I did a VERY BAD thing!!

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MarkNewbie

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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.
:cool:

Noble
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Hummmm...

80K, Does it come with cup holders? :p

Personally I would go for the GT-40, but thats just me.

Sounds like you had a fun filled afternoon Mark, wish I could have been there with you. :rolleyes:
 
Sounds like you had a better day than I did. :D

I think they are coming out with a targa/convertable version, not 100% sure about that though.

Nice review, I'm still waiting for the ice to thaw so I can put the battery back in my 30 year old Porsche 911.

You can get a used good Boxster for $20,000 and a Boxster S for $28,000................then you can buy the Summits too. I'm not saying the Boxster is going to thrill you like the Noble, but you could have fewer tickets and live a little longer. :)
 
Zip3kx07 said:
Hummmm...

80K, Does it come with cup holders? :p

Personally I would go for the GT-40, but thats just me.

Sounds like you had a fun filled afternoon Mark, wish I could have been there with you. :rolleyes:

Joe,

No cup holders now that I think about it. None in the GT-40 either. Actually, the GT-40 was my first thought when it came to making a purchase. There are a few problems with the GT-40. It is very difficult to get in and out of. Here are a couple of pictures of it. There is a large overhang on the door and when you shut it, you have to lower your head or it will take the top of your scalp off. I also put a picture on here of the actual Noble that I drove. The GT-40 is not an everyday driver according to the Dealer. He said that the car would make a great weekend "Track" car but not something that you would want to drive around town. They hold up well when they are constantly being pushed like at the track but tend to break down and have problems when they are used for "around town" cars. His words were that it was a "beast" of a car to drive and if you don't treat it like the "beast" that it is, it would make you pay dearly in repair costs. As odd as that sounded, I can see the sense in that. If you are truly interested in the car, I would be happy to put you in touch with them.


kach,

If I am going to enter that realm and I have the chance to enter it with the best performer there is, I just cannot see settling for less. I have had several sports cars in my life including a couple of Porsches and loved all of them. I just have to say that nothing that I have ever been in or driven, can hold a candle to the Noble. It is another realm all together. I have a very good friend who collects Indy Cars and have driven a couple of them and they are the only things that would compare. They were driven out at IRP (Indianapolis Raceway Park) and admittedly, due to their high value and collector car status, they were not pushed to 50% of their capability. The Noble is compared to what is known as the "Supercar" realm. I am serious, if you guys ever get the chance to drive one of these, [B]you have to do it![/B] This thing will do 1.2G on the skid pad! You should see the effect it had on my lady friend! Not that that should be any kind of influencing factor, but [B]WOW![/B]
 

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I'm not sure my insurance would cover such a test drive. No fault on one car, collector car insurance on the other....................no full coverage. I hate insurance, never use it, never see the money again.
 
Wow... had fun reading your post, you had a very nice day if I say so myself. You were really really digging the car! I'm a car guy myself and I can see easily myself in your same predicament/position. Summits or the car?

LOL...

Anyway, not sure if I missed it when I read your post, but was the car you drove the GT40 in blue or the Noble in silver?

Joey
 
Joey_V said:
but was the car you drove the GT40 in blue or the Noble in silver?
As I understand it he drove the Noble, but almost took part the top part of his head off when he sat in the GT-40.

Note: the factory retro designed Ford GT = 45" high, the kit car reproductions and originals are 40 inches high, hence GT-40.
 
Joey_V said:
Wow... had fun reading your post, you had a very nice day if I say so myself. You were really really digging the car! I'm a car guy myself and I can see easily myself in your same predicament/position. Summits or the car?

LOL...

Anyway, not sure if I missed it when I read your post, but was the car you drove the GT40 in blue or the Noble in silver?

