Wow. What a weekend. I attended an exotic car festival this past weekend by a company called World Class Driving. What an incredible experience. Let me just say, 120 mph in a Ferrari F430 Spider is a pretty cool thing.
I originally found out about the event while our family was on vacation at Holiday World in Indiana. While searching for a place to stay on vacation, I scoured the web for luxury hotels in the area. Let me say, there’s not much of anything “luxurious” up there. However, I did find a gem when I discovered West Baden. It’s a hotel with some rich history, and I highly recommend checking it out. While on vacation, we did some sightseeing and made time for the 45 minute drive to West Baden. I got more than I planned when my wife brought me a brochure she found on the World Class Driving event in September. What a temptation it was, and one I wasn’t be able to resist.
I wrestled with going to the event for a few weeks. We’re going. We’re not going. We’re going. Its not cheap. Finally, 2 weeks before the event, I decided to go, but I didn’t purchase their premium package. I scaled back to their 2nd level event pass (there were 4 levels), and we decided she would remain at home with the kids with some help from her mom.
I invited my sister to go with me and we arrived late Friday night just in time for the evening gala party. Enjoying steak and lobster surrounded in a domed hotel full of exotic cars (including a Bugatti Veyron) is a great way to spend an evening.
The next morning included getting registered for my 2 drives and attending a brief on how to behave in the cars…oh the any speeding tickets are your responsibility speech. The drives are scheduled in 2 hour intervals with 8 car groups. I was only able to drive the exotic car group and not the super car group. Basically that means, I drove $100k-250k cars instead of the $250-$500k cars. Still plenty of excitement, and I have no complaints.
I registered late, but was fortunate to have someone cancel. I was able to get my first drive in at 11:00. My first group of cars consisted of Porsche 911 GT3, Ferrari F430 Convertible, and a Mercedes SL65 AMG convertible.
My 2nd drive kicked off at 5:00 and consisted of an Aston Martin Vantage convertible, an Audi R8 and a Maserati Quattroporte. This groups was a luxurious as the first group was fast. I thoroughly enjoyed the R8 although it lacked a little power compared to the Porsche, Ferrari and Mercedes.
Overall, the 6 car driving experience was perfect for my first time out and best of all, no speeding tickets. 😉 However, next year, I’m going to head up early, take my wife, stay 2 days instead of one and drive 12 cars…including the 3.5s 0-60 Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche.
West Baden Hotel
West Baden Dome
My Favorite Ride