Hi all,
Not sure if any of you have heard of this but GM is doing this new thing called "The Drive" in Las Vegas (did a search, no threads). Well I just got back from vacation there and while I was there I did it....twice. VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

For a Grand total of $20 I got to drive a new corvette, CTS-V, Solstice, and H2, all on closed courses. It also came with a monorail voucher worth $10 so my real cost was only $10.

It is set up with a short, low speed (of course) road coarse and an insane off road coarse. The following are my impressions of the specific vehicles.

Corevette: A powerful, pure sports car, plain and simple. Handles predictably at it's very high limits, has a cool HUD that is exactly the same layout as the RX-8. Not much else to say, it is so dialed in there is little to comment about. If you have $40k, buy one.

CTS-V: I've read the reviews. People say things like, "not as nice an interior as the Germans" baagh. BS. It's just different from them. I was very impressed with interior quality. Certainly not a track car though (3800lbs?). While much tighter than your average sedan, it still sacrfices some handling on the track to make the street ride match the decor (civil), and doesn't have as big or as stick of tires as the corvette. That coupled with a higher center of gravity made it hard to keep the rubber from squealing (that was their one no-no). With the same 400 wonderful-sounding ponies you could get yourself into trouble in this car quicker than in the 'vette. This is a damn nice car, and a serious contender to the German automakers (Lexus too). Now my one beef with the 'vette-CTS-V: they both have a very soft clutch (about VW Jetta soft). Some sorta asist or something. After the RX-8 I didn't like it at all, but perhaps I could've retrained myself.

Sostice: same thing about interior quality. I thought it was much higher than people gave it credit for. They just expect something different than what it is. I really liked it actually, and I thought the car had a nice flow between the interior and exterior. I especially like the console handle for the passanger. This thing is suprisingly powerful for a NA 4 cylinder. 177hp will make a car that small scoot fast. It even sounds good! Through portions of the track this was the fastest because it was a slow track and this car was the most "flickable" due to its weight. Drove like an RX-8 with a shorter wheel base. In turbo guise (GTP), this thing will eat our 8's for breakfast. Even NA, this was a blast to drive. At the price point ($19k?) it is fantastic and hard to beat. Oh, and normal clutch.

And finally, the H2(/3): I made the jokes, laughed at pointed, but all without knowing. As the saying goes, "don't knock it till you try it." After climbing and descending a 60 degree hill, and going at 45 degrees sidehill, I'm a true believer. Oh, and the very first manuever, surmounting an 18" curb (Like climbing on the hood of an 8, but steeper!) was ubelievable. I can't describe what it is like to be in a vehicle at those angles. Unless you've done it to you simply won't know (I've thrashed a few jeeps around but never even close to those angles, they can't do it). Still, 90% of owners won't ever tap into those awesome abilities and will just pickup groceries while looking their version of "badass" so I have a hard time condoning ownership. But they proved themselves excpetionally capable.

So quite impressed with the GM lineup, they've really put a lot of work into their road lineup in the last couple of years. Wouldn't trade the 8, but we all know its special. If you're in Vegas, I highly recommend you go have some fun here. The Drive is on the Strip across from the Sahara. As for the track the vette will top out around 70-ish (any race car driver will tell you that if you are looking at the speedometer you are doing something wrong), and if you tell your copilot/instructor person you own an 8, they will give you more liberty.

 

Did you really drive an H2? Or are you just guessing at some of the numbers? An H2 can only climb a 16" vertical wall, not 18". And if you tried driving it on a 45 degree side hill, it would probably tip over since its only rated at about 40 degrees.

 

yes I really drove an H2. I did not measure the track myself. As I went over a very large curb, the guy in shotgun said, "This is 18"" As the car was tilted insanely he said, "this is a 45 degree angle." The 18" curb looked right. Very few people could notice a 5 degree difference visually, myself included.

 

sounds pretty sweet. for $20, how could anyone pass it up?