Transportation

I Checked Out An Aston Martin, Maserati, Mercedes, Porsche, Lamborghini, And Ferrari — All In The Same Day!

Matthew DeBord

2014-09-19T19:25:00Z

Gotham Dream Cars-18 — It's a yellow Lamborghini and I'm driving it! Gotham Dream Cars

How's this for a menu of dream cars?

Aston Martin V8 Vantage? Check. Maserati GranCabrio? Of course. Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG? Yep. Porsche 911 4S Cabriolet? Why not. Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder. Oh yeah. Ferrari 458 Italia? What's dinner without dessert!

Driving even one of these sublime cars would make for a exhilarating day.

But I got to sample all 6 of them in the span of about 6 hours.

"What," you might ask, "was the auspicious occasion?"

A friend of Business Insider invited me to join him on a "Dream Car Tour" that a colleague had won in a charity auction. The Tour was conducted by Gotham Dream Cars, a company that rents high-performance luxury cars and, for $895, will put you behind the wheel of 6 different hot, hot, smokin' hot cars in a single day.

The Tour — conducted at legal speeds and carefully supervised by Gotham Dream Cars' expert, experienced staff — took us through the highways and byways of the New York-New Jersey area.

See if you can guess which car I liked the most.

There's nothing quite like being in a garage full of Ferraris.

The GDC staff knows these cars well — because they have to maintain them.

And what else would they be watching on TV besides the hit BBC car show "Top Gear?"

But only the episodes that feature exotic supercars!

You know you're in the presence of true gearheads when you see that they use retired engines to decorate the joint.

The Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG was up first. It's been described as a German muscle car.

We were ready to leave the garage. That's Kenny Herman riding shotgun. He's a friend of GDC and Business Insider. The car handled a rain-slickened highway fairly well. It would have preferred a drag strip.

He took the wheel at our first car change — to the Aston Martin V8 Vantage. This is the car that James Bond made famous. Its road manners were impeccable — but it packed a nice punch from its V8 engine.

Porsche — there's still no substitute. The car fit like a glove and drove as if it were on loan from the afterlife, where all motoring is perfectly conceived and the roads are endlessly winding.

The rides looked pretty impressive when lined up.

After the Porsche, the Maserati GranCabrio took a bit of getting used to...

...but this stylish touring car quickly charmed us with its smooth handling — and an engine borrowed from Ferrari!

The scenery was hard to argue with and made for a perfect backdrop.

I didn't drive the Ferrari 458 — and I was sort of glad I didn't. It's a beautiful, glorious beast of a car...

...with a ridiculously powerful V8 visible for all to see.

The Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder was another story. The Ferrari kind of scared me...

...but the Lambo was shockingly easy to drive.

Listen to the wild symphony of that howling engine, like something torn from a dangerous place and barely domesticated. What a thrill!

Of course, all good things must come to an end. And you have to be veeerrry careful when driving cars like these back into the garage.

But if classic cars are your bag, check out...

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