Carrera GT Road Trip NEW ORLEANS to PALM BEACH

As Supercar Experience expands into two new cities for 2010, I have had to frequent New Orleans and New York to research the venues, demographics and the car culture. Jan Otto, of SCX, joked that we should take a road trip in his 2005 Porsche Carrera GT. Considering that the only time I travel is for business, I decided I should be a little spontaneous and call his bluff. Two weeks later the plans were in place and both Jan  and our director of marketing Jessica left Wyoming in his CGT and G55. The original plan was to take the whole trip with them but I am always trying to juggle a pretty hectic schedule. So I decided to fly out of PB and meet up with them in either Dallas or New Orleans.

FIRST MISTAKE

Don't try to book a last minute plane ticket on a inferior carrier (delta) and plan to catch a connecting flight in a city like Atlanta. It doesn't work.

After getting strip searched by the TSA in Palm Beach, probably because i am Armenian or something, i spent a few hours in the airport anxious of my first road trip, and most of all, in a Carrera GT.

(Picked up a copy of the new DuPont Registry holiday edition which BTW was amazingly thin. )

After my flight being delayed over two hours in PB I arrived in Atlanta with about 2 minutes to catch my flight into New Orleans. I had never flown into Atlanta and did not realize the terminals were 30 miles long and that walking them would get me NO WHERE.

YOU HAVE TO TAKE A TRAIN, YES A TRAIN TO GET TO A CONNECTING TERMINAL. I arrived at terminal A and my flight (now 1 minute to boarding) was at terminal E27.

Excited for the trip I was having a meltdown as I did not realize I could potentially catch another flight.

About five hours later around 11pm I landed in New Orleans.

GOOD MORNING

Parked in front of the Windsor Court in downtown New Orleans both the Carrera GT and the G55 complimented each other very well. Attracting an amazing amount of attention, as living in Palm Beach I often forget how numb I am to seeing exotic cars.

Both cars shared a beautiful well-traveled haze, which was a mixture of snow, dust and dirt. Greeted by the SCX crew I placed my overnight bag in the G55 and we were ready to go!

SWEET HOME ALABAMA

Derived from Porsche's extensive racing lineage the Porsche Carrera GT is arguably the most advanced, bold and exciting Supercar ever. Porsche designed a race car and installed turn signals and a license plate holder. During its development Porsche filed over 75 patents.  Patenting the carbon fiber monocoque chassis, the first production car to utilize the racing technology, which gives the Carrera GT maximum stiffness-weight ratio .

Not too long into our trip while driving through Alabama it became very apparent that the Carrera GT is a raw race car that found its way onto public streets. As Jan stated before leaving New Orleans, "it is like driving in a Carbon Fiber drum." While it can impressively maneuver every bump, turn, rock, pebble; You can feel and hear every imperfection in the road.

To be continued...