Imagine Lifestyles Exotic Car Experience

I got this deal through Groupon for my son’s birthday in 2013 (sorry for late review). It was awesome. And the look on his face, getting out of the car after driving a Ferrari: priceless.

They don’t even deserve a star. Over promise dont deliver. Payed extra for go cam video over three weeks ago. Called mored than once to find out where video is. Always told a supervisor would call back and have not! All i to say is beware! !!!

We waited for three hours to get into the car and as we waiting they would let other people who had not been in line as long go in front of us. The car ride was great once we were in but, for a two hour drive down and back and three hours in line it was definitely not worth the trouble.

Bottom line: I had a surprisingly great experience with imagine lifestyles. I didn’t have high expectations after reading Unilocal reviews, but I must have lucked out when they came to TX. I did 3 laps in a ferrari, and did 3 laps as a passenger in the same car. I received two pictures and two gopro videos for $ 49. There was a problem with my gopro video at first, and after I contacted imagine lifestyles via email, Alex was able to resolve the issue. He did it quickly too (same day). 5 Stars. Would definitely do this again.

This is what I sent after my son’s driving experience (it was his Christmas Gift)
We are quite disappointed today/​tonight with the wait time. My son had a 5:00 pm appointment. We arrived around 4:30 pm and he still did not get into the car until after 6:15 pm. We were also «talked into» the photo and go pro camera, (which we thought would be a great addition) However, by the time he got to ride along, it was pitch dark ! The picture quality is awful (dark and Blurry) and we are eager to see what the Go pro video is like in a dark car on a pitch dark track. Now I understand delays happen, but we should have gotten the option to come back the next morning or something. My husband and I were unable to wait with him (he is 11) and therefore unable to get ANY pictures of him getting in or around the car, my video is basically tail lights. Again the wait time is what did us in. If we had been able to have him ride along at our appointed time, the light/​picture/​quality of video would not be an issue. I originally was told the wrong information in December about booking therefore 5:00 pm was all that was available for Saturday. If we had known it would have been close to a 2 hour wait, most likely would not have purchased this! Again, if our go pro video is just all dark footage, I will be contacting someone for sure!
The Video never came and Alex from Imagine Lifestyles did respond with «they were all sent out this past weekend» So with that said $ 99.00 for the ride and an additional $ 53+ for blurry/​DARK photo and NO video!

Such a disappointment!!! I bought this for my husband as a present. He LOVES cars. The actual driving experience for him was fun, but the course is such that you can’t really get going very fast (no long straightaways). The driver he had for the drive along was great, but another driver cut them off right before they hit the straightaway so they had to come to a complete stop. Error on the part of the traffic director. The operation is SO poorly run. The lines just kept getting longer, and there was little formula to which line they picked, as the «monitors» kept changing and so they couldn’t keep track of who had been waiting. The first time, we waited about 15 minutes (not bad), but when my husband returned to do his second drive, he waited for 45 minutes. Plus, the people monitoring the lines were rather surly. Ridiculous. I feel badly for those who purchased the video package = what could possibly be interesting enough to video?
Not money well spent.

My friends gifted me a voucher for the ultimate driving experience. Being a car freak i got the extra laps (duh) and the photo and video package.
Firstly i had added both the above mentioned packages when i booked my time. But upon arrival they just shrugged their shoulders and refused to acknowledge it. They said they didnt see it in their database. I am ready to let go of that. Im a SE myself, i know mistakes happen.
So after i paid for the photo and video package, i got my helmet and decided to do 3 laps in the ferrari and 6 in the lamborghini. Since it was my first time i had no idea how or when they would take pictures or record stuff. So after my 3 laps i go to them and ask them how they do that. And it suddenly strikes them that they didnt attach the gopro to my helmet, and neither did they take the picture with the car. After seeing my visually upset, all they did was play the blame game and kept asking me to point to the guy who gave me the helmet, because «he should have asked». i got no compensation whatsoever for that blunder. So now i have no pictures or videos of the ferrari :-(.
I was the last appointment, so as soon i left i emailed and called them to make sure they know of this, but ofcourse, no response.
I would give them one star because i did enjoy driving the cars and the instructor let me drive like a mad man :-p.

