Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Cars so intricate you need a 30-minute training session just to get behind the wheel

Kats at Exotics Racing

Christopher DeVargas

Las Vegas Sun writer John Katsilometes in the Aston Martin VantGE S before heading out on to the track at Exotics Racing Las Vegas, Thursday Oct. 15, 2012.

Kats at Exotics Racing

Racing Instructor Mark Lange instructs the guest drivers on the basics of drving a performance sports car at Exotics Racing Las Vegas, Thursday Oct. 25, 2012. Launch slideshow »
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Las Vegas Sun writer John Katsilometes in the Aston Martin VantGE S before heading out on to the track at Exotics Racing Las Vegas, Thursday Oct. 15, 2012.

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The Aston Martin Vantage S is one of the many high perfromance sports cars available to drive at Exotics Racing Las Vegas, Thursday Oct. 25, 2012.

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Las Vegas Sun writer John Katsilometes drives the Aston Martin Vantage S on the track at Exotics Racing Las Vegas, Thursday Oct. 15, 2012.

When Consumer Reports provides a review of a new vehicle, the process is comprehensive. The assigned driver spends as long as six months with the vehicle, navigating under real conditions and piloting the car under a wide range of conditions in the same manner as any sensible owner would.

At the end of this period, the reviewer will typically say if he/she would want to “live with” this car on a daily basis. As in, “The new MazdaSpeed 3 is a car we can live with.”

Given that rough blueprint, I can honestly say I could live with a 2012 Aston Martin Vantage S sports car.

But I would miss it because I would be in jail.

”All I can say, officer, is it didn’t feel as if I was driving 110 mph, and I know that is very fast for a mall parking lot …”

About a month ago, I visited a place where I could simply visit the hand-made, high-performance British sports car made famous in many James Bond movies. The Bond franchise has turned 50 this year, celebrating is half-century anniversary with the film “Skyfall.” So in answering an invitation to visit Exotics Racing and wind around the 1.4-mile road course, I asked if I could drive the Bond car.

I wound up shaken and stirred.

The setup at Exotics Racing should provide a clue that this is no routine driving experience. The complex sits next to Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and its road course bends with 11 turns (a dozen being too many, and 10 just not enough) and allows drivers to air it out along an 1,800-foot straightaway. The business offers more than 30 exotic cars, including a Ferrari 458 Italia, Lamborghini Superleggera LP570, Porsche Turbo S and McLaren MP4-12C. (Rates for a driving experience on the road course are $200 to $1,250 depending on the make of car and how many laps you choose; hit the business's official website for details.)

But before you can even kick the tires on one of these high-dollar vehicles (the MSRP for an Aston Martin Vantage S tops out at $150,000; $300,000 for the Italia), you must undergo a 30-minute briefing/tutorial on how to actually drive the beasts. Position yourself close to the steering wheel so your arms are bent at about a 90-degree angle (in my Malibu LTZ, my arms are at about zero-degree angle) and how to downshift from the vehicle’s seven-gear transmission by using toggles on either side of the steering wheel.

And if you are behind the wheel of a car requiring seven gears to reach maximum speed, you are in a machine far more advanced than, say, a 1997 VW Golf. I use that car as an example because the first vehicle ever purchased by Exotics Racing co-founder David Perisset was a 1997 VW Golf, a vehicle finally sent to the auto-parts graveyard a month ago after logging 250,000 miles.

To make a hard-right turn here, the French-bred founders of Exotics love their cars. Perisset’s first word (as in, the first word ever to come out of his mouth) was “Ferrari.” His mother never understood that, but it was a hint that he would be involved in high-performance machines the rest of his life. He became an investment banker as a way to afford high-performance sports cars, and when he finally received his first commission check, he bought a BMW Z3 roadster.

Perisset became directly involved in the racing industry by managing the business operations of partner Romain Thievin, his close friend and an accomplished stunt and racecar driver. Thievin is widely known for his dizzying work as Matt Damon’s stunt double in “The Bourne Identity,” and as a result won a Taurus World Stunt Award. Thievin, who has worked on more than 150 movies and has won five racing titles himself, designed the Exotics Racing Road course. The business opened four years ago and just this year relocated from the interior of the LVMS superspeedway to the grounds just outside the sprawling motorsports facility.

You do feel a sense of brethren as you climb into your vehicle, having been fitted with a crash helmet (or, an anti-crash helmet, if everything goes according to plan). My driving instructor is Scott Schmidt, who is friendly and patient. After a look-see lap around the course in a Porsche SUV, we rumble to the course in the Aston Martin.

It’s a loud car. Big exhaust sound in the Vantage S, which is really cool for a quick trip around a road course, but not so great for a 10-hour road trip to Idaho. Just to use an example. The first inclination for a novice driver is to just gun this car and watch the speedometer rise, but such necessities as “gearing” and “breaking” prevent such unfettered attempts to impersonate Arie Luyendyk (to reference the driver who holds the LVMS single-lap record of 226.491 mph).

Schmidt is tolerant of the incessant breaking and downshifting that is a hallmark of my speedway driving. The idea is to trust the car’s performance and accelerate through turns, but I am distrustful of the car and maybe myself to take any of the turns at high speeds. I am passed maybe a half-dozen times by red Ferraris, but through the last lap, I manage to handle the car at close to perfection. The top speed along the straightaway may have been 110 mph, but I was not looking at the odometer. I was looking up toward the hard-right turn ahead. To miss that turn would have been a real downer for all involved.

Afterward, I received a certificate of achievement and a DVD of my session, sort of like the home version of the game. I sit with Perisset, who tells me something that raises the eyebrows: Typically, women are better driving students than men.

“Women listen a lot better than men,” he says. “It’s funny, but that has been the case since we started. Many times, men come in with this preconceived idea that they can drive, they know already about it because they read magazines about these cars every week, and they watch Formula 1 races or NASCAR races on TV and they play PlayStation, so they think they can drive.”

Perisset says the finest car to take on the track is the Ferrari. The car he would choose for day-to-day driving is the Porsche 911 Turbo. “You can drive a Porsche to Walmart or to pick up your kid from school without looking like a (jerk). You drive up to a school in a lime-green Lamborghini or flashy red or yellow Ferrari — it’s a little much.”

Perisset, the man who first uttered “Ferrari” as a way to rev up his verbal communication skills, does not drive an exotic car full time. His day-to-day vehicle is …

“A Ford pickup truck. A Raptor, actually,” he says, grinning. “Where I come from, these are rare. Hardly anyone has a pickup truck, especially a Ford.”

It’s a rare, safe and practical vehicle. Perisset might well get 250,000 out of the Raptor, too. Next time, we’ll take that for a spin around the road course. See what she’ll do.

Follow John Katsilometes on Twitter at Twitter.com/JohnnyKats. Also, follow “Kats With the Dish” at Twitter.com/KatsWiththeDish.

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