05-22-2018, 01:45 PM
With other exotic cars . Thought I’d share a post from one of our Maserati forum members who recently test drove a few of those exotics. ( loved the "chardonnay" remark )
Driven - Portofino, F12, Aventador, S/C R8 V10.
Local dealer offered me a 30 minute drive in the new Portofino, the replacement for the California and some would say a natural progression from the GT. But only if you don’t like the exhaust note of the GT, because the Portofino sounds like a diesel tractor. Better than any of the “spot-the-difference-if-you-can” McLarens, but along the same lines and for the same reasons, but honestly I can’t believe they all sound so rubbish.
The F12 I tracked with Exotics Racing in Las Vegas – fabulous, stable, rapid and a wailing V12 exhaust note. Just can't get used to the indicators being on the steering wheel, I keep changing gear when I signal to turn, and vice versa.
Aventador similarly tracked at Exotics Racing - I drove it straight after the F12 and the Instructor/Nanny told me as I got in it that I would be disappointed, and bizarrely he was right. Big, heavy, surely needs a better driver than me to get the best from it. Much easier to drive the F12 fast than it is this.
R8 V10, Supercharged. The most enjoyable of them all – 750 bhp, AWD, much smaller and lighter than the Lambo and more confidence inspiring than the F12 so more chuckable. Feels the fastest of them all by far, every stomp on the loud pedal resulting in some involuntarily blaspheming followed by some juvenile sniggering. To me the best exhaust note outside the GT, possibly, dare I say, better…? Best of all it’s my mate’s car, so a regular challenge to my bowel control. Raced each other around Napa a few weeks back, and it was shockingly quick, I had nothing to offer with the GT. We probably pissed off a few people trying to have a quiet slurp of Chardonnay, but to me it sounded like dueling Mastodons bellowing across the tundra in search of some action.
Driven - Portofino, F12, Aventador, S/C R8 V10.
Local dealer offered me a 30 minute drive in the new Portofino, the replacement for the California and some would say a natural progression from the GT. But only if you don’t like the exhaust note of the GT, because the Portofino sounds like a diesel tractor. Better than any of the “spot-the-difference-if-you-can” McLarens, but along the same lines and for the same reasons, but honestly I can’t believe they all sound so rubbish.
The F12 I tracked with Exotics Racing in Las Vegas – fabulous, stable, rapid and a wailing V12 exhaust note. Just can't get used to the indicators being on the steering wheel, I keep changing gear when I signal to turn, and vice versa.
Aventador similarly tracked at Exotics Racing - I drove it straight after the F12 and the Instructor/Nanny told me as I got in it that I would be disappointed, and bizarrely he was right. Big, heavy, surely needs a better driver than me to get the best from it. Much easier to drive the F12 fast than it is this.
R8 V10, Supercharged. The most enjoyable of them all – 750 bhp, AWD, much smaller and lighter than the Lambo and more confidence inspiring than the F12 so more chuckable. Feels the fastest of them all by far, every stomp on the loud pedal resulting in some involuntarily blaspheming followed by some juvenile sniggering. To me the best exhaust note outside the GT, possibly, dare I say, better…? Best of all it’s my mate’s car, so a regular challenge to my bowel control. Raced each other around Napa a few weeks back, and it was shockingly quick, I had nothing to offer with the GT. We probably pissed off a few people trying to have a quiet slurp of Chardonnay, but to me it sounded like dueling Mastodons bellowing across the tundra in search of some action.