My wife got this for me for Xmas because I’m a car guy. After reading the reviews, I was a bit hesitant and definitely had lowered expectations.
However, I’m giving it 4 stars because I went in with the right expectations.
First, these are AUTOCROSS laps. I’ve done about 25 autoX events, so I knew that this translates into roughly 1 minute laps. I think a lot of people don’t realize that’s it. The fact that it’s AutoX also means that you won’t be going more than 60mph or so. If you’re hoping to drive a Ferrari/​Lambo in a high speed environment, this is not it.
Having said that, based on the reviews, I expected the instructors to take all the fun out of driving. However, both of them (I drove both cars) turned out to be fellow BMW CCA members/​instructors, and while I didn’t know them personally, they were great about letting me open the cars up. I got to drive them as hard as I wanted as long as I stayed on the course. Yes, all of the electronic nannies were on, but it was really really fun regardless. There was also a lot of gravel on the course, which was good and bad. It made it more effort to control cars (fun!), but also made the traction control kick in a bit earlier (not fun).
Pros:
— Lines were short and easy; very efficient process
— Got to drive a Ferrari F430 (RWD) and a Lamborghini Gallardo 560 – 4 (AWD), neither of which I had driven before.
— Instructors were very cool (which may be because I had prior AutoX experience). The instructors are what turned it into a 4-​star experience.
— While not cheap, cost is par for the course for these types of cars.
— Nobody actually pays full price, everyone has some type of Groupon or LivingSocial deal price.
Cons:
— Of course I would like more time
— You don’t get to hear these awesome engines bouncing off the redlines; they’re all in the mid-​RPM range
— THE INSURANCE IS A COMPLETE AND TOTAL SCAM. They try to scare you with all of the potential costs, such as «$ 3400 to repair a scratched wheel»… well, 1) there is nothing that could even remotely damage a wheel out there, and 2) the wheels of the Lambo already looked like someone took a jackhammer to them before I got into the car. If they tried (which they didn’t) to claim that I damaged the wheels, I would have gone berserk. However, they just use it to get extra $$$. DON’T BUY ANY MORE INSURANCE THAN THE MINIMUM $ 49.

It was thrilling to think I’d be able to push the Ferrari I rented on the autocross course, but boy did I leave disappointed. What I did not realize is that the Ferrari has a «stability control» system that prevents it from getting out of control. When I tried to whip the car around corners it felt like the car lost power. After the event I mentioned to my wife that «it felt like there was a governor on there.» An IL rep overheard this comment and quickly and gruffly corrected me. He said that the Ferraris are the same as they come from the factory. How can this be true? Why the lack of punch during my drive? A friend of mine speculates that the company puts the longest lasting tires they can on the cars and adjust the car’s settings to be as conservative as possible. Non-​performance tires will slip easier than performance tires. The car’s settings prevent the tires from slipping both straight-​line and turning. Perhaps that’s where the loss of power I felt came from when I really put it to the car. I powered into a curve and the tires started to slip, the system activates, cuts the power, and I stay in control. NOT FUN. NOT worth the money. I can have more fun in my 4-​cylinder Honda Accord.

My wife bought this for me for my birthday and I was pretty excited since I’ve heard other people do driving experiences and had a blast, but we warned, THIS IS FAR FROM A GOOD EXPERIENCE!
After getting there, the line moved relatively quickly and I opted to get the photo/​go-​pro video combo as well. Selecting the Lambo, I was stoked to be able to drive it and see it’s potential but was very disappointed at three things:
1) As mentioned by other reviewers, there was an instructor who directed your speed, turns and every movement in the car so you could barely test the car. You might as well have been in the passenger seat!
2) There were only 3 SHORT laps (each only about a minute or two long) around a makeshift course of cones that made it hard to see where they wanted you to go. The first lap was a very controlled «test lap» which you were kept from pushing it too hard.
3) They messed up my go pro video! After the track, they even showed me the video and said they would send it to me by email. However the link didn’t work! After contacting their video department and giving my information, they never got back to me even after several calls to multiple departments.
Overall — with the ride, insurance and video it was ~$ 225 for a 5 minute experience that was subpar!

Ok so put aside the fact that you get to drive a ferrari and a lambo, because apparently that’s not enough to just make you over the moon excited…
The staff was friendly, helpful, and super enthusiastic! I do agree it’s worth buying a few extra laps, since you’re there. I didn’t buy the video, but the photo was well-​priced and the photographer got a great shot!
I bought this as a gift for my boyfriend and it was an all-​around fantastic experience. We showed up 2 hours ahead of our appointment time, figuring we’d walk around and watch some other people, but the staff ushered us right through with no hold-​ups.
I highly recommend this experience.

