Ferrari Challenge Pt. 5--Other Cars

A big event at the Miller Motor Sports Park draws people and cars from all over. The Ferrari Challenge didn't bring just Ferrari owners. All sorts of interesting cars lined up in the huge area behind the garages. (Again, be sure to click on the pics to get a larger image).

How about an ancient Alfa Romero?


Or a classic Maserati?


A couple nice Porches...


And an American muscle car, a Camero SS...


A local Utah company is making a beautifully crafted aluminum body for Cobra replicas.


Finally, a couple hot rods showed up.



So that was the weekend. Most of us can only dream of owning, or even driving a Ferrari. But maybe there's a chance... if a few of us go together, share weekends, perhaps we could afford something like this (at least until the first $1000 oil change!)...

Ferrari Challenge Pt. 4--F430

Finally, the big race! After demo laps by Ferrari's latest, the Challenge itself was run with amateur owner/drivers supported by their dealers, all in F430s. Think these guys are on their own? Think this process is small time amateur racing? Check the haulers...


Here's some shots of car prep at the garage:



And a garage shot of the eventual winning F430...


And a couple views of an F430 engine compartment...



For the race, I managed a good view from above the garage area. Here's the grid lineup...


The Ferrari Challenge is a series of races at different tracks around the country. The racing is quite competitive as drivers try to accumulate the most points to win the series. Sometimes things don't work out well, especially considering the cost of the cars.

Ferrari Challenge Pt. 3--FXX

Another "demo" from Ferrari at the Challenge was their sorta new FXX, based on the older Enzo. Again, Ferrari claims this is a "production" car (if you buy one, it comes with its own mechanic), but I doubt you'll see one on the streets. An amazing vehicle, what an engine roar!

Some pics from the garage:




And another brake pic:


And, of course, Ferrari red...


Here's a brief video of FXX track laps (the white car is a 599XX).

Ferrari Challenge Pt. 2--599XX

As part of the Challenge events, Ferrari brings some of their new cars to the track to run some "demo" laps. These are supposedly production cars; however, I'm sure this is a rather loose definition, since these are all out racing vehicles. A manufacturer has to produce so many to qualify as "production" vs "prototype". The number is small, so there are enough deep pocketed buyers who are able to afford these vehicles (probably for racing purposes more than street driving). The 599XX is a front engined vehicle (actually mid-engined, rear wheel drive). Here are some shots from the garage area.

And a few shots from the track (entrance to pit road):



Finally, here's a brief video clip of a 599XX passing by me on the way to the pits.

Ferrari Challenge Pt. 1 Miller Motor Sports Park

Well, finally some action around these parts. The MMSP hosted the Ferrari Challenge for the first time in Utah, which brought some very exotic cars and a fine afternoon to the state. Several years ago, Larry Miller, the auto king of Utah (and a few other states) financed probably the best racing facility in the country out in the Tooele valley. Larry had always been a racing fan (a conversation with him in the grocery store years ago yielded info on his extensive Cobra and Ford racing car collection, which are now in the museum that's part of the Miller Motor Sports Park). However, the facility so far is underutilized, other than a LeMans series race and some motorcycle action. My favorite Classic Car races ran a couple years, but haven't been rescheduled. I guess Utah is just too remote for big time action. But the track is so fabulous, I'm sure that will change.

So this past weekend, with decent weather for early April (warm enough for fans, cool enough for high performance engines), the Ferrari Challenge came to town. The FC is a series of races for Ferrari owners who are amateur drivers with dealer support. They get to race F430's and Ferrari gets to demo their latest performance cars. At the same time, all sorts of local Ferrari owners get to strut their stuff (cars). A big celebration. So I start a series of blogs, first with the scene and the cars that lined up for us peons to ogle. A very nice scene with snow packed Ochres to the east and snow packed Stansburys to the west. As always, click on the pics to get a bigger view.



Now some individual cars. First and older Ferrari, don't remember the model.

And, I believe, a Berlinetta, and a convertible F430:

I'm not much into yellow cars, unless they are Ferraris:

And the new Ferrari California:

When it comes to exotic sports cars, most folds are into the gorgeous body work, or the high performance engines. For some reason, I'm into the brakes, especially colorful calipers. You gotta stop these cars, pull 'em down from 100+ speeds in a short distance, without brake fade.
(There was a lot of action in the garage after track time blowing out the brake dust from under the wheel wells). So here's a couple brake pics:


At the top of this post is a pic of my friend, Fred, posing with an F430. He often attends these events with his buddy Davie who is an excellent photographer:

Davie does the photos, Fred applies a little Photoshop and then prints out the pics in large format. They have a little biz going, since owners often enjoy the large prints of their cars. But when it comes to photographers, I enjoy the young babes with a camera:

OK, enough for this post. Coming up, the F599XX, the FXX, and more on F430s, and some bonus pics of other interesting cars on display at the big Ferrari event.