Yesterday was my fourth and final day taking the Grand Prix Road Racing course at the Bondurant School of High Performance Driving. (Which means I'm back to normal updates from here on in. No more playing around.) I came out of the final day with much sharper skills, a passing grade, and a blister on my left palm the size of a quarter from white knuckling through some tight turns in the F-1 style Ford Formula I was driving all day.

After three days on the track in the race-prepped, 430-hp 6.2L Corvette C6, the little Formula Ford, with it's 110-hp 1.6L engine seemed like a step down. A 320-hp step down. In my first post from Bondurant (read here), I said one of the things I learned on day one was it's not the car it's the driver. On the last day, I learned it's not the engine, it's the whole car. So was the Ford able to hold it's own against the much bigger beast? Um, yeah. Here's a quick little head-to-head for ya.

Ballsiness:
Those of us who love speed tend to obsess over horsepower. And tend to forget that the key isn't just the number of horses. It's the horsepower to weight ratio that really matters.

The Vette packs 430 under the hood, but they've gotta haul nearly 3,300 pounds around the track. Not bad, but the Formula's 110 ponies only have to tug just over 1,000 pounds. So looking at the ratios, it's nearly a tie.
Winner: Vette. By a fiberglass nose.

Handling:
The Vette's got all the electronic bells and whistles you can imagine, like Traction Control and Magnetic Selective Ride Control, to keep all that power from launching you sideways off a freeway exit ramp. It's also got power steering and power brakes to help slow and turn all that weight with ease. The Formula? Nothing. Just your muscles for steering and braking, and your own skill at keeping the back end in the back around corners.

But, the Formula's nimbleness, a result of it's wide open-wheel stance and dead-center balance, does let you take those corners like you're on rails.
Winner: I'm giving it to the Formula. You can't help but smile taking a corner in this thing.

Grin Factor:
Both are wood-inducing, incredibly fun to drive vehicles. But anyone can drive a Vette. The Formula has the added novelty.
Winner: Formula.

Comfort: The Vette has leather seats, ice cold A/C, XM radio, all the electronic stuff mentioned above, loads of head and leg room, tinted windows and (in most cases), a roof. The Formula? It's a coffin sized metal tube you squeeze yourself in and onto seat with padding that makes a prison cot look like a luxury mattress. No windows, no windshield, no roof.
Winner: Are you kidding?

Chick Magnetism:
The Vette has had the reputation fro decades, but the Formula's got a lot of head-turning eyeball, too. Both are sleek. Both will excite her primal love of speed. And they're both very, very phallic.
Winner: Vette. She definitely gonna want a ride in the Formula, but there's no where to put her.

Overall:
It's the Vette. (You didn't think this was a serious review, did you?) But barely. Only because we need to have that passenger seat. For obvious reasons. That said, if you ever have the opportunity to drive one of these Formulas, jump at it.