- 5,987
Some of you may have read my post regarding my Ferrari day on Saturday in the Let-Downs thread. I was basically asked by a friend to join him at Circuit Mont Tremblant for a Ferrari track day. I had been planning on going, but work was getting in the way. Thrusday afternoon, I ran into a co-worker, and he said he could take my shift on Saturday, letting me go to the track event.
Here's what I was preparing for, Friday night: I was informed that I will be driven to a family friend's house to get a drive to the track, Circuit Mont Tremblant, for a Ferrari track day. There will be previous F1 cars, F430s, and the celebrity FXX Program cars. I'd be watching as a VIP, because of some connections my friend has. We were to meet at 8AM and make it to the track for 12ish, my wheels would be none other than a Ferrari, a 1989 Ferrari Testarossa in black. I've been offered to drive this Ferrari, but I am not able to, insurance-wise; I am not 25. Looks like I was going to be riding shotgun, but that's fine. This man drives a Ferrari like it was meant to: spirited.
Saturday morning I arrive punctual, as usual for such car events. We were to make it to my friend's cottage so that he could turn on the water and electricity and then relay to the track, which is a half hour from the cottage. We had arranged to meet another member of the local Ferrari Club chapter to have helmets, incase there was a break in the festivities for a few laps on the track (my friend has driven the Tremblant track many times before - he placed top in his class in a race there a few years ago in his former 308 GTS).
After about 20 minutes of highway driving (and warming up of the Testa), we take the exit for the cottage. This is b-road country, and man did we have a good time.
Even some rally driving!
We chase around a motorcycle for a bit, as well as a Miata, briefly, and a 996 Cab. Nothing stood a chance to the Boxy 10.
We arrived at Mont Tremblant at 11:30ish. Tremblant is a very large ski resort, with tons of hotels, even more tourists and big money. Arriving at the pit entrance to the venue, we are questionned and sent off to a million places. We are eventually told we have to leave, drive around to the other side of the track for registration. My friend tells me to just go in alone to have a look around the track on my own while he takes the Testa to the registration; we were to meet later on.
I walk in and am faced with a lot of what I've seen before: private racing team's trailers, pedestrians, mechanics dressed in red driving Vespas around. This isn't my first Ferrari Challenge experience, they drive at the Canadian Grand Prix all of the time, and I've seen them now many times.
The top of my agenda is FXX. I want to see these machines before anything else. I get closer to the trailers and main portion of the "pit" area. Walking between the few parked civilian cars, I notice this car:
At this point, my older Ferrari knowledge is faaaiiirly limited, so I was doubtin myself. That can't be a 250 GTO. They fetched 15,000,000$ at auction a decade ago! It has to be either another vintage Ferrari or a replica. I turn out to be terribly wrong - there were 4 real 250 GTOs racing, not shelf queens, racecars, infront of my eyes, outside my ears and below my nose all day.
I take a couple shots and move onto the rows of trailers. They've got their cars on jacks and their mechanics tinkering away. I had never seen the F430 Challenge racers, so there was one thing new for me. Also something new, was the access I had. The Challenge trailers at the F1 races were all fenced off. This time I could walk around the cars, touch them, look at them, chat with the mechanics, even grab a hot dog from the team barbecue if I was hungry enough. Here's the F430s hanging around:
Now, moving onto older business, this trailer was one of the many there for the Classic car races. This one particular tent was decently stocked with some nice gems. Is that another 250 GTO?
More vintage racers:
End of the line of trailers in one direction. That means twice as much all-access exploring the other way.
I come back around to continue to my top goal: finding some FXX. After much investigation of more suave race cars - new and old, I get to the end of the line.
"I think my best chances of finding and FXX are that big white Ferrari tent. What's that crowd doing around that red car?" I go in for a closer look.
On my way over, before I could get a good look in the tent, this rolls by me:
After which, I get startled when something behind me fires up and rumbles a nice hilly idle. I go over, and behold, my favorite Ferrari, the 333. I truly do love the car more after hearing it rumble 3 feet away from me.
