Day 16 – Wednesday 7th March 2018

We first drove around the circuit in a Porsche Cayenne for a few laps as part of the tutorial and for a “soccer mom” vehicle, it had sufficient grunt and performance to be quite impressive.

OK, tin-lid on the head, seat adjustment to maximise comfort and a rundown on the gear shift layout and I was ready to take her for a fang around the circuit. The R8 is a magnificent beast, sleek, sexy and sensational. She purred like a tame pussy-cat until the right foot pushed the pedal through the floor – she growled like a lion on steroids!

Acceleration was mind boggling. There were two sets of witch’s hats green and red. These were strategically placed to indicate the braking zone and the green was to let you know it was time for the “go juice” to fill the cylinders.

The first corner came up all too quickly and it was flat stick around, she stuck to the road like the proverbial shite to a blanket, full throttle, growling and the red braking zone was ridiculous too close to the apex of the corner. The temptation was to stomp on the stop pedal because “there’s no way she will slow in time if I don’t” but I resisted an dividends payed off. A squeeze on the pedal wiped off enough speed to negotiate the corner and then full throttle on exit saw it catapult toward the next corner coming up at 180km/h.

Seven more times around the track of this Adrenalin fuelled action was absolutely amazing and unfortunately it was all over before I could really get in the grove.

I was a mere 5 seconds off the lap record and not a bad effort for this petrol head.

I’ll let you in on a secret but don’t spread the word – I’ve already started scanning CarSales.com for an R8…

What an awesome prezzie this was – Thanks Leon!

Back to downtown and a walk through the Miracle Mile checking out some of the goodies on sale.

A shower, iron the shirt, get tarted up and we headed off to eat, drink and be merry.

A Spanish Bar at The Cosmopolitan was our first stop with a number of Sangrias and Tapas. We then moved onto the STK – New York Steak House where two seats at the bar were “ours”.

Great tucker and a flow of beverage ensured we were having a great time. And after several hours we moved onto Fogo de Chow for some amazing Brazilian food. They have a great system with two drink coaster style badges, one Green, the other Red. Leave Green showing and you have waiters bringing different meats on long skewers and a knife as sharp can be. The meat is expertly cut onto the plate. When you want a break from eating, you flip the Red badge over and the waiters stay away. A fantastic system.