It was a picture-perfect autumn Wednesday afternoon, and we were in La Grange, Texas the very same town of which Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top once sang, ?They got a lot of nice girls down there.?
And the very same town where the nearby Chicken Ranch became the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical and subsequent film, ?The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.?
Texans aim their cell-phone cameras at the Ferraris during a stop in La Grange, Texas. (Photo: Tom Jensen) But what we had down there on this bright Texas afternoon was not a lot of nice girls, but a lot of nice cars from Ferrari: A California 30 ($201,000), an FF ($295,000), a 458 Italia coupe ($229,825) and a 458 Spider ($258,000).
We were in Le Grange because it was a stop midway through our journey from Houston to Austin, part of a Shell/Pennzoil media event built around the long-running technology partnership between the Ferrari Formula One team and the petroleum company and the inaugural running of the U.S. Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas track in Austin.
In Le Grange, after I took a picture of him posing with the Ferrari, the state trooper wanted to know how fast the California 30 would go and how fast we?d be out on the highway.
?About 200 miles per hour,? I said in response to his first question.
He allowed as how that sounded about right and then asked me ?How fast did you go??
Ferrari Formula 1 test driver Marc Gene stands ready with the 458 Spider. (Photo: Tom Jensen) ?Only 90 mph,? I said, a hint of dejection in my voice.
?How fast have you ever gone?? he asked me.
When I told him I?d done 155 mph, he said he?d gotten a new Camaro up 152 mph and would we like a police escort so we could open up the Ferraris on the highway a little? Alas, that idea, brilliant though it was, was shot down by both his partner and the uber-safety conscious folks at Shell/Pennzoil, who understandably didn?t want four journalists running amok at triple-digit speeds on a public highway. Dammit.
After we left La Grange, my passenger was Ferrari Formula 1 test driver Marc Gene, an intelligent and charming guy who won the 2009 24 Hours of Le Mans driving for Peugeot. We had an interesting, albeit too brief cultural exchange, Gene surprised that nearly everyone speaks Spanish in South Florida, where he flew in to the United States a day earlier, and how Texans seem obsessed with guns.
When I asked him about winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans, he allowed as how it was the most emotional victory of his career and the only time he ever cried on the podium. ?After I retire, it will be even more emotional,? Gene said.
World Driving Champion driver Fernando Alonso gasses up the Ferrari 458 Spider. (Photo: Tom Jensen) Queried about what he liked most to race, he said with hesitation, ?The Formula 1 car. Drivers always want to drive the fastest cars they can.?
We arrived in Austin, where two-time World Driving Champion Fernando Alonso did a photo op pumping Shell V-Power gas into the 458 Spider followed by a visit to the fabulous COTA facility, truly one of the finest racing circuits I?d ever seen, albeit one where there was still much work to be done.
All four of the Ferraris, as expected, were sublime, although we came nowhere near close to reaching, or even approaching, their respective limits. The rear-engine Italias were both sex on wheels, emitting loud, primal roars whenever the throttle was applied hard.
The California 30 and FF were much more grand touring cars than sports cars, though still every bit worthy of the Ferrari name.
Now, if we could have only gotten in a few laps at COTA with them ? hmm ? maybe next year.
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEED.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100.
Source: http://automotive.speedtv.com/article/autos-ferrari-encounters-in-texas/
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