The Amazing Test Driving Adventures

When I first saw that black TransAm driven wildly by Burt Reynolds in the movie Smokey and the Bandit in 1977, I was completely captivated by how cool that car was and I wanted to drive one, but I didn’t have my driver’s license yet. My first car was a 1974 Mustang hatch-back and it was a manual transmission, so I had to quickly learn how to drive a stick in order to drive my car. It didn’t take long for me to master the manual transmission, and although my mustang wasn’t a super fast car, it was still fun to drive. I think it was around this time before I learned how to drive a stick that I test-drove my first car at a dealership. You would think that I would target the TransAm as my first test drive, but not me…I had big aspirations so I test drove the new stainless steel Delorean at Key Cadillac in Edina, Minnesota. The Delorean was a four-speed manual transmission, and the poor salesman that went with me was sweating terribly because I just couldn’t get the handle on driving a stick and so I jerked the car back and forth until I finally got it into gear…it was not a pretty sight, I’m embarrassed to say. I think the salesman kissed the ground when we finally got back to the dealership.

I personally didn’t have the money to buy a car like a Delorean or a TransAm or anything even close to that, but I really wanted to drive these cars to experience for myself what it would be like to have a fancy sports car. This was the beginning of kind of a hobby for me….test driving sports cars. Through trial and error, many test drives, and dealing with many car salesmen, I learned a unique skill, which was to manipulate a car salesman. At first, being a young kid with a driver’s license, why would any salesman even consider allowing me to test drive a brand new TransAm? I had to come up with a story that was believable, so I would tell them things like, my uncle is giving me a lot of money to buy a car, or I inherited a lot of money. You see, if I could get the salesman to see dollar-signs in his head from selling this car to me, then he would let me take it out for a test drive. I also took advantage of the basic courtesy that car dealerships offer which is to demonstrate their product. After many test drives, and feeling a little guilty lying to these salesmen, I changed my story. I learned to say as little as possible, and simply give the salesman the impression I could afford the vehicle because I was a business owner, which was true, although I still didn’t have that kind of money to really buy these cars. After driving many cars, I learned a lot about the differences and the many features of these vehicles, so I could come to the salesman fairly knowledgeable about the cars, giving off the impression that I was an informed buyer. Basically the salesmen wanted to sell cars because that’s how they made money, and I zoomed-in on their desire to sell a car and make money off me as a buyer. Basic salesmanship 101 is to find out what the buyer wants, qualify the buyer, answer any objections, and try to close the sale. Before the salesman knew it I qualified myself, and threw out a couple of objections which usually would lead to the salesman offering to let me drive the car. Sometimes I had to ask if I could try out the car, but that was usually after I had qualified myself. I developed a formula for dealing with car salesmen, so it didn’t matter if I was trying to test drive a $25,000 Ford Mustang, or a $150,000 Lamborgini Countach, I manipulated the sales process to my advantage so I could drive the car.

I had fun. The whole purpose was to have fun. I know….I was having fun at the expense of a poor car salesman who is just trying to feed his family, but I found other justifications for what I was doing. I could say that I was honing a salesman’s sales abilities. I could also say that after driving these cars I would be able to give an intelligent referral. There was a day when these car salesmen would just give me the keys to a fancy car and let me go out on my own to drive the car. That was the best opportunity for me to really test out the car and see what it could do without worrying that I would make a salesman nervous. Tires still fuming and the engine crackling from an intense test drive, my next challenge was to get out of that dealership and away from that salesman as gracefully as possible. Some of the cars I had fun driving the most were Corvettes, TransAms, five-liter Mustangs, Porsches, and the Maserati Bi-turbo. I really had to put my skills into high-gear when trying to test drive the exotics like Ferraris, Lamborgini’s, Rolls Royce and Aston Martin. When I moved to southern California, I found myself in exotic car heaven. We just don’t have the exotic cars in Minnesota like they do in Newport Beach. Oh, I probably should also mention that I became quite good at driving fast cars and putting them through the paces. Some cars like the corvette and the mustang were fun to spin around in an empty parking lot, forming a plume of tire-smoke and leaving black spin-tracks on the pavement. These cars were designed to be driven hard like that. I also enjoyed testing out the efficiency of the anti-lock breaks, which involved zooming at 60-70 mph and then abruptly applying the breaks, initiating the ABS system and coming to a controlled stop. I recall a time when I was test-driving one of my favorite cars, the 928 Porsche, and the salesman came with me. I also had a friend a long for the ride, so the salesman sat in the back. I was speeding down the freeway at about 100 mph and took the curvy exit at a high speed, and then timed my stop using the ABS breaks, right up to the stop light. I was confident in what I was doing, but the poor salesman, not knowing my driving abilities, literally soiled his pants while sitting in the cramped backseat.