The exitement passes (literally) and I get a chance to peek into the tent. Yep! I was right, 4 modified Enzos lined up in a pretty manner with a bunch of FXX Program clad mechanics rumaging around yelling at eachother in Italian. I thought of GTP's *Mclaren at this point, how this is the crowd he wants to be part of. I then proceeded to take some pictures of the FXXs, from any angle at any distance.
Carbon everything
Red head
They then roll out after a couple minutes of photography to hit the track for some R and D, the Italian way - fast and loud.
Also in the white tent, the other high class Corse Clienti ("racing customer") cars and their respective owners and mechanics. They lifted the engine covers off of two of the three recent Ferrari F1 cars. There was also an early-90s model waiting to get on track. Here's a beautiful V10.
Outside, there was another ton of vintage sexiness
This whole time, these trailers are all parked along the front straight at Tremblant. This track is magnificent, absolutely spectacular. Imagine Nurburgring suroundings, but more open, with very distinct hills and crests. My early exploration was all during various track times for different classes of cars. After I took a look at the FXXs, the Clienti F1 racecars were hitting the track. This is how close I was allowed to the track, pretty good eh?
Here's where I watched the cars get onto the track from. My fave, the 333 passes by...
Here's the FXX on-track. To give you an idea, if you've heard an F1 car, you've heard what a wilder FXX sounds like. The FXX noises are tamer than F1's shriek, but you can still tell theres a lot going on. Less edge to it, but still sounds menacing.
They then returned at different times to the tent.
Between track attacks and qualifying sessions, I had time to better explore the trailers, the cars and the people working on them. In one far corner, a classic car race team had the only Lotus in the entire venue - an old Elan 1600. This here was a brilliant little piece, such a nice colour.
After an amazing VIP meal at the hospitality tent, we started to really watch the track activities. The afternoon had the Challenge race, vintage drum-brake race and the vintage disc brake series, all before more Corse Clienti track time.
The Challenge race was very interesting, mainly because these people aren't professionals whatsoever, so you get some nudging, some missed apexes, misunderstandings regarding track rules and etiquette. This is the product of a little bit of a bump on the final up-hill hairpin, where the offending car had to retire. In tradition, the cars are covered when they pass spectators.
Pace car (another F430) pitted and the race continued. Circuit Mont Tremblant was the most beautiful track I've ever seen, no video game, photograph or video of any track in the world compares to this place.
Vrrraaaaaaaaaw!
The beauty...
End of the race, cars all went by. This was the winner, I believe. There was mass confusion regarding results because of a yellow flag. These amateur rich boys all had different definitions of yellow flag. Some thought the race was over, some thought it was still on but passing wasn't permitted, some thought passing was only permitted after the flagged turn, and other disregarded the flag entirely.
Nice teeth..
Here's the start of the drum brake series. Very limited field because of a lot of mechanical issues. That 1932 Maserati (?) has an extremely vast racing history. That very car has had books written about it...
After speaking with some very rich people and their cars, me and my chauffeur proceeded to the infield where the Testa was parked. He was talking with some other Club members about various things, half in Italian, so I went on to a different portion of track to watch the disc series race.
This was the leader for qailifications and most of the race (I didn't catch the end) in a 512 (correct me?). His name is Lawrence Stroll, he has a massive share in Tommy Hillfiger (45%), he owns the Tremblant track, owns many many cars, including one of the FXX cars, and also is the owner of the Ferrari dealership in town. He was very angry with the results of the Challenge race, where he was stiffed of a few positions because of the flag fiasco. He certainly killed the vintage race though...
250 GTO chasing a lesser 250, I think.
Anyone know this car? One of the ones I really cannot make out...
I love this track. One day, one day...
Stroll being chased.
Damn.
We were parked with good company, I can tell you that. A fine collection of Italian machines.
A nice little surprise a few rows down:
In the end, the whole day completely blew away my expectations of the event. I didn't get to drive anything, or get any track time, but damn it was so much fun. I'm not a big Ferrari fan, in fact, I rather dislike the company as it is run today, but those V10s, the V12s, the money, the class, the design, the track. Damn I'd do it again every year (especially since I got it all for free!).
