[josephvman]

Yesterday our Ferrari of Houston and Austin dealerships did our second track day at COTA. I got stuck in Houston for the first one, but spent the entire day yesterday running clients around on hot laps in a Ferrari California. I drove up from Houston early in the morning, after getting up a 3am to deal with some logistic issues that needed to be sorted, so I was not what you would call well-rested from the word go. To make things more interesting, it was misting just enough to make things a little slippery, and I didn't have the luxury of following someone who knew the line for my first time on this daunting racetrack. I avoided any major "oh *****" moments, but the first few laps were pretty ugly until I got a feel for things, and there was a surprising amount of grip considering the sheen on the surface.

The track has a little of everything, and extremely challenging. The facility is just so big that you have a lot of visual interference to deal with, especially in the painted area to the left of the first esses, which make the correct entry sort of hard to pick up if you're not chasing someone. The long straights really let me use all the rev's through fifth gear, and you can see how even a small difference in hp can be exploited in F1 here. My partner was driving the Ferrari FF in front of me most of the day, which has a 160bhp advantage, and he could just run away until I could outbrake him and make up ground again.

My favorite parts were the run up to the first corner, and into turns 2,4, and 5, which are like the drop on a roller coaster. Turns 16, 17, and 18 form a very fast triple-apex right hand arc that I never felt entirely comfortable pushing too hard on; very technical and hard to get right. Other than that corner and a fast entry to a downhill, off-camber left hander with a nearly blind exit, there's nothing tricky about the track, and it seems like an extremely safe design with lots of runoff area. There are quite a few slow corners that really break up the rhythm, but make for a lot more overtaking spots. The elevation changes are dramatic, and video doesn't even come close to what you see and feel in the car.

I literally spent hours out on the circuit, to the point of getting motion sickness. I've never experienced that in my life, including spending 8 days on a 46' sailboat, small aircrafts, lots of track days, and of course motorcycles. I really think it was the non-stop elevation changes that eventually caught up with me by the late afternoon.

The Ferrari California is such an amazing car! It never missed a beat, cooked the brakes, ran hot...literally flawless after non-stop running at 9/10ths.

If you get a chance to get on the track at COTA, do it! I'm absolutely exhausted by the experience, but I'd probably go back tomorrow if I could!