MarkNewbie
Well-known member
This is a long read but you car lovers need to read it
I think that many of you on here are like me. I tend to be just a bit eccentric in my outlook on life and perhaps this is what lead my to my love of the Martin Logan sound. I for one, do not believe in making “Treble or Bass” adjustments to music I listen to. I believe that we should hear the artist’s sound as they intended it so I never adjust the musicality of the signal. I believe in the “purity” of the artist’s sound. I feel that Martin Logan speakers give me that! Simply quirky on my part? Sure it is but that is the wonderful thing about being an individual. I can do what I want, when I want, and as long as it doesn’t break any laws or offend others, I can pretty much get away with it and suffer no recourse from it. Like many of you on here, I take great pleasure from the looks on friends and acquaintances faces when they “SEE” and “HEAR” my system for the first time. There is a high degree of pride that I feel inside when I see the look of awe when someone sees my system for the first time and that “Wow” that rolls off of their lips when they hear it for the first time. Comments like “Dude, that is AWESOME!” make my pride swell.
Well folks, I just gotta tell ya what happened to me yesterday. Like many others on here, I have a certain love of automobiles and especially the ones that perform at the upper reaches. I have familiarity with such brands as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Austin Martin, Shelby, and Lotus when it comes to the “Exotic” performance car category. I have even had the privilege of being able to drive models from all of them and in some cases, push them close to their limits. But price tags that are in the six figure and higher range have always put these automobiles into my “fantasy” category. Yesterday, a close friend of my family living in Washington state, contacted me about a car at a dealership in my area. It was a low mileage, older Mercedes coupe that he was interested in buying and he wanted to know if I would run by the dealer and give it the once over for him. Knowing this dealer carried a wide variety of Exotics, I jumped at the excuse to peruse their inventory. He emailed me his laundry list of what to look for and report back on and off I went. I forgot to mention that a certain lady friend of mine had stayed over and accompanied me. When we pulled into their lot, they were outside photographing their newest acquisition, a Ford GT-40. This was “the” car that was featured in Cheryl Crow’s video for the song “Mcqueen” and was driven by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. If any of you saw it, you know what I am talking about. A car that is very capable of speeds in excess of 200 mph and sits less than 45 inches tall. My blood immediately began racing. What I didn’t know was that this is a kit car built in South Africa and virtually identical to the original in just about every respect. The price for this beast was $79,900.00! With some repositioning, this could be a doable number, so my mind started shifting into overdrive. In discussion with the owner of this dealership and after sitting in the car and listening to the gurgle of it’s engine, I was told that the really neat stuff was inside. So inside we went. There were Ferraris and Porsches, several Shelbys and some other of the “Exotic” performance category cars but there was one car that I had only read about and never laid eyes on before. That being a car that numerous automotive mags and even the renowned “Robb Report” had crowned the “King” of high performance. Nope, I am not talking about the Ferrari Enzo or the Porsche Carrera GT which are both fine cars but list in the mid to high six figure range but have been known to fetch 7 figures. The true “King” of performance has been crowned by those in the know. That car is fittingly known as the “Noble”. With a zero to 60 time that has been reported to be as low as 3.2 seconds, this is the fastest current production car known. The only thing that I can find that has beat that time is the Porsche 917 that dominated the 24 hours of LeMans year ago and reportedly did the 0-60 trek in a mind boggling 2.8 seconds. Bill Gates would have a difficult time getting his hands on one of them, they are that rare and coveted.