My girlfriend got a groupon offer for this event. We went on a Friday, which was raining. We prepaid for all the extra packages (photo and video). You get 1 photo with the car and the video is of you driving from a go pro attached to the helmet. I would say the photo isn’t worth it but the video is pretty cool. I have recent track experience and brought my own helmet but they don’t supply mounts for the go pro so I had to use their helmet. The lambo line was long. I paid for 1 session which was 3 times around the course. It was wet out I couldn’t really push the car during my session. But I was fast enough to catch the person driving the lambo in front of me. I had to stop during that lap so that we can gain some space. The course is really short, I would say about 1 minute when an average course at it’s fastest is about 1:30+.
Recommendation: Check groupon for offers, you will have to pay for an insurance package, pay for the video and have fun.
Must try? if you never driven a lambo or ferrari before.
Try again? Maybe when it’s not raining.

This was a great gift from my gf! Very quick and easy registration process + you can not go wrong with driving a bright yellow lambo at top speed around an auto cross track!
Awesome experience!

Excellent experience! Must do for anyone! Staff helpful and made it a wonderful experience.

Total Waste of money. If you have any driving ability you will be very very disappointed. The automatic transmission is in valet mode which means any time you give it gas there will be no reaction from the motor. Sure it sounds good but I could have beat the ferrari in my jetta. No joke. This company takes YOU for a ride. I.e. ripoff. Cs’ s

I wish there was a way to give ZERO stars to a company. I purchased this driving experience from Groupon and it was supposed to be in the Bay Area. One week before the experience, I discovered (I was not notified) that the event was changed to Los Angeles 500 miles away. I called the company and after about 30 attempts at contacting someone, a rude receptionist picked up the phone and offered no consolation whatsoever. Luckily, I was able to receive a refund from Groupon.
However, I still felt bad that my husband did not get his birthday present.
The deal came up again for San Francisco and I purchased it one more time against my better judgement. I confirmed, and then double confirmed my appointment at Candlestick Park. After about 2 months with no bad news, I felt confident that it would go off without a hitch and went ahead and took off of work and told my husband to do the same. Obviously that’s not how the story ends… I got a call from the same rude, ignorant «receptionist» at 6:30am one week before the event canceling my confirmed appointment. She did not offer ANY explanation as to why this was occurring, but only offered for «the company manager» to call me back.
I called about 10 times before I realized the «company manager» probably was never going to call me or return any of my messages.
I highly suspect that the company is being run out of some apartment in Brooklyn or something, and their business line is some shady cel phone.
Do not waste your money or time with this company.
I will be reporting them to Groupon as well as to the Better Business Bureau. They ripped off the wrong lady!

A «confirmed» appointment is not confirmed at all. They called me at 6:30 in the morning (from the east coast, without a thought that there is a time difference) and told me that my confirmed appointment was no longer available, and that I had to switch days. I wasn’t available the second day, but they refused to give me a refund. They definitely need to work on their customer service.

I thank Imagine Lifestyles for putting me behind a 2012 California Ferrari. It was a quick and fairly easy way for me to feel the power and smooth-​ness of this vehicle, even though it was only for 3 autocross laps in Candlestick park.
However, here are my expectations vs. my somewhat sad experience:
1. Expectation: I would be able to feel the car’s true power — to «punch it,» to see how it handles turns and its acceleration after, to see how it shifts, to see how it breaks.
Experience: Only automatics were available. It took me a lap to get used to the track. There was no introduction to the car, nor instruction for the track. There were a few «modes» of the car (street, race, etc). It had to be on «street.»
2. Expectation: To have some autonomy since I was the one driving.
Experience: the driver next to me told me exactly when to go, exactly when to break, stop, turn, etc. Almost like a 15 year-​old permit driver. My enjoyment of the drive cut in half because of this fact alone.
3. Expectation: To feel secure in buying the $ 99 coverage since these vehicles are 100s of thousands of $.
Experience: Total ripoff for this «mandatory» insurance. Don’t waste your $ getting extra coverage. With the experienced driver next to you limiting how fast you go, and with all cars being automatic, there’s little chance of anything happening. Cars are spaced super far apart, with people at checkpoints all along the track letting you know it’s now «safe» to go (I spent a lot of time on the autocross track itself, just waiting minutes before starting, then minutes here and there).
4. Expectation: To leave feeling like $ 159 + insurance was a great price for the experience of driving a ferrari on an autocross track.
Experience: After driving, felt like this was a huge letdown. As if I would have wanted to ride a bicycle for 30 years, and when finally given the chance, I only got to try it with training wheels still attached (and quite a big chuck of $ spent).
In hindsight, it’s great to have actually driven a ferrari, but I would rather have waited for another, better opportunity.

