Full Throttle

It’s not often NASCAR gets behind the curve in the marketing department. Name a consumer product or activity and chances are good a customer can be pointed in the direction of someone selling that product or activity with a NASCAR logo on it. (I hear a beef stew tastes better from a Dale jr. crockpot vice a Jeff Gordon one, but that just may be a rumor)

By the evidence on hand, it looks like NASCAR has missed the boat in one instance. (pun intended)

Just when you think cruise lines have installed about every un-marine activity possible aboard their ships — think rock-climbing, ice skating and surfing for starters — they come up with still another improbable one: Speed racing at sea.

Come on, how can you race cars in the middle of the ocean?

That’s what Costa Cruises is doing on its new Costa Concordia, launched earlier this month in Europe. The line’s new flagship boasts the first and only Grand Prix driving simulator at sea.

As expected records are kept to fuel the passengers competitive nature and promote friendly rivalry with others.

Fees run from 5 euros (6.37USD) a minute for novice drivers to 38 euros (48.44USD) for a 13-minute session with experts. The 112,000-ton Concordia will be based in Europe year around making Mediterranean cruises. (Not to be missed is the “Italian molecular cuisine”, I kid you not)

Also setting sail, with four wheels, is the SeaDream Yacht Club that offers something a little less virtual. Before or after one of its seven-night cruises out of Rome, you can drive a Ferrari from Rome to Florence on a three-night excursion. Princely sum: $5,590 per person, double occupancy. Which raises a question, a “local expert rides with you” during the Ferrari trip to Florence. What happens to your “double occupant?”

To be totally fair NASCAR hasn’t completely missed the boat. Carnival Cruise Lines is offering a Rusty Wallace Cruise that sails December 3-10, 2006 for the Mexican Riviera.

I have to be honest, after 20 plus years sailing with the World’s Greatest Navy I have little desire to hit the high seas again. And when I look at a menu that includes “Italian molecular cuisine” that sounds more like a failed biology experiment than food only confirms my desire to stay landlocked.

Not to mention leaving my “double occupant” in Rome, home of more female butt pinchers than anywhere on earth.

NASCAR, Carnival Cruise Lines, Rusty Wallace, NEXTEL Cup, Formula One, Auto Racing, Motorsports, Full Throttle