A Day At The Circuit Of The Americas – Part 2

Warning!  This post contains four videos.  The reason?  What can I say – I just really like videos.

In my previous post, you saw a ton of amazing cars but you’ve also noticed that I focused mostly on the Porsches.  There were just so many everywhere that it was overwhelming.  And these weren’t just regular Porsches – they were mostly the rare GT3 kind that you normally don’t see too many of.

I did come across one poor Porsche abandoned in a far corner of the parking lot.  I’m going to assume that this was a casualty of the Circuit of the Americas although I could be wrong.

The Circuit Of The Americas is not an easy track to drive on and while I haven’t been personally on it, I could tell it’s a challenging track to master.

But, do you really need an expensive high performance sports car to have fun at the track?  Forget the GT3, GT3 RS, M5, CL65 AMG, Ferrari, or all the others…

Get a MINI.  That’s right – a MINI Cooper.  Starting at less at around $20,000, you can buy a MINI, modify it and hang with the fastest Porsches, BMWs, AMGs of the world.  Oh, and GTRs too.

If you’re thinking that’s not even possible, then watch this…

Okay, enough of the affordable cars that I can actually consider purchasing.  Back to the cars that cost much more than the house I live in.

The McLaren

What a sight it was…the one of a kind, ultra rare McLaren MP4-12C. It made me really happy seeing a true car enthusiast who brings his McLaren to the track. Kudos to the owner for bringing his car out to the Circuit of the Americas!

But I can’t really blame any exotic car owner that keeps their car in the garage – if I spent that much money on a car I would think twice before racing it.

Gazing at this beauty made me wish there were more McLarens at the Circuit of the Americas. The MP4-12C wasn’t the only super car at the track. Here is a Ferrari 458 Italia speeding down the straightaway.  I’m sure these cars got up to 150 mph or higher on the main straightaway at the Circuit of the Americas.  I did hear from someone that a modified C6 Z06 went up to 170 mph!

And it didn’t end there.

Although I didn’t see this one on the track, there was a mean-looking Lamborghini LP 570-4 Superleggera.  You can imagine how boring the drive home was after being in a fantasy world surrounded by all these super cars.

I wonder if the owners of the Lamborghini, Ferrari and McLaren felt bad that their cars weren’t the fastest around the track.  I know that some of the Porsches and BMWs were faster – especially the ones that were modded and fully track-prepped.

I’m sure that most people buy Ferraris for reasons other than wanting to be the fastest car in the world.  And yes – there is more to a car than just being the fastest car ever.

A few weeks ago, I took a look at Ray and Leslie’s Dodge Viper ACR.  At the time when I was filming, I was thinking how amazing the ACR would have been on a track since that car truly is purpose-built for the race track.

Well, my dream came true.  Take a look at some clips of the McLaren, Viper and Ferrari.

BMW Racing

This event was hosted by the local BMW Car Club chapter, so naturally there was some BMW racing action which was pretty cool. The endurance race featured all kinds of awesome BMW cars and therefore  I put together some clips for your viewing pleasure.  Again, I must thank Chris Morrow for the excellent footage. Below are some clips highlighting the race.

During an endurance race, the driver has to fill up his own car with gas!  Oh, the tortures of an endurance BMW race – driving and servicing your car. That must be tiring.

Finally, the fourth video. You can finally breathe a sigh of relief – the barrage of videos has ended.  I just couldn’t get enough of these cars so I had to cram it all in!

That’s it from the Circuit of the Americas!  Can’t wait for the next track day.

Check out more posts at www.torqueaffair.com