The Drive is Live!

I arrived in Las Vegas Thursday night and first thing on Friday afternoon, I was at The Drive with my father for my GM performance cars and SUVs experience.

Located one block off the strip at the corner of Sahara and Paradise, right behind the Sahara Hotel and Casino, The Drive is setup adjacent to the Las Vegas Monorail station. Built on 11 acres of desert, the off-road course is within the approximately half mile performance track. Both proved to be quite a bit of fun and very enlightening.

Registration begins with a mandatory breathalyzer test to make sure you haven't had too much fun in the casino to safely enjoy the fun on the courses. I passed with flying colors. Then it's off to the driver's license checkpoint. Once you fill out and sign the form, and answer a few questions for marketing purposes, it's on the cashier. Regular price is $10, however Nevada residents receive a $1 discount and GM MasterCard members receive a $2 discount. I quickly whipped out my GM card and bought two tickets. Each ticket gets you drives in two vehicles; two laps each if you do the performance course, one lap each on the off-road course.

Our first stop was the off-road course. I was eager to give Dad a ride in a HUMMER H2 and me the chance to see what they can are truly capable of doing in off-road situations. This photo shows a couple of the smaller but equally capable H3 models on the course. The side inclines are 40-degrees left and right. When driving through them, you feel as if the vehicle is going to tip over! Then, there's the 60-degree incline hill. When you hit this thing and start going up, all you see is the sky, as if you're about the launch in the Space Shuttle. It is practically straight up. You reach the top and level off momentarily before starting the ride down. Our instructor told me to keep steady pressure on the brakes and ease her on down the hill. Dad got a little scared in the back seat when all he could see was the ground below but the H2 did exactly what the brochures and salesman say it will. She also handled the rocks, logs, and 16-inch step with ease. Dad was impressed and so was I. But, I'm not sure I'll be taking my personal HUMMER off-roading. (LOL)

After finishing the off-road experience in our H2, I decided to use my remaining three drives on the performance course. I started with the brand new Saturn Sky roadster, which had just arrived at the Drive site a couple of days earlier. Taxi cab yellow with a black canvas top and black leather interior, the Sky is a hot looking car. (Though, I would NEVER buy it in yellow!) Since the initial offering of the car only features a 177 HP/177 lb-ft, four cylinder engine, I wasn't expecting much in terms of acceleration and handling. But, I was pleasantly surprised when I put her in first and hit the gas- the model at the track was 5 speed manual which, unfortunately, the chaperone wouldn't allow me to take beyond second gear- the Sky had quite a bit of spunk. I enjoyed the ride, but practically speaking, the Sky- and it's corporate cousin, the Pontiac Solstice- is a weekend play car. There is little to no storage space inside the car and the trunk is only big enough to hold a duffel bag or two, if your lucky. Drop the top, which stores in the trunk, and you can knock that down to half a duffel bag. But, at roughly $25,000, it's a reasonably priced weekend play car.

Next, I took on the venerable Corvette Convertible. It was quite windy on Friday so they wouldn't let us drop the tops on the roadsters, but who cares when you're driving a Vette! It's all about feeling the power of that 400 HP, 400 lb-ft of torque engine! And, boy was it sweet! The two laps went by quickly, but they were well worth $4!

My final drive was in the Cadillac STS-V. Since it's a sedan, Dad was able to go along for the ride. The STS-V has a supercharged V-8 engine that produces 469 HP and 439 lb-ft of torque. It was sweet, too! Dad loved the way I hit the first turn after brisk acceleration.

When most attractions in Las Vegas cost $50 and up, this is great fun at a rock bottom price. Too bad it will go away in November. Folks, The Drive is live!

Oh, Good Evening!