Why am I smiling? I just finished a ride in a friend’s Maserati MC12, around his private race track that you can see in the background. The track is a scaled down version of Sebring International Raceway. And no, I couldn’t ask this gentlemen if I could drive his million dollar car. But I wanted to.

This particular Maserati MC12 is one of the few examples of this particular model that are in the United States. Maserati designed and built the car around a Ferrari Enzo chassis but the MC12 is longer, wider and taller than the Enzo. (I happen to think it’s better looking too.) The Maserati MC12’s top speed is 205 mph but during my ride the owner/drive hit just a little over 100 mph on the longest straight on the track.

The MC12 was produced by Maserati to allow a racing version of the car to compete in the FIA’s European GT Championship. Worldwide only 50 of these cars were built for street use and this one is fully titled and has a real license plate. The car’s body is made entirely of carbon fiber and the shape had extensive wind tunnel testing to achieve maximum downforce across all its surfaces. The MC12 can accelerate from 0–60 in 3.8 seconds. Yeah, it’s fast

Just a reminder: Podcast #3 is live now on my YouTube channel, Joe Farace’s Videos, featuring a look at the Leica Z2X at Cars & Coffee and my experiences shooting 22-year old Agfa color film in a 40-year old Canon SLR, plus some information on where I get my ideas for blog posts!

On this special Holiday and #throwbackthursday I’d like to say Thank You to all the people out there who help me with this blog and my life, starting with (and in no particular order)…

Thanks to Barry Staver for his continued friendship and  inspiration that his images have always given me. Our conversations over coffee (and tea) and donuts create many a special moment each month. Thanks to Cliff Lawson an amazingly gifted photographer for the time we share together laughing and learning about life, cars and photography. His creativity in producing and directing a series of YouTube videos, Joe and Cliff go to Cars & Coffee have been the highlight of my car year. A big thank you to Tim Fiedler for his hard work in shaping this blog as well as my photography how-to website.

Thanks goes out to Mark Toal who’s not just a great photographer but a great human being and I’m glad I met him a few years ago at Sonoma Raceway. Mark likes car (and trains) as much as I do I want to thank him for the inspiration and friendship that he has shown me over these past years. Thanks also goes out to Kevin Elliott whose calm measured response to my panic at whatever the current computer crisis that I’m going through and for his skills and talents that always rescued the day.

Thanks to all of you blog readers, Twitter followers and Instagram friends for hanging in there with me over all these years. It’s your loyalty and support that help me write these posts.

And finally finally a special thanks to my wife, Mary who makes me happy every day of my life by showing how much she cares. She is a shining beacon of what being a truly kind person is all about and by her daily actions show me how to be the person I try to be. I only hope to live long enough to become that kind of person that she is.

PS, The reason that this is also a #throwbackthursday is that the photo is from several years ago and was made in Florida at the private track of a friend of Mary’s family who took me for a rode in his Maserati.

Recently Automezzi celebrated its 25th year of exhibiting Italian cars, motorcycles and scooters to benefit Denver area charities. Marques displayed at the recent Sunday show include Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Fiat, Alfa Romeo, DeTomaso Pantera, Lancia, Ducati, Moto Guzzi. Aprilia, Lambretta and Vespa.

While I am a confessed Anglophile both Mary and I love Italian cars but it’s been a while since I’ve owned one, my last being a (brand new) Fiat 850 Sypder. At Automezzi I brought along a Samsung NX1 to capture the event and would like to offer some impressions of the camera in this kind of outdoor car show environment. (For a more detailed look at the NX1 visit Mirrorless Photo Tips.)The NX1 has a tilting but not fully articulated flip-out screen that is nevertheless useful for Hail Mary overhead shots that help minimize the inevitable crowds at outdoor car shows. The screen is hard to move because Samsung didn’t provide a small tab on it to easily pop the screen out.

Similarly removing an SD card from the side-mounted receptacle (thankfully not in the bottom battery compartment) requires the use of your finger nails not fingertips as in every other mirrorless—or otherwise—camera I’ve used. If you care about your manicure, be careful out there.

There is no doubt the 16-50mm f/2-2.8 S ED OIS (24-75mm equivalent) lens is impressive for low-light photography but the less expensive kit lens—the 16-50mm Power Zoom—weighs 3.92 ounces. 16-50mm f/2-2.8 S ED OIS weighs 1.32 pounds.

Even though the 16-50mm f/2-2.8 S ED OIS equivalent maximum focal length falls short of a more portrait-like 85mm, it makes a great portrait lens and while testing Rotolight’s NEO LED lighting system, photographer Cliff Lawson used it to make a nice—I think—portrait of me for the Bio page of my website. I plan to use that lens for a model shoot with these clever LED lights and expect to be posting images on Mirrorless Photo Tips real soon now.

These few quibbles aside the Samsung NX1 was a friendly companion during the Automezzi car show and produced images of startling clarity that are only hinted at by these images that appear here. If the name on the camera said “Canon” instead of Samsung, it would be the best seller it deserves to be.

If you enjoyed today’s blog post and would like to treat Joe to a cup of Earl Grey tea ($3.50), click here.