Best Job I Ever Had?

Glad you asked: VALET!  I did this while in college and I got to drive some very cool cars during my time there.  If you’ve ever seen the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off when the valet takes the Dad’s ’61 Ferrari 250 GT for a joy ride and he said to Ferris, “Relax. You guys got nothing to worry about. I’m a professional.”  I never did anything like that…as far as you know!  I’ll just say it was THE BEST JOB I EVER HAD…EVER!  One day I’m going to quit all this career crap and go back and be a valet again!  I drove some cool cars while valeting but the coolest cars I drove were:

• ’92 Corvette ZR1 – 5.7-liter, 4 overhead camshafts, 32 valves, fuel-injected engine that produced 375 horsepower.  A six-speed manual transmission laying power down to Goodyear Eagle Gatorback tires that are 17 inches wide!  The 0-60 test had it at 4.9 seconds with a quarter-mile in 13.4 seconds.  In 1992 that was King of the Hill.  My roommate (and valet partner) and I had read articles in Road and Track about this car and were in awe.  One day one pulled up for me to “park”.  I did just that.  Of course, I would “park” it in the lot across the street.  I pulled out into the street and stomped it (to “park” it of course).  The car was so powerful!  The back tires gripped so hard that the back of the car started to come around and I was screaming down the road sideways.  I was literally driving down the road sideways taking up two lanes and shifting gears.  I have never driven a car like that to this day.  Absolute monster!
• ’91 Mazda RX-7 Twin Turbo – I remember thinking this car reminded me of a supercar when it came out.  It looked like a much more expensive car than it was.  It had that crazy rotary engine.  When I drove the car, it felt so light.  When the twin turbos kicked in (of course I had to do it) the car felt like it was launching.  This car was way more awesome than its price tag (not that it was cheap).
• Ferrari 348 – I’m not sure the exact year but 1989-1992ish somewhere.  V8 mid-engine 2-seater Ferrari and the last model developed under Enzo himself.  I’m not really a Ferrari guy at all but driving this thing was amazing.  I see why people go goo-goo gaa-gaa over them.
• BMW M5 – A four-door car on this list?!?  I wasn’t super impressed with it until I punched it in the middle of the street and the car spun out and I did a 180 and wound up facing the other way (from a pretty simple pedal stomp).  Oops!  This thing packed a punch!