Safely positioned inside four orange cones and yellow, crime-scene caution tape, a 2003 Ferrari Enzo worth about $1 million stole the spotlight Saturday as student car enthusiasts salivated at the sight of Baton Rouge resident Dan Heard’s most-prized vehicle in his five-car Ferrari collection.
“I can’t believe this guy drives this around,” Chris Furlow, a basic sciences junior, said of the rare, bright-red Italian super car. “If I had it, I’d keep it on a flat-bed truck.”
With about 65 cars and the best turn out since the car show started three years ago, sounds of Guns and Roses and revving engines pulsated through the CEBA parking lot Saturday as the University chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers sponsored its third annual car show.
The show drew students, car dealers, parents and kids — including a four-year-old who owns a 1968 Pontiac GTO that won first place in the classics category. People gathered on campus to show-off their souped-up automobiles or check out what others had to offer.
Warren Frederick, a Vidalia native, holds the title to the vintage GTO he is saving for his four-year-old grandson, Rayce.
“Anything you put up next to it, it’ll eat it up,” Frederick said of his 515-horsepower car, a monster compared with an average import car with horsepower of about 100. “That’s why they call it ‘the goat.’”
Frederick doesn’t race his car, but down the row of vehicles, several Mustang owners — still a bit groggy from last night’s excitement at the track — tell a different story.
Chris Carlock, a political science sophomore, and Denis Lanaux, a mechanical engineering sophomore, both owners of mint-condition Ford Mustangs, discussed the features of their cars that give them advantages when they drag race on Friday nights “with the big boys” at a track just south of Donaldsonville.
Lanaux said his pony, a silver Saleen Mustang, has a laundry list of engine and body modifications. On display under the propped hood, the mustang is equipped with a remote bottle opener for the nitrous-oxide tank in his trunk.
“Instead of twisting off the bottle cap, you can just tilt forward the back seat and push this remote,” Lanaux said, as he revved his engine — demonstrating how the nitrous oxide pushes more power into the engine.
Lanaux said the difference between his car and Frederick’s GTO is the technology.
“His car, you can tune by hand. Mine, you’ve got to plug it into a computer,” he said.
Lanaux, who wants to use his mechanical engineering degree to start his own business making performance car parts, said his generation of car buffs is going to have an edge on the car experts before him.
“Technology is taking over this sport, and we’re going to have degrees,” he said. “We’re in the forefront.”
Chris and Tia’ Bennett, a married couple, who presented their Mitsubishi Eclipse and Eagle Talon at the show, are seniors in mechanical engineering. They said their degree programs teach them useful skills that would position them well for jobs in car design or manufacturing.
“We have a class called ‘Turbo Machinery,’ Chris Bennett said. “Both these cars have turbo [engines].”