[s-cars] Carrera GT

[pkrasusky at ups.com]

Alexander shared:

<<<Hi All, Some time ago, I believe it was Spring of 2005, a discussion
surrounding the various cars we'd had occasion to drive evolved. At that
time I was anticipating a drive in a Carrera GT for late in the Summer.
Some of you had requested I let you know how it went and I said I would
gladly oblige. Well, needless to say, late Summer came and went, but
there was no drive to be had. Fall passed as did Winter and so would
Spring of 2006 and alas no drive. But then one miraculous morning the
car gods were shining down upon me. I'd sat in the GT on a number of
occasions even started and revved it up a few times all the while only
imagining what it must be like to have that glorious cacaphony of valves
and cylinders going at full bore sitting right behind my head. But
nothing could have prepared me for what was about to ensue. Now, I've
had the pleasure of riding and driving in Testa Rossa's, F355's, F360's
(best sounding car I've ever experienced), a '73 Carrera RS (way cool,
btw), just about every iteration of the 911 and the 911 Turbo ever made
(including some seriously modified versions), supercharged M3 race cars,
turbocharged (500+hp) old generation 5 series Bimmers, C5 & C6 Z06's,
ridden in a Copper Head Viper, Lambo Gallardo, modded Ur S6's, RS4's,
and had actually been given a brief ride in the GT previously, but I can
catergorically tell you that there is nothing, simply nothing that could
have even come close to making me understand what I was going to feel
that beasutiful Summer morning. So there I was on a Saturday at about
9am as the carrier waited to take the car to its new destination. The
truck was a little ealier than I was expecting so I hadn't yet pulled
the car out of its storage area. I climbed in and fired up the engine in
order to pull it out to then hand the keys over to the trucker, but I
was a little put off by the seriously copious amounts of smoke bellowing
out of the two exhausts. Whoa, that's not good! Okay, so I cut the
engine and we proceeded to push the car outside which in itself is not
as easy a task as you might imagine as the car is excessively low and
ridiculously wide. Moreover there's a slight decent as you exit the
storage area that means you have to have the car at a very tight angle
in relationship to the doors on the building to be sure that the front
lip spoiler won't scrape as you pull the car in or out. Very annoying
and time consuming to get in and out. Anyway, I digress. With the car
now outside, I fired it back up again and there was, of course, still
large amounts of smoke coming from the rear. I gently depressed the
clutch and slid the shifter into first gear then ever so carefully got
the car rolling so that I could move it from where it was blocking
things. I took it round the back of the building where there was much
suspicion as to what the cause of the problem was. We decided to leave
the car and let it idle for a little while. After perhaps 10 or 15
minutes I returned to the car hoping that the sole problem might have
dissipated and although it was certainly less than when I first started
it up it was by no means gone. Perhaps a little jab of the throttle
might expedite the smoke clearing, but that would have no effect either.
It was decided that what this bad boy needed was a run. It had been
sitting for a while and been started a couple times to be moved, but
never actually driven. Now as enthusiasts this crowd would all know that
a thoroughbred of this caliber simply doesn't like to sit around and not
get run. Actually, it hates it. It despises not being driven perhaps
more so than any car in recent years. Okay, well, perhaps that's an
exageration, but it's definitely not happy sitting around or for that
matter even being pussy footed around. It likes to go and that's what I
decided was what was best for it. Truthfully, it wasn't my call, but
I'll be glad to take the credit. So since the smoke wasn't clearing I
called my boss and aksed him how he wanted me to handle the situation.
He said "well, I think you're going to have to drive it. It probably
just needs to be blown out"! I responded saying that I really didn't
feel comforatble driving it incase something were to happen. His
response was simply "don't worry about it, it's insured". With that I
buckled my seatbelt and my buddy Rob hopped in the passenger seat.
Having heard and read horror stories about the clutch, I was frankly
terrified that I was going to screw it up and end up with a $40,000
repair job on my hands. Fortunately, I either engaged and disengaged the
clutch properly or was lucky enough to not have anything catastrophic
happen where that was concerned. I pulled out onto the road which is a 4
lane commercial highway with a speed limit that alternates between 35
and 50 mph and once I was certain that the clutch was fully engaged I
applied what turned out to be way too much power for the cold tires. PSM
instantly grabbed the throttle before things got too ugly and kept the
back end in check. I shifted to second and with a little more prudence
squeezed the throttle. Tha cars that I had pulled out in front of were
rapidly approaching me in the rear view mirror and I was starting to get
a little concerned that I wasn't going to get out of their way before
they barelled down upon me. Well, what the hell was I thinking? As I
continued to gingerly apply the throttle I again had the tires break
loose. Trying to modualte the throttle controling this much power was
proving to be a little more challenging than I'd bargained for. Okay, so
I suck as a driver, but to be fair I'm used to my Ur S6, which by
comparison feels like, well, an Ur S6 which is to say reasonable, but a
little sloppy. Plus, at this point I'm horribly nervous given that I'm
driving somebody else's $450,000 super car and I've just arguably pulled
out into traffic sooner than I should have under the circumstances. But
once I engaged 3rd, perhaps the two previous tires revolutions had
heated them up enough, the tires just gripped and we rocketed forward at
a velocity that I would imagine is not disimilar from sitting in a space
ship being sent to the moon! I backed off the throttle for traffic, down
shifted to second, blipped the throttle and bang we were off again. I
looked over at my buddy's face to see him smiling from ear to ear as I
swear the g-forces pushed the skin on his jowles backwards. As I
redlined it in second I heard him giggle like a little school girl. I
pulled off the throttle, depressed the clutch, grabbed third, released
teh clutch, and depressed teh throttle and boom, we're off again. Wholly
Christ, this thing is insane. The speedo climbs like the the pennies
counter on the gas pump when you're filling up. It's almost mesmerizing
in itself, but you really can't keep your eyes off the road becasue
everything's approaching so quickly that you have to be careful. Plus no
one's expecting this silver bullet to approach any where near the speeds
it's capable of let alone approching those speeds on a lazy weekedn
morning. I pulled over into a neighborhood to turn the car around in
order to head back. I again carefully accelerated away, but once I was
sure everything was a go, I floored it. 8200 RPM in 1st, 8200 RPM in
2nd, 8200 RPM in 3rd. Shift into 4th and I have no idea how fast we're
going. All I know is that at some point as I approached this long
sweeping corner I was traveling at 130. By no means an extraordinary
speed, but it's all but impossible to express in words the speed with
wich we attained that velocity. Never before and never since have I
experienced anything that felt so incredible (at least not in a car).>>>


