BACK TO LAMBO SCHOOL
Lamborghini helps owners get comfortable behind the wheel. Jim Kenzie gets a lesson,
LAS VEGAS— Lamborghini, among other high-end car companies, understands that some — maybe quite a few — of its customers or prospects really aren’t that comfortable driving cars as powerful as Lambos.
So, the company has taken it upon itself to try and teach them. At the very least, they want to keep their customers alive long enough so that maybe they can buy more cars.
A couple of months back, we told you about a winter driving program Lamborghini runs; in that case, it was in northern Italy.
Given that many Lambos are fourwheel drive, they aren’t necessarily supercars which need to be put away for the winter. That said, threading your Aventador through Toronto streets dodging the Hondas, Fords and Toyotas that are spinning merrily along on their “no-season” tires can be a wee bit daunting.
Perhaps more appropriate for most Lambo owners or intenders is the range of summer advanced driving programs on offer. Lamborghini runs several of these at various venues around the world; you are supposed to complete one level before moving on to the next.
The one I attended was at the Las Vegas International Speedway near (aw, you guessed) Las Vegas.
My event is called “Intensivo” — essentially “one up from basic” — and it assumes you have either taken the introductory course or have had some other high-speed or competition driving under your, um, helmet.
Intensivo takes a full day, and if there are better ways to spend a day than hooning around a racetrack in somebody else’s quarter-to-halfmillion dollar car, I can’t think of many offhand. Especially in Lost Wages, Nev.
The attendees are broken up into groups, and the organizers try to arrange things so that all members of a given group have similar levels of go-faster experience. Each group is run through several exercises in Huracans or Aventadors, at all times accompanied by a skilled instructor giving you advice on how to improve your technique.
The instructors are race drivers in one of several series in which Lamborghini competes. To a person, they combine driving ability with teaching skills, a rare combination.
I also don’t know where they find people with the level of patience necessary to sit in that right seat and watch some of perhaps my lesser-experienced classmates butcher these beautiful automobili. All in a day’s work.
The organization is first-rate. Each group is assigned a “handler,” which keeps us on track, as it were.
With only so much track time and several groups to put through the exercises, it is critical to keep things moving and on schedule. The event ran without a hitch. I always say I have one year of racing experience, 30 times.
One thing I have learned in all my years on tracks (and 15 runs in Targa Newfoundland) is that you have never learned it all. There are always improvements that can be made; even Formula One drivers have coaches.
We did several sessions on the road course within Las Vegas Speedway’s massive oval track, each session focusing on one aspect of smooth, safe and ever-quicker driving. Each session was recorded for later evaluation by your instructor.
While we were doing the early runs, we saw over in another part of the paddock somebody was spraying water all over the roadway. Looked like going sideways in somebody else’s megabuck car was coming up.
Sure enough, the idea was to approach the water at about 40 km/h, crank the steering wheel hard right, then hard left, to induce a lovely four-wheel drift on the freshly wetted pavement. At least, that’s what happened when the instructors did it. That’s why they are instructors.
The idea was definitely not to induce a 180-degree (or worse) spin, although many students (including, ahem, moi) did exactly that on the first go-round. Hey, as Joni Mitchell sang, “Life is for learning.” After a couple of shots, I finally got it moreor-less right.
I came away from the day confident my driving had improved.
Then we had the option to ride as a passenger with one of the pros on the circuit.
Highly entertaining, but proof we all still have a lot to learn.
For more information on where the next Lamborghini Accademia driving programs will take place, either near you or near where you might be taking a vacation, contact your local Lamborghini dealer. In Toronto, that would be Lamborghini Uptown Toronto, 101 AutoVaughan Dr. in Maple, 905-417-1170.
You don’t have to be a Lamborghini owner to attend.
The Intensivo program I attended costs $6,995 (U.S.), which includes most meals and hotel accommodation.
You do have to get yourself there.