I needed to see this after watching the Bentayga reveal


Wish it had a back seat...

 

Fun vid, yet if I wanted loud and gaudy with relatively long-term uncomfortable race seats I'd have kept the Ferrari. The new Corvette is an amazing performer! The new Cadillac is one to keep an eye on!!! Don't laugh about the Caddy, look into the design / development and you may be quite surprised.

 

I was actually going to buy a C7 Z06 for track days, but changed my mind after I spoke to several Z06 owners at the track and they confirmed it overheats after a few laps when driven hard. Forums are full of posts reporting the same. GM is acting like they nothing's wrong. Thinking about a 2016 Viper ACR for the next track season. Ferrari is nice, my friend has a 458 Speciale..its awesome, but I dont think it will last a single track season without major repairs.

 

Ouch, it is horrible when manufacturers don't admit to problems and fix them. Seems nowadays many manufacturers are being downright evasive including the VW Group (VW, Bentley, Audi, Bugatti, etc), GM and others. The 458 should be ok but remember these high-strung cars might chew up bits when used in 'anger' and the financial costs are seriously high. Have you considered a Ariel Atom as they are built for such use and easy to fix plus cheap(ish) for replacement parts.


BTW: One of my friends got a letter from the VW Group recently saying they'll pay him off only $4k for the $15k to fully repair damage due to their chain-drive engine nightmare defect many are suffering from. Of course they are using lawyers and believe it will go to Class Action status shortly.

http://ash-bash.kinja.com/the-tickin...=1436319776693





Maybe one day Bentley owners will come together with a Class Action lawsuit about the widely know defect of false air / broken hose above the tranny that needs engine out to replace ($4.5k to set right). It is deeply saddening when a car manufacturer refuses to make things right. It does not inspire brand loyalty plus when word of mouth gets out online, like with your mentioned Corvette situation... This is why I laugh about Bentley and let others know about the facts of how the factory treats their customers with widely known defects and ignoring them. Am ALMOST of the belief that the VW Group is building in short lifespans to some extent to then make $$$$ from servicing these defects.


The Ariel is an amazing track car. In the dry mount up some race slicks and holy-sh*t!!! If you plan to track a lot as I did, it is soooo much smarter getting a car where pretty much everything is easy to access to service and parts are reasonable. If you really want to get serious, look at a DSR or the like


BTW, I choose F2000 because it was the 'sweet spot' for cost/performance and easy to get parts for. Just remember, some clubs do not allow fully open wheel cars to be on track with closed-wheel varieties for safety reasons and thus a DSR might be for you. It'll make the Ferrari seems slow as a turtle, which the F2000 also does to some extent when it comes to cornering at 3G+.


Personally, I'd never 'casually' track a Ferrari again UNLESS it is someone else's car and they're paying for it all. You can get soooo much more performance for far less $$$ (Ariel Atom) and odds are you want a 'driver's car' and not an X-Box on wheels (Nissan GTR). The Ferrari F40 was the last of the true driver's cars from Maranello imho (unless you got 333SP money burning a hole in your pocket and ridiculous sums of money to keep it running).

 

The Atom is tempting, but not workable for me, due to needing a separate trailer, space for storing the trailer, etc. I know it can be made road legal, but I am not realistically going to drive 120 miles each way to the nearest track in a tubular chassis open wheel car. The open chassis is miserable to be in during wet conditions. Plus, as we all learned from Justin Wilson's death at Pocono, you can simply get struck by a piece of debris and die.

I have been renting an SCCA-spec BMW e46 this season. $1K per day, worry free. It's basically a classic "Arrive and drive". I don't want to own a car like that myself because for some strange reason there is not a single race shop around NYC. The nearest one is 60+ miles away in NJ and that's a long distance relationship that won't work for me.