Joey

Joey,
I was going to drive the GT-40 as when I first saw it and heard the price, I was thinking of how I could buy it. Then I went inside with the guy who owns the dealership and when he started explaining the differences, I realized that the Noble was the car to drive. The Noble doesn't have the top end of the GT-40 but beats it in every other measurement. For the Noble to do 200 mph, you have to switch out the chip and then it will only do slightly over 200 mph where the GT-40 does something like 220 mph. The Noble as it comes is rated at 170 mph. I don't think I would buy the other chip for it as once you get to that type of performance, another 30-50 mph is not really relevant to me. Here are some more pictures of both that were taken off of the dealers web site.
Mark

PS. I will add some more pictures of the Noble.
 

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More Noble pictures

Here are some more of the Noble. Yes, this is the one that I drove!
:D
 

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kach22i said:
As I understand it he drove the Noble, but almost took part the top part of his head off when he sat in the GT-40.

Note: the factory retro designed Ford GT = 45" high, the kit car reproductions and originals are 40 inches high, hence GT-40.


You had to make sure that you darn near rested your chin on your chest before you shut the door on the GT-40. If not, you were in danger of the door scalping you! Had the dealer not been standing there to warn me, I would of most likely bled all over the interior of that fine automobile! That was the most difficult exotic car to get in/out of that I have ever experienced!

George - Thanks for explaining that. I didn't know.
 
TheBobGoat said:
wait, did i miss something? when you are buying it -- soon I hope?

I am trying to get my finances in order to make the purchase. I have a couple of small debts that need to go away first. So far, I have calculated that I need at least $1100.00 per month in disposable cash to swing this. It is doable as I am spending around $800.00 on dates each month and cutting that in half or by two thirds would only require me to settle down and date 1 or 2 girls on a regular basis where as I am currently dating 6 different ladies. I could become more disciplined at the grocery store and easily cut out another $300.00 a month. If you cannot tell, I am really putting a lot of thought into how I can get this car in my garage quickly. I don't know that the one I drove will be the one I buy but I will eventually have one, that I do know.
 
MarkNewbie said:
So far, I have calculated that I need at least $1100.00 per month in disposable cash to swing this.
This would be the cost of the car payments plus insurance? I am not a real car person, like I am a audio nut, but I do appreciate a nice looking ride. Good luck on the new addition.

Dan
 
MarkNewbie said:
only require me to settle down and date 1 or 2 girls on a regular basis where as I am currently dating 6 different ladies.
How do you have the energy for that? You are two years older than me, dang you must be in shape. :D

Getting off topic now, sorry - but you know this thread is useless with out more pictures. ;)
 
Mark,
You need to pull a Joey and eat ramen for the next year or two.....or more.....

Or have your six girl friends pay for meals!
 
Kruppy said:
Mark,
You need to pull a Joey and eat ramen for the next year or two.....or more.....

Or have your six girl friends pay for meals!

SIX??? Hahahaha.... I say, this is what you need to set your sights on Mark! 6 gf = 1 hell-of-a-car! Cant lose there!
 
Your problem won't be the six girl friends @ $800 month... pretty reasonable I think. But the cost of the higher maintenance costs of the new six girls @ $8,000 month. Your female companionship will be in another tax bracket! In anycase, have fun you only live once so you may as well enjoy it!
 
Two down and a few more to go. Severed ties with two ladies over the last couple of days. Sadly, one was the lady that took the ride with me. In retrospect, I should have never mentioned the dating thing. So you folks are asking for more pictures? This is scary to ask but, more pictures of what? And if you are wanting pictures of some of the ladies, I will not do that. I know it is hard to believe but I do have some scruples about me. Plus, I don't want to be one of those news stories about the crazy ex setting the house on fire! :eek:
 
MarkNewbie said:
So you folks are asking for more pictures?
I was joking, and would advise against ever doing that.

Someone on a car forum did that once, did not turn out well - it's a small world afterall.
 
kach22i said:
I was joking, and would advise against ever doing that.

Someone on a car forum did that once, did not turn out well - it's a small world afterall.

I know you were and my reply was in a joking manner too. Sometimes, the written word doesn't come accross the way it was intended. Sorry about that.
 
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