There are so many stories I could tell about my test driving adventures, and I drove just about every exotic car I would ever dream of. Some of my ultimate accomplishments were the 959 Porsche in Stuttgart, Germany at the Porsche test track, and the Vector which could go from 0-6mph in about 3.8 seconds with a max speed of 240 mph using a V8 Chevy-block engine at 1,100 horse power. It got to a point where I basically drove everything I ever wanted, so I then took those same skills and began test flying airplanes. One of my favorite test flying experiences was when I flew a Mooney out of Orange County Airport, over Newport Beach, to Long Beach, I circled the Queen Mary, then flew back to OCA and landed the plane, all without the help of the salesman who of course went with us.

I wanted to expand on when I test drove the 959 Porsche in Stuttgart, Germany. I visited the Porsche factory and got a personalized tour, then was taken to the test track where they had the 959 out for a some test runs. I simply asked if I could give it a drive and they were more than happy to drive the thing around the track a few times. There were only a small number of these 959's built and priced out at over $350,000, in fact they were so powerfully fast and they didn't conform to USA regulations, so you couldn't buy one and bring it in to the States. The 959 clocked out at around 0-60mph in about 3.5 seconds, that's what a motorcycle does! It's not a car to be driven by the weak-hearted, it was most certainly a racing machine built for not just speed, but precision, intense driving.

Refusing to say the Pledge?

Ok, I don't want this Barry's adventures blog to become exclusively political, but there are times when it is necessary to stand up and say...this just isn't right. My last entry was well received by most everyone on my list except for a couple of people that tend to lean towards a very liberal political slant. I know my liberal readers are not going to like this because it exposes one their candidates, and they will probably close their eyes and cover their ears and start chanting Lalalalalala....but if you don't see this for yourself, you might not believe it. In fact, one or two of my liberal readers will see the photo and STILL not believe it, and I will be accused of being one-sided and close-minded and not capable of seeing the truth or the facts. Here it goes....recently, a number of presidential candidates were in Iowa on the campaign trail. Everyone stood to their feet, put their hand over their heart for the National Anthem and said the Pledge while facing the American flag....except for one man, Senator Barack Hussein Obama, who refused to say the pledge and put his hand over his heart. Just behind Obama was Governor Bill Richardson, Senator Hillary Clinton and Ruth Harkin, who all showed respect for our country and the American flag. I personally think Mr. Obama is very articulate, but he doesn't seem to be very patriotic or respectful of our national pledge. What do you think? Is this a person we want to be President of the United States?