Alexander-

Thanks for sharing the experience.  Your recount is the first
non-journalistic review / feedback I've seen on them.  I've heard really
good things, of which you confirmed most.  Great you did so well with
the clutch, the rags have it touted up as being a real SOB, good to see
Johnny Layperson can manage to save face with  it.  Your "jowles" ear to
ear grin comment has me flashing back to Jeremy Clarkson running in that
Ariel Atom saying his epiglottis was filled with bees.  Funny stuff.
Prolly close to needing a G suit 8-).

Referring to all dat smoke - my attention is drawn to your mention of
"even got to fire it up and blip the gas a few times" bit.  Yes, as you
said, exotics don't like to not be run, and when run not run hard.  They
***especially*** do not like to be started up and shut off.  They REALLY
especially don't like to be rev'd at initial start up, THEN shut off.
I'd assume they cold start rather richlike, and may even likely have an
air pump for cold start emissions.  Starting / revving it w/o running
loads the motor full 'o fuel and air.  The air likely condensates (er
sumptin) in the exhaust and the resultant next-time startup is, well, a
ton 'o smoke, Jamaican Style even.  Your cohort was spot on, car needed
to be blown out.  Just wait till she gets up to temp heh heh!  I'm
hearing the newer Audont's are the same in this regard - they don't like
to not be run up to temp (EYEtalian tuneup ala Pizzo) and are major
carbon build up producing cars if not 'run'.  NOooooooooooo problem of
that for meeeeee I'm thinking, of course.

I'm imagining the WOT sound of that thing right now, and having a
moment, I am.  Thanks again.  Interesting the Gallardo experience was so
paled by the GT.  Wonder if a Murcielago would have ended with same
result?  You're only choice is to of course find out!!!  Your mission,
should you choose to accept it.
<<<Never before and never since have I experienced anything that felt so
incredible (at least not in a car)>>>

This of course ***does*** beg the question...  what, then, did???
Inquiring mindz heh heh.

Keep up the good work out there - do more / report back!!!
Exxxxxcellllllllennnnnnnnnt.

-Paul where's a good GT to 'try' when you need to??? K.
CT few GTs @ local stealer collecting dust and cannot be given away -
along with the McLaren SLRs - anyone want one "cheap"???  8-)
all-aluminum posersupercarwannabe

ps.  WTF happened to the rest of yer post?  You logged back on stating
to "ignore" the previous (NO THANK YOU!), then leave us hanging for the
rest?  GT TEASE...