Enjoy!
Here's what I was preparing for, Friday night: I was informed that I will be driven to a family friend's house to get a drive to the track, Circuit Mont Tremblant, for a Ferrari track day. There will be previous F1 cars, F430s, and the celebrity FXX Program cars. I'd be watching as a VIP, because of some connections my friend has. We were to meet at 8AM and make it to the track for 12ish, my wheels would be none other than a Ferrari, a 1989 Ferrari Testarossa in black. I've been offered to drive this Ferrari, but I am not able to, insurance-wise; I am not 25. Looks like I was going to be riding shotgun, but that's fine. This man drives a Ferrari like it was meant to: spirited.
Saturday morning I arrive punctual, as usual for such car events. We were to make it to my friend's cottage so that he could turn on the water and electricity and then relay to the track, which is a half hour from the cottage. We had arranged to meet another member of the local Ferrari Club chapter to have helmets, incase there was a break in the festivities for a few laps on the track (my friend has driven the Tremblant track many times before - he placed top in his class in a race there a few years ago in his former 308 GTS).
After about 20 minutes of highway driving (and warming up of the Testa), we take the exit for the cottage. This is b-road country, and man did we have a good time.
Even some rally driving!
We chase around a motorcycle for a bit, as well as a Miata, briefly, and a 996 Cab. Nothing stood a chance to the Boxy 10.
We arrived at Mont Tremblant at 11:30ish. Tremblant is a very large ski resort, with tons of hotels, even more tourists and big money. Arriving at the pit entrance to the venue, we are questionned and sent off to a million places. We are eventually told we have to leave, drive around to the other side of the track for registration. My friend tells me to just go in alone to have a look around the track on my own while he takes the Testa to the registration; we were to meet later on.
I walk in and am faced with a lot of what I've seen before: private racing team's trailers, pedestrians, mechanics dressed in red driving Vespas around. This isn't my first Ferrari Challenge experience, they drive at the Canadian Grand Prix all of the time, and I've seen them now many times.
The top of my agenda is FXX. I want to see these machines before anything else. I get closer to the trailers and main portion of the "pit" area. Walking between the few parked civilian cars, I notice this car:
At this point, my older Ferrari knowledge is faaaiiirly limited, so I was doubtin myself. That can't be a 250 GTO. They fetched 15,000,000$ at auction a decade ago! It has to be either another vintage Ferrari or a replica. I turn out to be terribly wrong - there were 4 real 250 GTOs racing, not shelf queens, racecars, infront of my eyes, outside my ears and below my nose all day.
I take a couple shots and move onto the rows of trailers. They've got their cars on jacks and their mechanics tinkering away. I had never seen the F430 Challenge racers, so there was one thing new for me. Also something new, was the access I had. The Challenge trailers at the F1 races were all fenced off. This time I could walk around the cars, touch them, look at them, chat with the mechanics, even grab a hot dog from the team barbecue if I was hungry enough. Here's the F430s hanging around:
Now, moving onto older business, this trailer was one of the many there for the Classic car races. This one particular tent was decently stocked with some nice gems. Is that another 250 GTO?
More vintage racers:
End of the line of trailers in one direction. That means twice as much all-access exploring the other way.
I come back around to continue to my top goal: finding some FXX. After much investigation of more suave race cars - new and old, I get to the end of the line.
"I think my best chances of finding and FXX are that big white Ferrari tent. What's that crowd doing around that red car?" I go in for a closer look.
On my way over, before I could get a good look in the tent, this rolls by me:
After which, I get startled when something behind me fires up and rumbles a nice hilly idle. I go over, and behold, my favorite Ferrari, the 333. I truly do love the car more after hearing it rumble 3 feet away from me.
The exitement passes (literally) and I get a chance to peek into the tent. Yep! I was right, 4 modified Enzos lined up in a pretty manner with a bunch of FXX Program clad mechanics rumaging around yelling at eachother in Italian. I thought of GTP's *Mclaren at this point, how this is the crowd he wants to be part of. I then proceeded to take some pictures of the FXXs, from any angle at any distance.
