Sunday 28 August 2022

Las Vegas 2022 - Day 3 (Aug 19) - Probably my one and only chance to drive a $200,000 car

 Perhaps it is age, but I'm starting to forget smaller details of my trip. We must have gotten home at like 3:30 AM. I remember brushing my teeth and falling asleep. It was another sleepless night for I woke up at around 8 AM. 

Either way, another full day in Las Vegas! We spent the morning swimming around the pool for a while. That did help refresh me due to the cool water in contrast with the warming desert morning. We got dressed and headed towards the strip to get picked up for our next destination.

The shuttle picking us up was on time, though we had to wait since there were six other guests that weren't accounted for at the moment. It turned out that they got confused and were waiting at another location of the hotel. Once they were picked up, it was a relatively short drive to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for our event of the day: driving exotic cars with Dream Racing. 

The groom picked out an Audi R8 while three of us went for the 991 911 GT3 (I believe it was a 991 Porsche 911). Two others opted to be in a drift car with a professional driver instead. I never really liked European cars, but if I had to pick one, I would drive and own a Porsche. Ferrari and Lamborghini never appealed to me, nor do any of the other hyper car manufacturers. They had different Porsches available; my intention on picking the GT3 was to drive a Porsche that wasn't overly pricy, nor regret if I went with a basic Porsche. I can't believe I'm calling Porsche basic...

The event started with a safety video followed by a professional driver taking four of us at a time inside a Maserati Levante (I believe it was this SUV). I have never seen a SUV been tracked before, and was overly surprised how well it handled on the track. Going off on a limb, if I were tracking a SUV, I'm sure I would have rolled over by the first hairpin. 

After the demo, we all got called up for our turn with the car we picked. When it was my turn, I was overly excited and nervous. For those that don't know, I drive a Subaru STI, but have never tracked nor really driven it hard. The 911's interior was definitely luxurious with all the leather and Alcantara/Synthetic suede. We all had a professional driver siting in the passenger seat to help guide us, and to make sure we don't trash their collection of cars. I'm sure I wasn't even pushing the GT3 to its limits for I kept gettting passed by other cars on the track. The groom did end up lapping me twice! The driving feel is definitely unreal though, even in my unexperienced hands. I finally understand what a non aspirated engine that can rev high, can do. It's quite the difference from my car where it has a bit of turbo lag, before kicking you back and capping off. I regret not taking pictures, nor buying the souvenir picture they had on sale of each of us with the car. I also regret not buying a copy of my POV and in-car cam of me driving. Sometimes money can't be saved and should be spent! The only thing I have is a certificate stating that I spent the day at Dream Racing. Maybe I'll hang that up somewhere in my house to remind me of our day on the track. I don't think I'll go back anytime soon due to the price, but it was definitely an experience worth spending. 

I paid for seven laps and thought that would be enough... boy it sure was not for it felt like I've only spent 10 minutes on the track. After we all had our turn, we got shuttled back to our drop off location. It was still early in the afternoon, so we spent the next few hours wandering the strip. Maybe it's the heat, but it definitely felt a lot emptier than what I remembered back in 2013. We started off at around the centre and made our way up North. We ended up getting hungry and decided to eat at a buffet. We wanted to try the buffet at Caesar's Palace, but the queue was long. We ended up going back to Bellagio's buffet. From what I remembered, it was pretty much the same, yet the price has nearly tripled from back then. For $109 CAD, (including tips) I stuffed myself to the brim with as much protein and seafood that I could eat. I even sampled eight different deserts they had at their humongous dessert section. I was actually quite surprised that I didn't end up throwing up in the Uber on the ride home. I'm sure the driver was a bit leery for I sat in the front passenger seat, but had to lean towards him since sitting straight was too painful for my stomach.

Upon getting back to the AirBnb, I had to lay down on the sectional for a good hour or so before I felt well enough to prepare to go to sleep. A productive third day, with one more day to go!



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