Had a great time at an annual Ferrari-Maserati track day hosted by one of the great dealerships in our area. Attached are some pics showing some of the action.
A couple thoughts on the Maserati's performance:
1) I am an intermediate to expert driver. Only an expert driver in a 355 could keep up with me, and eventually passed me. The Maserati held it's own with 355's and equally talented drivers. I was able to pull 355's in the corners, but lost ground on long straights.
2) Again, it's was driver talent which separated the 360's from the 355's and the Maser's. With the right driver, the 360's were very fast.. I had no hope of keeping up. Luckily many 360's had less aggressive pilots than I.
3) Substantial body roll on the Maser. You may be able to tell from one of the corner pics. If not, I have a short Mpeg I'm finishing up which shows video footage of a 355, 360, and me on the last turn at Waterford, and you can see how flat the Ferrari's are compared to my Maser (I had skyhook on in sport mode). Consider though that with the body roll, heated seats, and headlight washers I was still able to keep up with all but 2 355's and a few 360's that were in very capable hands.
4) I found the traction control a bit too aggressive for the track on dry pavement, but it did save some morning trouble when my early desire for fast lap times exceeded my understanding of the track. Had traction control off most of the day. Interesting epiphony (sp?) I had in the car with traction control on. I was going way too fast into a corner and was standing on the brakes, then I went quickly to full throttle coming out of the tight right turn. Let's play this out in any of my old cars, and for this example let's assume it's the Viper:
In my Viper, you would have heard tires screaming, smelled the red hot brakes, saw the car shudder from left to right on rapid deceleration and likely witnessed tire smoke from me locking up the inside front. Then you would have seen me over correct for sliding sideways due to too much throttle input at corner exit, eventually letting off the throttle to allow the car to straighten up, then hit the throttle again and make up all my time on the straight with brutal power. Typical for any aggressive track session in a Viper. What I didn't mention was the sweat on my brow from really driving on the edge, and the muscle it takes to wield around the Viper.
Same scenerio in the Maserati: In the car hitting the brakes way too late, I saw the ABS light flash, a few clicks, a tire chirp, the traction control light flicker wildly, a whirring sound, some gas pedal pressure, and I was through the corner. Didn't break a sweat, and felt like I could have eaten an ice-cream cone while negotiating that corner. I was blown away at how well the car could make the driver look. I was blown away at the technology and how well it worked (Remember, first car ever with ABS and traction control for me). I was embarrassed to confide in any of my close friends that I had traction control on at all, and decided to keep it my dirty little secret. Later in the day, I ran back to back laps with traction control on vs. off. Conclusion in all this diatribe? I could go faster with traction control off but it took serious concentration. I felt like with traction control on, I'd be a bit slower, but I wouldn't break a sweat doing it.
5) The Enzo was cool. Way cool. Very quiet, very mechanical. Too expensive to really have fun for all but a few individuals. More like Ferrari art... my opinion. Perhaps that's the way it should be.
A couple thoughts on the Maserati's performance:
1) I am an intermediate to expert driver. Only an expert driver in a 355 could keep up with me, and eventually passed me. The Maserati held it's own with 355's and equally talented drivers. I was able to pull 355's in the corners, but lost ground on long straights.
2) Again, it's was driver talent which separated the 360's from the 355's and the Maser's. With the right driver, the 360's were very fast.. I had no hope of keeping up. Luckily many 360's had less aggressive pilots than I.
3) Substantial body roll on the Maser. You may be able to tell from one of the corner pics. If not, I have a short Mpeg I'm finishing up which shows video footage of a 355, 360, and me on the last turn at Waterford, and you can see how flat the Ferrari's are compared to my Maser (I had skyhook on in sport mode). Consider though that with the body roll, heated seats, and headlight washers I was still able to keep up with all but 2 355's and a few 360's that were in very capable hands.
4) I found the traction control a bit too aggressive for the track on dry pavement, but it did save some morning trouble when my early desire for fast lap times exceeded my understanding of the track. Had traction control off most of the day. Interesting epiphony (sp?) I had in the car with traction control on. I was going way too fast into a corner and was standing on the brakes, then I went quickly to full throttle coming out of the tight right turn. Let's play this out in any of my old cars, and for this example let's assume it's the Viper:
In my Viper, you would have heard tires screaming, smelled the red hot brakes, saw the car shudder from left to right on rapid deceleration and likely witnessed tire smoke from me locking up the inside front. Then you would have seen me over correct for sliding sideways due to too much throttle input at corner exit, eventually letting off the throttle to allow the car to straighten up, then hit the throttle again and make up all my time on the straight with brutal power. Typical for any aggressive track session in a Viper. What I didn't mention was the sweat on my brow from really driving on the edge, and the muscle it takes to wield around the Viper.
Same scenerio in the Maserati: In the car hitting the brakes way too late, I saw the ABS light flash, a few clicks, a tire chirp, the traction control light flicker wildly, a whirring sound, some gas pedal pressure, and I was through the corner. Didn't break a sweat, and felt like I could have eaten an ice-cream cone while negotiating that corner. I was blown away at how well the car could make the driver look. I was blown away at the technology and how well it worked (Remember, first car ever with ABS and traction control for me). I was embarrassed to confide in any of my close friends that I had traction control on at all, and decided to keep it my dirty little secret. Later in the day, I ran back to back laps with traction control on vs. off. Conclusion in all this diatribe? I could go faster with traction control off but it took serious concentration. I felt like with traction control on, I'd be a bit slower, but I wouldn't break a sweat doing it.
5) The Enzo was cool. Way cool. Very quiet, very mechanical. Too expensive to really have fun for all but a few individuals. More like Ferrari art... my opinion. Perhaps that's the way it should be.
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