, you're getting close enough to
the wall with a professional driver that you could reach
out and almost touch the wall, or you could reach
out and touch the wall. If you wanted to do
that at you know, a hundred and eighty miles an
hour or whatever it was, you wouldn't want to do that,
(31:43):
but he said that it was. It was so worth
whatever the extra amount was. I think it was just
kind of an add on thing at that point, but
he said it was actually worthwhile to do it, even
though he had driven himself. He said, it was just
that much more thrilling to be going that much faster
and with somebody who had ultimate control of this thing,
and you know, you could feel comfortable in it and
really experienced the track to its maximum I guess at
(32:03):
that point, or the car to its maximum. But you know,
I again, I know I sound like I'm gushing about this,
and I really am. It's just it's a lot of fun.
I know it's not for everybody. But if you if
you do have kind of an automotive checklist that you
want to do certain things before you pass away or
too old to do them, or you know, whatever your
your situation, maybe I say it's worthwhile. And whether you
know whether that's even getting like I like, in my case,
(32:25):
I got that project car. But let's say that you
want to buy a car that's, you know, fully operational,
and you want you just you just want that experience
of owning something. I talked to our producer Kirk before
the show here and I said, do you have any
kind of an automotive wish list? And he said that
he has always wanted a nineteen to nineteen fifty seven Chevy,
preferably a Nomad of some kind. You know, it's it's
a beautiful car. And I agree with him, But it
would be fun to own something like that at some point,
(32:46):
before you know, you're done owning cars, maybe if you want,
I guess that's a polite way to put it, you know,
before you're too old to drive on really, Kurt Um
and I have cars like that too. I would love to, uh,
you know, at some point in my life, I'd love
to own a Lotus vehicle, whether that happens to be,
you know, a newer model or something that's older. I
would love to have a Lotus of leven at some point. Um.
(33:07):
I think just about everybody has a vehicle like that
or has you know, something that they want to do.
Maybe it's a road trip on Root sixty six, or
it's the Pacific Ghost Highway or you want to go
to Europe and drive around, you wanted to, um, just
experienced driving in a car that is a left hand
drive versus a right hand drive. UM, just you know,
whatever it happens to be. I think everybody has at
least something like this that they want to do while
(33:30):
they're driving, while they're still a driving agent. And I
think it rekindles that fire. It brings that spark back
to your automotive interest and your your your enjoyment of
life and it and it really does help. And I'm
definitely gonna find myself back at the at the Porsche
driving experience, I know, sometime in the near future, probably
on my own dime. I don't know if I'm gonna
get it as a gift anymore, but but it was
(33:50):
so worthwhile that I will be back at some point
to do that again. It was just it was a blast,
and I recommend it to anybody that can do it.
I really do. And you know, I know that's been
a lot of information to take in today, but check
around and I'd love to hear from listeners that you know,
get out and do something like this or have a
car that was kind of on a bucket list of
vehicles for them, or have taken a road trip that
(34:11):
they've always wanted to do. Maybe it's drive to the
Grand Canyon, or you know, whatever it happens to be,
I would love to hear about it. And there's a
couple of different ways that you can connect with us.
And we were on social media of course, if you
want to find us on Twitter, we are the fast
Track Pod, and on Facebook and on Instagram we are
the fast Track Show. And we also have a new
website and that's called the fast Track Show dot Com.
(34:32):
So if you go to the fast Track Show dot com,
you can find all of our podcasts there and that's
where we're going to archive all of this information. You know,
as we grow more and more podcasts in our archive.
We're still early days here, but we're going to get
to the point where there's a lot of them there
at some point. And of course, you know, if you
want to leave a review on Apple podcast or on
iHeart Radio app, we would love it if you would
be able to do that, or just wherever you're listening
(34:54):
to your podcast. We'd like to hear from you, you know,
good or bad. We can always take some constructive criticism.
We can also, UH always appreciate some some compliments. That's
always nice as well. If you happen to have one,
I appreciate it, If you leave it there, and if
you do, like we you're hearing, tell your friends because
we're trying to grow this audience. We're trying to get
more listeners every day, and uh, I really do appreciate
that you're here, so thank you very much
The Fast Track News
Host
Scott Benjamin
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