Automotive

ThomasM
[PuristS]
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Bingo! Good eyes, Dje.

The WanderingPurist and Unotaz needed a break from real life (or as Unotaz put it, "it was good to go out and stretch our legs, get a little exercise...") and I got to tag along!

;-)

So this is what one saw in the mirror...

As with any decent road course circuit where long stretches of road have no facilities whatsoever (start finish was 230 miles total, including about 100 miles of freeway and 130 miles of "closed road course" that included about 100 miles with no facilities whatsoever, not even turn offs or usable shoulders / run offs...) it is a good idea to start with a full tank of gas -

It was cool to see this on the way -

There were short stretches where one could turn off and which merged with public roads -

After a nice 3 hour "stretch" we had worked up our appetites -

During lunch, Unotaz, knowing I was underwhelmed with my seat time experience in the MP4-12C at Goodwood, told me in no uncertain terms, "this is a completely different car than you drove. What is great about McLaren is that they listen and they constantly fine tune and upgrade their cars, and even better, make improvements available to their existing owners, to the extent possible."

He went on to say, "What is so amazing about this car is that for most of the run, the car was supremely comfortable, but when we got on it, it had no trouble mixing it up. It's nice to have comfort along with the performance."

I understand his point, but for me, if I want comfort, I'll take the CL65 and it's 700+horses and 900+ lb-ft of torque and still not break a sweat, along with tons of storage and lots of cabin space equivalent to a penthouse suite on wheels...it's a land yacht, without the floaty wallow...

In the end, it's about compromises, and everyone should be able to choose the compromises they want to live with, given their priorities and preferences. Me, when I want pure, I want PURE.

We agreed to disagree, and that's just fine, we did so respectfully and amicably. With full respect. Because that's what PuristS do...

As we were leaving, and I cast one long, last look at these two thoroughbreds, it was clear that these two represented polar opposites, the pinnacle of the old school versus new:

The (pen)ultimate, last of the breed purely mechanical raw performance cars which puts a premium on man-machine connection with as few electronic helpers as possible in these modern days of regulation and litigation and dubious driver training and skills; contrasted with the brave new world of ever present high power processing assisted high performance driving - everpresent, but if fans are to be believed, not intrusively so.

Exciting, heady days for the driving enthusiast, days and choices I can't imagine will last for much longer.

Enjoy it while we can!