Political Smearing and Lies

I'm quite amazed that professional, elected, high-profile politicians like Harry Reid, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, and basically about 40 senators on the democrat side of the isle, would knowingly and blatantly pursue a smear campaign on an American citizen, based entirely on a lie. I'm talking about a letter that was written and signed by 40 democrats from Harry Reid's office to the CEO of Clear Channel Communications, Mark Mays against Rush Limbaugh. Now the reason I find this so amazing is that I happened to hear the comments in question that Rush made live on his radio show, and it is so blatantly obvious that his comments were taken WAY out of context, which makes the actions of these senators highly dishonest and somewhat devious. Additionally, this smear tactic against Rush Limbaugh seems to have a strategic agenda, specifically generated by these liberal democrats to sway the opinion of Americans into thinking Rush is anti-U.S. Troops, or that Rush is against ANY troops who don't agree with the war in Iraq. This is so far from the truth that it's comical. Here's what happened in a nutshell: Rush was speaking to a caller who was talking about a guy who faked that he was a soldier who went to Iraq and saw numerous atrocities being committed towards Iraqi citizens by American troops. Now this particular guy didn't even complete boot camp, he never went to Iraq...this is a fact...and he has been lying that he was a soldier in Iraq and saw all these terrible things. The democrats, who are opposed to the war in Iraq embraced this guy (lier) because of his fake story, and because it supported their agenda for America to lose the Iraq war. Rush was talking about this particular guy only whose name is Jesse MacBeth and said that He (MacBeth) was a "phony soldier" which it has been proven in a court of law that he WAS lying about his status as a soldier. So Rush's comments were taken WAY out of context and a strategy to smear the conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh was put into place by the democrats in the senate lead by Senator Harry Reid of Nevada. WHY, I ask you....would anyone support these senators who would construct this smear and dishonestly and knowingly LIE to the American people? If they lie about something like this, how do we know they are not lying about a great number of other things that are of greater importance to the American people? From DAY ONE the democrats, along with their allies the Media, have been smearing President Bush and trying to bend the masses' perceptions of our president...how many of these smear tactics were based on lies or taken out of context? I'm not saying there are not republicans who have lied too, but just look at this disgusting outright lie these democrats have been caught in and think to yourself, what is happening to our world, our ethics, has all morality been chucked-out the window?

I think what Rush Limbaugh has done with this letter is absolutely brilliant! He is auctioning off this letter on EBay and donating the proceeds to the Marine Corps - Law Enforcement Foundation...and ALSO, Rush is going to Match whatever funds are raised. Now what's really entertaining is that Rush has challenged, and asked the democrats who signed this letter to also match whatever funds are raised so that every penny goes to this charitable military organization. Do you think the democrats will ever fork out their money to match these funds raised? I don't think so, because they detest the military and they hate Rush, and to donate to this charity would cause the democrats to admit they were wrong which they will never do. I included a link to the actual signed letter above, so you can read it for yourself. What is truly scary, is that three of those who signed that letter are running for President of the United States of America. I know many have said they think President Bush lied to Americans about weapons of mass destruction, but I challenge ANYONE to prove that our president ever lied about anything to Americans. It cannot be done, because this perception that President Bush lied was put together by the democrats trying to smear the president. The democrats have been flat out caught in a lie and a false smear tactic - the lie is on record - ask yourself, "What else have they lied to YOU about"?

**Update** The Ebay auction for Senator Reid's rediculous letter falsely trying to character assasinate Rush Limbaugh finally raised over two million dollars, and Rush even matched it so the total donation is over FOUR MILLION dollars! How has HarrY Reid responded? He has tried to take credit on the senate floor for the fact that the letter raised so much money, and he insinuated that he was in on it all and congratulates Rush Limbaugh for the massive donation which he said was for a great cause. Here is a link to an article written by David Limbaugh who is a writer, an author, and an attorney, and Rush's brother: Read his article about this whole democrat scam If you are a democrat reading this and a friend of mine, I'm sorry if you are angry with me for posting this, but it's not me you should be angry with, you really should be angry with your party in the senate for such character failure. What I have reported here is the truth and sometimes the truth hurts.

Welcome to Barry's Blog

You've perhaps seen my website, heard the songs I've sang, watched the videos I've posted online, and listened to my Talkshow podcasts, so now I'm creating a BLOG for all to enjoy! Seriously, the reason I have tapped into all these forms of media is to stay in-touch with my friends and family and to keep anyone who wants to read, listen, watch...informed about things I've done, things I'd like to do, and with this blog, basically put into words what is spining around in this head of mine. I've included a recent picture of my family. I hope you enjoy the ride!