| rev:text
| - I'm really torn, because driving exotics/racing cars on a real track is an experience like none other that deserves to be highly rated, but my walk-away impression just was not great, and I really don't know if I enjoyed myself. I think part of it was that my expectations were so high and that my experience didn't leave me as thrilled and exhilarated as I had hoped it would.
I had two main issues:
1) The young American guy who served as my coach during the simulation was fantastic--friendly, encouraging, and *very* clear with his directions and easy to understand. I was able to very precisely do exactly as he was saying ("throttle 10, 20, 30, 40, 50%, off, light brake, to the left side," etc.) and ended up with the fastest lap time of any in our group. However, due to some confusion on the track itself with the car they had set aside with a bigger seat for larger people, I ended up splitting from that coach and getting in the car with a different coach, who was a native Italian man with a pretty thick accent and a very different coaching style that I found difficult to follow--I had such a hard time telling whether he was saying "up the brake" or "off the brake" or whatever that on every lap I ended up making all kinds of mistakes and drove well below the ability I was hoping to achieve. I very nearly pulled into the pit about halfway through to request a change of instructor, and I regret not doing so, because I think that would have rescued my experience.
2) If you are _at all_ affected by motion sickness, prepare to feel it. I do suffer from carsickness if I read a book or my phone while riding as a passenger on a windy road, but I'm fine otherwise and absolutely _never_ get carsick when I'm behind the wheel, even on roads like the Tail of the Dragon. About 2/3 of the way through this experience, though, I was feeling it, and it made it uncomfortable to complete the course.
Between those two issues, I left feeling both regretful that I didn't drive to my peak ability and also quite ill, so despite our group choosing the Ferrari F430 GT (an amazing driving machine), I unfortunately can't say that I walked away with the elation and adrenaline high that many other reviewers mention. I'd love to give it another go sometime, but I think I'll be pickier about my coach (which I think you have the right to be when you're spending this kind of money) and/or try a different outfit with a different course.
Also of note: despite spending hundreds of dollars, they don't include pictures or videos and charge quite a bit (many, many multiples of their costs) for these items. Furthermore, you do not get to see your lap times unless you purchase the video. I can deal with the upsell at the end for photos/videos, but not showing you your lap times unless you pay a chunk of change for the video is more than a little disappointing, and so our group left without knowing who did the best.
FWIW, I'd suggest this is best done outside of summer. The cars do not have A/C. Even in December, I opened the air vent in the car window as it was quite warm.
I will say that everyone we interacted with there was fantastically friendly, helpful, and nice, and the cars are a dream to play with. I just left disappointed because circumstances left me not quite getting what I was hoping for out of the experience.
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