Oh yes! I spent about an hour in this baby and at least 50 of those minutes behind the wheel! When the test drive was offered up, I asked that the owner (Steve) of the dealership come with me and drive it first so that I could observe prior to a stint behind the wheel. The first light that we came to, we found ourselves sitting behind a 3 series BMW and our heads were just below the height of the license plate. Yes, it sits that low to the ground. The only thing that I have been in that was lower was when I used to race go-carts and I am not sure that they were much lower. Just a few minutes into our drive, we found ourselves on a straight stretch of four lane that was a couple miles in length with no traffic in front of us. In second gear, the accelerator was pushed to the floor, my body was smashed into the seat and my stomach was in my throat. When the shifter went into third gear, the rear end moved to the left as I heard the tires break lose and as they caught their grip, I found that I could not move my head from the back of the seat. As I felt the shift into fourth gear, I felt a delightful queasiness in my stomach as the rear end shifted direction once again, caught, and propelled us past the 100 mph mark faster then you know what can go through a goose! As the brakes were being applied, I stole a quick glance at the speedo only to see the needle drop past the 120MPH mark and realized that the belt was digging hard into my chest and I was struggling to keep my head upright! We pulled into a strip center so that positions could be changed. As we were exciting the car, a couple of teenagers pulled up in their yellow Mustang GT uttering comments of “Cool car man! What is it?” They both jumped out with cell phones in hand, taking pictures as we re-entered this land Rocket! Once strapped in, Steve looked over and said “Nail it”! I revved the engine and dumped the clutch and we simply sat there as the tires did nothing but smoke. I sure hope those boys with their cell phones got a picture of that. Off the gas and pushing the clutch back in, I had to wait a second for my heart to slow down before I could attempt moving this car forward again. Once out on the road and driving like a respectable citizen in any Taurus would, I found that this car was as easy to drive slow as it was fast but nowhere near as fun. I pulled up to the light to turn right only to see a Sheriff’s car turning left from the opposite direction, staring at me as if I were a ghost. As you can imagine, he did a U-turn and followed me for a couple of miles, alternating between being behind, besides me, and in front. That car got a very thorough going over by Mr. Lawdog. After about 15 minutes of learning the car, we returned to the dealership so that I could take my lady friend for a ride. Of course, on the return trip, he had to fill it up with gas and was sure to tell me what time they were closing that evening. By the time I had my lady friend in the car, I felt as intimately familiar and comfortable in this car as one would after a couple of years of ownership. This had nothing to with my driving ability as the credit for this goes purely to those that designed this car! It is just that EASY to drive! I was actually intimadated by it’s look. That is why I wanted the dealer to drive it first. I have written enough about the car and have included a picture and a link to their website for those of you with a desire to know more. Lastly, the price they are asking for the one I drove which is a dealer demo, was under $80k. The only thing that I can promise is that this car will grace my garage before Summits will ever grace my living room.
Noble
[/IMG]
I think that many of you on here are like me. I tend to be just a bit eccentric in my outlook on life and perhaps this is what lead my to my love of the Martin Logan sound. I for one, do not believe in making “Treble or Bass” adjustments to music I listen to. I believe that we should hear the artist’s sound as they intended it so I never adjust the musicality of the signal. I believe in the “purity” of the artist’s sound. I feel that Martin Logan speakers give me that! Simply quirky on my part? Sure it is but that is the wonderful thing about being an individual. I can do what I want, when I want, and as long as it doesn’t break any laws or offend others, I can pretty much get away with it and suffer no recourse from it. Like many of you on here, I take great pleasure from the looks on friends and acquaintances faces when they “SEE” and “HEAR” my system for the first time. There is a high degree of pride that I feel inside when I see the look of awe when someone sees my system for the first time and that “Wow” that rolls off of their lips when they hear it for the first time. Comments like “Dude, that is AWESOME!” make my pride swell.
