MatthiasAK

Hey guys. I’ve made it a habit of trying out exotic car driving experiences over the last few years. Between friends and myself, we’ve done a lot of these things. I recently did some laps with Dream Racing at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I wanted to share my thoughts, especially things that I believe differentiate them from others in the industry.



As with most all driving experiences, drivers watch a safety video before hitting the track. Then, all drivers are offered the opportunity to practice on iRacing-equipped racing simulators. This allows drivers to lap the exact track they will drive at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I’ve never been a big fan of simulators. The driving inputs aren’t exactly realistic, and Dream Racing’s are no exception. However, time spent on simulators is an absolutely invaluable opportunity in this case. Five laps go by very quickly during your actual drive. When you’re paying good money for an experience like this, you do not want to spend the first two or three laps memorizing the track (like with Dream Racing’s competitors). I know this from experience. Dream Racing is the only company I know of to offer the use of simulators with the track that participants will actually be driving. Drivers were not rushed during their time on the simulators and enjoyed one-on-one instruction with Dream Racing’s professional driving instructors. While nothing will fully prepare you, upon entering the track for my first lap, I felt comfortable with the layout. This allowed me to push my skills in the cars earlier translating to a much more enjoyable experience.



The track is 1.2 miles long. It features nine turns and a 1,100-foot-long straightaway good for up to 135 mph in a GT car; my skill level allowed for roughly 120 mph in the 488 GTB. It sits in the center of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The location is fun. You are surrounded by the Speedway’s 1.5-mile-long oval, the grandstands, and distant mountains in the heart of the complex’s infield. Overall, it’s an enjoyable tight track.

Until now, I have personally never participated in an experience that encourages driving on the track curbing and permits revving the cars out while manning the paddle shifters. I have actually been told, “stay off the curbing, please” and instructed to short shift with some of Dream Racing’s competitors. If you’re paying a company that advertises genuine exotic car driving experiences on a real race track, you better be able to do both of these things.

I can’t tell you how many exotic car driving experiences falsely plaster “biggest” or “best fleet in the world” across their sites. Dream Racing does, only it’s for good reason. They have the largest and most unique fleet I know of including most any modern flappy paddle exotic you could think of from the McLaren 650S to the Ferrari 599.



Dream Racing really differs from their competitors in their offering of 5 factory GT cars – Porsche 991 GT3 cup cars, Ferrari F430 and 458 challenge cars, Lamborghini Gallardo LP 570-4 Super Trofeos, and Huracan LP 620-2 Super Trofeos. I have never seen another exotic car driving experience offer anything like this. The only thing that comes close is the formula or challenge car driving schools which usually costs thousands of dollars and are rare stateside. Generally, when other exotic car driving companies advertise race cars, they’re usually kit cars that cannot compete with the likes of a challenge car from Italy or Germany. To have some of the most legendary winning factory-built GT race cars available at a facility with staff on site that can maintain them is pretty amazing. There’s also the small matter that Dream Racing has 1 of the 600 Lamborghini Aventador SVs in their stable.

In all, Dream Racing has twenty-nine models in their fleet. To my knowledge, the only other experience that comes close to this has nineteen models. Dream Racing nearly purchased a million dollar hypercar a few weeks back, so I’d say there are no boundaries to what they’ll add to the fleet.

I’ve researched a lot of exotic car driving experiences and taken part in quite a few over the last few years. I believe Dream Racing’s biggest competitors to be Exotics Racing and Xtreme Xperience. Dream Racing is the one to beat.

MatthiasAK

I drove a 488 GTB and 991 GT3 cup car. This is pretty much the only place in the world you can readily drive a cup, and I highly recommend it if you get the chance. I’ll try to post a video of a lap or two. Best lap in the 488 was 59 seconds and change and 54 seconds and change in the cup. Was still knocking up to a second per lap off in the cup at the end of 5 laps too, so there was definitely room there.

Paul Solk

I have actually run some very quick laps at Dream Racing. In fact, I believe I have the owner on tape saying holy **** when the instructor told him we ran a 52.3 in the Super Trofeo and 52.2 in the 458 cup... We drove the AWD Lamborghini first and sure enough first lap in the Ferrari pushing very hard I spun. Was expecting them to tell me it was over but the instructor looked at me and told me to just stay in it and not to lift next lap. Sure enough tail kicked out, stayed in it and it bit perfectly. They really ENCOURAGE you to safely push...
I think I have the spin on video too

Short track, pretty technical but fun nonetheless!

MatthiasAK

That's awesome!! Those are some very quick times They definitely encourage you to safely push. Sounds like you had a blast!

Jabs1542

Never been to Dream Racing but we had Xtreme Xperience come out to Summit Point this past summer. Based on the posts above this looks like apples and oranges.

Xtreme Xperience ran their event on the Jefferson Circuit at Summit Point (this is the shortest of the three tracks and usually used for training, we do HPDC there). They ran the track backwards!!! I spoke to a BSR manager (BSR manages Summit Point, btw BSR stands for Bill Scott Racing, he's the guy that created the place), I was surprised because tracks are often dangerous when run backwards because of the runoff areas. She told me that they could do whatever they contracted for. So naturally I asked why they would do such a thing, she answered, "to reign in all the locals that know the track". And on top of all that you had to follow a pace car.

I did not participate, I was driving real speeds on the main track. And after I figured out what was up I wouldn't even consider it. They are purposely forcing you to drive on a circuit you aren't familiar with, with an onboard instructor (I get that), on a shorter circuit, behind a pace car. Basically this was several hundred dollars to drive parade laps.

In their defense I didn't see anyone standing in line that looked they they had ever been out to the track before.

MatthiasAK

I have done Xtreme Xperience in the past. I found what you observed to be true. My big issues with them are the pace car and the lineup/traffic. At times, I was told to back off from the pace car and had to either give the pace car a head start on the straights or else be caught going slow behind. That was before their EVOs were modified, so that may be different now. If I started in the back of the pack, I was forced to slowly work my way up to the front at times. They are extremely cautious with passes (i.e. you might have to wait a while). There was also no consistency with the instructors since they employed track locals to coach.

Scary to hear about running tracks backwards, as that's how the Disney Speedway death occurred as you probably know.

Dream Racing was apples to oranges as you said. There's no pace car. Cars enter the track whenever they're ready, so there's no lineup/traffic. On the three or four occasions I made passes during my time in both cars, the car in front already had its hazards on as I approached clearing me for a pass. The instructors honestly do push you, and I had a great experience.

DTMiller

I believe Jefferson is designed to be able to run both directions.

Horus2000

I'm going to be there on Monday testing out the 991 cup and 458 challenge. It's both for fun and to evaluate them for future customer events (I'm paying it out of my own pocket, although they offered to comp or heavily discount). Really looking forward to it. Thanks for the review.

Jabs1542

I asked, running backwards there are two problem areas. Going forwards you have Turns 4 and 5 as one big increasing radius turn, then onto a little stretch, and finally the quick downhill (more like a roller coaster) left hand turn 6 which opens to the straight.

Now let's run that backwards. Backwards 6 is now an uphill right hand roller coaster immediately off the straight. The BSR folks say it tends to launch cars and there's no gravel pit, just open grass, then trees. And the backwards 5 / 4 combo is now a decreasing radius turn that apexes into the trees. The BSR folks said there are numerous marks in these trees due to backwards attempts.

They said that all three of the tracks are 'designed' for one way traffic (their way).