Automotive Entertainment

I spent a long weekend in Asheville and Charlotte, North Carolina to do one thing: drive exotic super cars.

But I got much more than I bargained for.

I’ll explain that in a minute.

I went to the World Class Driving experience. This is where you get to drive five super expensive and super fast super cars. It’s a great way to find out what kind of car you want to attract. The ones I drove were —

Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano
Callaway C16 Coupe
Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera
Maserati GranTurismo
Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren

The car I wanted to drive the most was the McLaren. But I ended up driving it last. I first “had” to drive the Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.

Nothing shabby about the Ferrari. It’s fast, lean, and made for speed. I quickly felt at home in it. The pedal shifts on the steering wheel seemed odd to me, since I’m used to driving a stick shift, such as the one in Francine. But I quickly adapted.

The car I drove next was the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera. I didn’t like it. The brakes are specialized ones that are designed to stop the car DEAD at a touch. Trying to touch them and not put myself through the windshield was a true challenge. I never mastered it. Nerissa still has seat belt burns on her neck.

The Maserati GranTurismo was next. It’s the cheapest of the cars at $120,000. It drives and rides like a luxury car, but it has power hidden under the hood that would make it blur past most other luxury models. Nerissa loved riding in this one best. But I’m sure she still prefers her Toyota Camry hybrid.

Next was the Callaway C16 Coupe. This rare Corvette inspired super car was uncomfortable, mostly because the bucket seats were made for a horse jockey and not an Internet marketer with a larger butt. Nerissa didn’t like it, either.

And, finally, the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren.

This is a bullet ready to be fired into outer space. No wonder it has space-ship like swing-wing doors. It’s a rocket, a 617-horsepower ungodly powerful road monster that no untrained human should be allowed to drive.

The brakes are like the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera’s and need to get used to or else you’ll wear the windshield on your face.

The car has an untamed beast (think The Hulk) under the hood that roars to be set free. But there’s no place to set it free. I went 80 miles an hour in it when it’s capable of over 200. This engineering masterpiece sells for half a million dollars. I want two.

But driving the cars through the beautiful North Carolina hills wasn’t the highlight of the trip.

The real perk was meeting the man behind World Class Driving, Jean-Paul Libert.

Jean-Paul is an inspiring man. He heard that I’m the author of numerous marketing books and had lots of questions about how Americans think. He’s confused that in America employees don’t honor their employers. He’s also confused why a handshake agreement isn’t enough in the USA.

Jean-Paul is from Belgium and came up with the idea for World Class Driving a few years ago. He started with no money at all.

None.

But he knows marketing.

He said he wants to provide people with “automotive entertainment.” He wants them to have an experience. I liked him right then and there. This is what I say all buyers want these days.

His market isn’t worried about gas prices but isn’t ready to spend several hundred thousand dollars on a car. I think he would like my book on P.T. Barnum, There’s A Customer Born Every Minute, and probably Dan Kennedy’s new one, No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent. I’ll send him both books as a gift.

I think there are numerous lessons in this post. Everything from taking time to pursue your passions to keeping in mind what your customers want most: a new experience.

Ao Akua,

Joe
www.mrfire.com

PS – While in Asheville, we also visited the largest mansion in the USA: the Biltmore Estate. It’s unimaginably huge. It takes two hours just to stroll through it. More on that in another post.

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