Well folks, I just gotta tell ya what happened to me yesterday. Like many others on here, I have a certain love of automobiles and especially the ones that perform at the upper reaches. I have familiarity with such brands as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Porsche, Austin Martin, Shelby, and Lotus when it comes to the “Exotic” performance car category. I have even had the privilege of being able to drive models from all of them and in some cases, push them close to their limits. But price tags that are in the six figure and higher range have always put these automobiles into my “fantasy” category. Yesterday, a close friend of my family living in Washington state, contacted me about a car at a dealership in my area. It was a low mileage, older Mercedes coupe that he was interested in buying and he wanted to know if I would run by the dealer and give it the once over for him. Knowing this dealer carried a wide variety of Exotics, I jumped at the excuse to peruse their inventory. He emailed me his laundry list of what to look for and report back on and off I went. I forgot to mention that a certain lady friend of mine had stayed over and accompanied me. When we pulled into their lot, they were outside photographing their newest acquisition, a Ford GT-40. This was “the” car that was featured in Cheryl Crow’s video for the song “Mcqueen” and was driven by Dale Earnhardt, Jr. If any of you saw it, you know what I am talking about. A car that is very capable of speeds in excess of 200 mph and sits less than 45 inches tall. My blood immediately began racing. What I didn’t know was that this is a kit car built in South Africa and virtually identical to the original in just about every respect. The price for this beast was $79,900.00! With some repositioning, this could be a doable number, so my mind started shifting into overdrive. In discussion with the owner of this dealership and after sitting in the car and listening to the gurgle of it’s engine, I was told that the really neat stuff was inside. So inside we went. There were Ferraris and Porsches, several Shelbys and some other of the “Exotic” performance category cars but there was one car that I had only read about and never laid eyes on before. That being a car that numerous automotive mags and even the renowned “Robb Report” had crowned the “King” of high performance. Nope, I am not talking about the Ferrari Enzo or the Porsche Carrera GT which are both fine cars but list in the mid to high six figure range but have been known to fetch 7 figures. The true “King” of performance has been crowned by those in the know. That car is fittingly known as the “Noble”. With a zero to 60 time that has been reported to be as low as 3.2 seconds, this is the fastest current production car known. The only thing that I can find that has beat that time is the Porsche 917 that dominated the 24 hours of LeMans year ago and reportedly did the 0-60 trek in a mind boggling 2.8 seconds. Bill Gates would have a difficult time getting his hands on one of them, they are that rare and coveted.
Oh yes! I spent about an hour in this baby and at least 50 of those minutes behind the wheel! When the test drive was offered up, I asked that the owner (Steve) of the dealership come with me and drive it first so that I could observe prior to a stint behind the wheel. The first light that we came to, we found ourselves sitting behind a 3 series BMW and our heads were just below the height of the license plate. Yes, it sits that low to the ground. The only thing that I have been in that was lower was when I used to race go-carts and I am not sure that they were much lower. Just a few minutes into our drive, we found ourselves on a straight stretch of four lane that was a couple miles in length with no traffic in front of us. In second gear, the accelerator was pushed to the floor, my body was smashed into the seat and my stomach was in my throat. When the shifter went into third gear, the rear end moved to the left as I heard the tires break lose and as they caught their grip, I found that I could not move my head from the back of the seat. As I felt the shift into fourth gear, I felt a delightful queasiness in my stomach as the rear end shifted direction once again, caught, and propelled us past the 100 mph mark faster then you know what can go through a goose! As the brakes were being applied, I stole a quick glance at the speedo only to see the needle drop past the 120MPH mark and realized that the belt was digging hard into my chest and I was struggling to keep my head upright! We pulled into a strip center so that positions could be changed. As we were exciting the car, a couple of teenagers pulled up in their yellow Mustang GT uttering comments of “Cool car man! What is it?” They both jumped out with cell phones in hand, taking pictures as we re-entered this land Rocket! Once strapped in, Steve looked over and said “Nail it”! I revved the engine and dumped the clutch and we simply sat there as the tires did nothing but smoke. I sure hope those boys with their cell phones got a picture of that. Off the gas and pushing the clutch back in, I had to wait a second for my heart to slow down before I could attempt moving this car forward again. Once out on the road and driving like a respectable citizen in any Taurus would, I found that this car was as easy to drive slow as it was fast but nowhere near as fun. I pulled up to the light to turn right only to see a Sheriff’s car turning left from the opposite direction, staring at me as if I were a ghost. As you can imagine, he did a U-turn and followed me for a couple of miles, alternating between being behind, besides me, and in front. That car got a very thorough going over by Mr. Lawdog. After about 15 minutes of learning the car, we returned to the dealership so that I could take my lady friend for a ride. Of course, on the return trip, he had to fill it up with gas and was sure to tell me what time they were closing that evening. By the time I had my lady friend in the car, I felt as intimately familiar and comfortable in this car as one would after a couple of years of ownership. This had nothing to with my driving ability as the credit for this goes purely to those that designed this car! It is just that EASY to drive! I was actually intimadated by it’s look. That is why I wanted the dealer to drive it first. I have written enough about the car and have included a picture and a link to their website for those of you with a desire to know more. Lastly, the price they are asking for the one I drove which is a dealer demo, was under $80k. The only thing that I can promise is that this car will grace my garage before Summits will ever grace my living room.
Noble
[/IMG]
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