The story starts at the famed Laguna Seca racetrack just outside of Monterey, California. A guest of Maserati, the Western Auto Journalists (WAJ) association invited me to take part in their yearly two-day media melee that includes an initial day of driving the streets and highways in and around this picturesque city and a second day at the track. Not being a WAJ member at that time (I’ve since joined) I was relegated to the passenger seats of everything but the Maseratis, which, while disappointing (not the Maseratis, believe me) was nevertheless understandable in this day and age of insurance issues... ...