Carbon everything
Red head
They then roll out after a couple minutes of photography to hit the track for some R and D, the Italian way - fast and loud.
Also in the white tent, the other high class Corse Clienti ("racing customer") cars and their respective owners and mechanics. They lifted the engine covers off of two of the three recent Ferrari F1 cars. There was also an early-90s model waiting to get on track. Here's a beautiful V10.
Outside, there was another ton of vintage sexiness
This whole time, these trailers are all parked along the front straight at Tremblant. This track is magnificent, absolutely spectacular. Imagine Nurburgring suroundings, but more open, with very distinct hills and crests. My early exploration was all during various track times for different classes of cars. After I took a look at the FXXs, the Clienti F1 racecars were hitting the track. This is how close I was allowed to the track, pretty good eh?
Here's where I watched the cars get onto the track from. My fave, the 333 passes by...
Here's the FXX on-track. To give you an idea, if you've heard an F1 car, you've heard what a wilder FXX sounds like. The FXX noises are tamer than F1's shriek, but you can still tell theres a lot going on. Less edge to it, but still sounds menacing.
They then returned at different times to the tent.
Between track attacks and qualifying sessions, I had time to better explore the trailers, the cars and the people working on them. In one far corner, a classic car race team had the only Lotus in the entire venue - an old Elan 1600. This here was a brilliant little piece, such a nice colour.
After an amazing VIP meal at the hospitality tent, we started to really watch the track activities. The afternoon had the Challenge race, vintage drum-brake race and the vintage disc brake series, all before more Corse Clienti track time.
The Challenge race was very interesting, mainly because these people aren't professionals whatsoever, so you get some nudging, some missed apexes, misunderstandings regarding track rules and etiquette. This is the product of a little bit of a bump on the final up-hill hairpin, where the offending car had to retire. In tradition, the cars are covered when they pass spectators.
Pace car (another F430) pitted and the race continued. Circuit Mont Tremblant was the most beautiful track I've ever seen, no video game, photograph or video of any track in the world compares to this place.
Vrrraaaaaaaaaw!
The beauty...
End of the race, cars all went by. This was the winner, I believe. There was mass confusion regarding results because of a yellow flag. These amateur rich boys all had different definitions of yellow flag. Some thought the race was over, some thought it was still on but passing wasn't permitted, some thought passing was only permitted after the flagged turn, and other disregarded the flag entirely.
Nice teeth..
Here's the start of the drum brake series. Very limited field because of a lot of mechanical issues. That 1932 Maserati (?) has an extremely vast racing history. That very car has had books written about it...
After speaking with some very rich people and their cars, me and my chauffeur proceeded to the infield where the Testa was parked. He was talking with some other Club members about various things, half in Italian, so I went on to a different portion of track to watch the disc series race.
This was the leader for qailifications and most of the race (I didn't catch the end) in a 512 (correct me?). His name is Lawrence Stroll, he has a massive share in Tommy Hillfiger (45%), he owns the Tremblant track, owns many many cars, including one of the FXX cars, and also is the owner of the Ferrari dealership in town. He was very angry with the results of the Challenge race, where he was stiffed of a few positions because of the flag fiasco. He certainly killed the vintage race though...
250 GTO chasing a lesser 250, I think.
Anyone know this car? One of the ones I really cannot make out...
I love this track. One day, one day...
Stroll being chased.
Damn.
We were parked with good company, I can tell you that. A fine collection of Italian machines.
A nice little surprise a few rows down:
In the end, the whole day completely blew away my expectations of the event. I didn't get to drive anything, or get any track time, but damn it was so much fun. I'm not a big Ferrari fan, in fact, I rather dislike the company as it is run today, but those V10s, the V12s, the money, the class, the design, the track. Damn I'd do it again every year (especially since I got it all for free!).
Enjoy!
them oldies sure sound nice when iv heard em, the newer ones not so much but thats just me i likes em roarin 
