Life's too short, just drive.

I’ve heard variations of that philosophy before of course, but never those exact words, and when I saw them for the first time, what followed blew me away. Part of what I read was; “maybe you’ve imagined yourself behind the wheel of a true Supercar like the Mercedes SLR McLaren.” Now in my opinion, any car aficionado to not have lusted for driving a McLaren, well then he or she wouldn’t be a true car nut. The phrase however, belongs to a group of people that put on the

World Class Driving event that began in Europe a few years ago, came to the States in 2006 when over 1500 people had the extreme pleasure of driving some of the most fantastic cars ever produced. Today, World Class Driving travels all over the world allowing a select few individuals to drive some of these incredible machines. Rod and I had the opportunity on a beautiful day in May to go to Sedona Arizona and spent some 150 miles worth of seat time in six of the most stunning cars I’ve ever had the privilege to drop my derriere in.
Imagine if you will, 12 hours of Sebring racer and one of the premier Ferrari drivers of all time, Didier Theys, handing you the keys to a beautiful yellow $170,000 Ferrari F430, then leading you out to cruise the streets and highways in one of the most beautiful locations in the world. How cool is that? To verbalize the exhilaration one feels when flicking through the gears with the steering wheel mounted paddle shifters, while listening to one of the most thrilling exhaust notes around coming from the 490 horsepower V8 sitting directly behind you, is virtually impossible.

Now try and imagine how you’d feel if Didier then tossed the keys to a black Porsche GT-3 and said follow me. I don’t know about you but Rod and I were both thinking that it was a bit of a let down after the F430, but I have to admit, it didn’t talk long to appreciate the racing heritage in the Porsche. Very different cars for sure but the GT-3 was certainly a blast to drive.
That was followed by a spin in the Ford GT which, truth be told, was a very surprising car. This is pure American muscle at its best. While the Italian and German cars are high rpm cars, the Ford GT is a brute at 500 horsepower and 500 lb-ft of pavement blistering muscle. This car screams from 0-60 in a breathtaking 3.4 seconds, and while following the Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder, and listening to the magnificent exhaust singing while downshifting, it was interesting to see just how easy it was to stay with the Gallardo without having to downshift the GT. Simply tickle the throttle and the monstrous 500 lb-ft of torque comes to life and moves the Ford with very little effort.

Okay, now we jump out of the GT and get to slip into the sweet sounding lime green Lambo and I must tell you, it simply doesn’t get much better then cruising in Sedona Arizona in May, in a Gallardo Spyder. The exhaust was echoing off the canyon walls begging you to downshift just to listen to the exhaust note. So I did. This car without a doubt has the sweetest albeit most raucous exhaust sound you’ll ever hear and I’m here to tell you, this 500 horsepower car is fast, agile and incredibly fun to drive.

The fastest and most race-like car there was the Noble M400. Noble rolling chassis' are shipped from the manufacturing facility in Port Elizabeth, South Africa without the engine or transmission. The Noble® M400 is sold in limited quantities as a component rolling chassis only. The units come factory assembled, painted, upholstered, with full instrumentation and brakes systems, along with suspension, exhaust wheels and tires. The engine and transaxle has to be installed by the buyer or under the buyer's supervision by an independent contractor. The car computer is mapped to 425 horsepower, and with the ratio of pony power to weight, this car performs with the best in the world, and actually better then most but as Rod said, in reality, this is pretty much a street legal race car.

And then there was the Mercedes SLR McLaren. Almost 620 horsepower and a mind numbing 595 lb-ft of torque moves this huge Supercar down the highway in the blink of an eye. At almost $500,000.00, this is the only car that we had to have a co-pilot with, and truth be told, I simply didn’t care. Make no mistake; this is not a plush cruiser. This is a serious performer with seats that wrap around you giving you the impression of being in the cockpit of a very luxurious race car, and in truth, that’s not a bad analogy. While the Ferrari and Lamborghini are undoubtedly exotics, and the Ford GT is all about muscle with the Noble being all about racing, the SLR McLaren is about everything. Stunning styling, one of the most iniquitous stances you’ll ever see on a car, an interior that’s second to none and performance that is intimidating to everyone else on the road, and in truth, it can be just a bit intimidating behind the wheel. When I had the opportunity, and permission, to “get on it” just a bit, I was dumbfounded at how seamless this car was as we shot from 60 to…. Well, let’s just say I had to back off without even coming close to taxing this very potent engine.

There is a lot more to come on the website in the near future as Rod and I write more, and share some video with you about the incredible day we had with World Class Driving. You must go to their website; www.wcdriving.com and find out where they’ll be next, and if there is anyway you can do it, well as Nike says, just do it, or more importantly, as Jean-Paul Libert and his crew say, “life is to short: just drive.