On Day 4 of our trip, my husband decided to split up from the group to try out the new Exotic Driving Experience at Disney World. Here is his write up.
I have always been excited about cars. Even though I’m not really into Nascar, I’ve always wanted to try out the Richard Petty Nascar Experience. We never got around to doing it, but I always look into it before every trip. During this trip’s research, I found that Disney offers an exotic driving experience. I had to try it!
I chose to drive, versus riding as a passenger with a professional driver. On the website, (www.exoticdriving.com) you sign up in advance to pick your day and time. You then select your car. They have different price points for the cars, and at the Walt Disney world speedway you have the choices of a Ferrari 458 Italia, Ferrari F430 , Lamborghini Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggara, Aston Martin Virage or a Nissan R35 GTR. They also have a Porsche 997 and an Audi R8, but they were not there on the day I went. The prices range from $419 to $169 depending on which car you choose. The GTR and the Virage were brand new to Disney.
I chose the Nissan GTR, as this is one of my dream cars. It also has the fastest 0-60 time of all the cars there. The track is located by Magic Kingdom, so while entering the parks, you stay to the left, and follow signs for the Driving Experience. I made the mistake of following my GPS, which brought me around the gates of Magic kingdom twice, and into the parking for Magic kingdom once.
When you sign up, you pay for the number of laps (default is 6, with for the GTR it was about $25 more a lap if you wanted to add 2 or 4 additional laps) There is also a driver’s fee of $35, which brought my total to just under $200 for 6 laps.
They offer 3 time slots a day, 8am, 10am, and 1pm. I arrived at 9:15am for the 10am class. They ask that you arrive 30 minutes early, so I made it, even with getting lost.
Upon signing in, I received my badge, lanyard, and a usb stick. We didn’t enter the classroom until about 9:50, just to let you get an idea of wait time. We watched a video that was about 20-30 minutes long, followed by a lecture on what to do and not to do. We were then divided up into groups and went outside to the track pit area to meet the other instructors and our cars. We then had the opportunity to get our picture taken standing next to and in our car. We were then divided into 4 “waves”. I was in the 3rd wave, so I was able to watch.
There were two spectator areas. One area was by track, and one was across from the parking lot. In my opinion, the best spectator spot is across the parking lot, as there is a shorter course.
Halfway through the second wave, I was instructed to go to the track to get fitted for my helmet. Once my car pulled in from the previous ride, I was escorted to the car where I was helped with the seatbelt and met my in car instructor. They start recording your experience once you get in the car. My instructor gave me a run down of how to approach the track, and told me about the throttle control.
Basically the only control they have over the car is a box that they can dial the throttle down from 100% to 10%. This is for their safety and they inform you that they usually only have to dial it down at the start and at the end. My instructor said the Nissan GTR was only a week old to this track, so I was to take it easy. The first lap out was used to get familiar. The next 5 were for you to go as fast as you felt comfortable.
The exotics course is a series of slower speed, high apex turns, with a portion of the Nascar track to build up some speed. My fastest was 123mph along the back, and it was so much fun. It goes by quick, so I asked my instructor to call out the lap numbers as we were going. Afterward, they pull up and load the next group.
Once I went inside, they had the pictures taken of us printed out with options to buy. There were 2 pictures on a nice wooden plaque for $79, just the two pictures for $35, or one picture for $17. You could also buy your video recording on a USB stick for $99. They previewed it for me and I decided to buy it. They also printed off a time sheet of your lap times. I talked with some of the other guys to see how I compared to their times. I was pretty pleased with myself.
Here is a link to my video:
They also provide a link to software that provides more detailed analysis of the car (speed, rpm, lateral G, Brake sensor, Gas sensor and gps position on map). The only problem was that my video was split in two, and one of my laps was lost. This also messed up the data on my second portion of the video. I was a little disappointed, but they pointed out beforehand that sometime the video doesn’t work.
I was able to preview the videos on their computers, but didn’t think to make sure it was all there. I didn’t notice until I got home, at which point it was too late. Either way, I would totally go again. I am glad I was in the cheapest car, because I was getting just as fast (if not faster) then some of the guys in my wave that had the most expensive car (the Ferrari 458). If that appeal of being in an Italian supercar is what you are looking for, this is definitely a good way to spend a morning. I was out of there by noon, so just about 2 hours.
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