Ferrari Mailing List: OK Thinking about a new toy car

[Mike (themightytoe]

OK,

Just finished a weekend at Road America (1st time on that track)...  That is
a tough track 5 cars ended up bent, at least 1 totaled (C5 Z06), no injuries
other than the vehicles so that was good, and 2 of them were street cars,
the others were race cars.  Really an 8/10ths only track for anyone without
all the safety gear.  

Drove my 01 M3 on street tires, it is pretty much stock.  It understeers
like a pig but is really manageable with throttle inputs so it was fun, hits
about 140 on the straights.  My front rotors are very slightly warped but
the car held up really well.  It has been about 3 years since I drove on a
racetrack and the big thing I noticed is that the newer cars are really a
lot faster!  Of note:

BMW 135i with $2000 Dinan kit, owner said it made 400+ hp and 450+ lb-ft,
with Hoosiers it pretty much walked away like a 911 GT3.  Driver was
excellent also but still very impressive.

997 GT3:  Wow.  Holy crap, wow.

997 C4S (some work but running street tires) this thing was really fast
also, I did need to lift to let him by and it handled really well for a 911.

C6 Z06 (race tires) driver did not seem to know what he was doing most of
the weekend, his instructor drove it and blew by me on the main straight at
>150 mph about 2/3rds the way down (I was at about 120)...  Wow is that a
god awful fast car.

Not a single Ferrari, one guy with a brand new C6 Z06 sold his Challenge
Stradale out of fear of it breaking on the track (nice guy, told him he
would miss the Ferrari in about 1 year)...  But hats off to him for taking a
brand new car and sticking it on the track at Road America!  His student
wadded up a race prepped E46 M3 that weekend too.

Also of note, most of the other E46 M3's there ran big brake kits, coilovers
and full race kits.  My opinion is the return on investment doing that is
not there for an E46 M3...

So now I am thinking Lotus Elise, Porsche 987S with HT, Porsche 996 Turbo,
997 C2S

What do you guys think?  Experience with any of these?  

BR,
Mike