I was thinking that paying 200 $ to drive a supercar would be a good deal, but i was wrong. The staff that helped me were nice and I was lucky the wait was less than twenty minutes, but the driving experience was not as good as i hoped. I expected to be able to drive the three laps using the best of my ability, but in that short of time all that was achieved was the driving instructor assessing me. I came to the wrong place. I should have saved my money to actually autocross. I would have been able to get better lap times with my own car on that tiny track that was less than a mile. In hindsight all i was paying for was to step on the gas of an Italian car without using any of the power of the engine. Using my friends Evo or Mustang would have been the same experience. I made a mistake. I feel this experience deserves 1.5 stars.

I’ve seen reviews for exotic car experiences in other cities, but nothing about the event here in the bay area. They’re doing another event at Candlestick in March so I figured this review might be helpful to those of you still on the fence about dropping $ 150 for 3 laps in a Ferrari or Lamborghini.
I did the exotic car experience back in October of 2012 and it was so much fun, but there’s definitely a lot of confusion what you’re actually getting so here’s my in depth review.
– Cost –
I don’t think anyone is buying their experience through the website, so I’m just going to assume everyone is purchasing off livingsocial or groupon. The $ 149 does NOT include insurance, pictures, or videos. One thing I was confused about was the process by which you pay for the groupon deal, since you select the type of insurance you want (price increases depending on the coverage and deductible) and the price was still $ 149, leading me to believe insurance was included in the groupon price.
– Duration –
Total: 2 hours
Driving: 5 minutes
First off, if you’re getting 3 laps (which was the most common purchase when I went) it is a short ride, lasting less than 5 minutes. Most of the time spent at the event is waiting in line so be ready for that. Your appointment time is not the time you will be driving, it’s basically the approximate time you’re allowed to check in for the event. Once you check in you’ll wait in line to get your helmet and GoPro if you decided to purchase a video and then you’ll step in line to actually get into the cars. There is a lot of waiting, but the sound of the cars on the track definitely makes the wait go by faster. If you’re driving in this event I’m going to assume you have a healthy interest in cars, so talk to people in line!
– Actual Driving Experience –
The drive itself is pretty awesome, I mean, it’s what you waited in line for 2 hours for isn’t it? When I went, they did allow people to wait for the car that they wanted. From my experience, it looked like the people in the Ferrari line were a little pickier with which car they wanted to drive. Everyone wanted to drive the 599, and can you blame them? One girl did just want «the red one» which was cool too. Another point of confusion that I heard in line — «What if I can’t drive stick?» All of the cars are put into AUTO, so you do NOT get to shift. It does detract a little bit from the driving experience since you can’t get too aggressive in the straightaways. However, I do understand the logic behind their decision. This is not a sprawling track like Exotics Racing in Las Vegas where quick, frequent up/​downshifting are not required.
In my opinion, the biggest thing to get used to when driving these cars is the brakes. It might not seem like a big deal, but these machines have tremendous braking power, as a result you can lay on the gas longer before going into a turn than you would a normal car. Suggestion: do the ride along with a professional driver before you do your 3 laps. If you’re concerned with the price of buying 6 laps, its a tiny bit cheaper. This way, you know how far you can push the car before you start driving it and you don’t waste your 3 laps just getting used to driving something a little more powerful than your Toyota.
– Overall Thoughts –
While the dollar to duration ratio is quite steep, I still had an amazing time doing this. It was my first (and definitely not last) time autocrossing a lamborghini and it was quite an experience. It’s a hell of a lot cheaper than renting one for a day. I’m giving this experience 4 stars, the deduction being that you could not shift, which really limited these beasts in the straights. Other than that, highly recommended.