This holiday season I was given a rare chance to drive a 640-hp beast at
Circuit Of The Americas (COTA). Somehow I appeared on Cadillac's radar and was
invited to the COTA "V-Series Performance Lab Event". Yes, I was pretty
excited to not only get a chance to drive on this world-class track, but to do
it in a track-ready (if not slightly heavy) street vehicle.
I noticed a guy at the morning info session who I thought I recognized. Sure
enough, it turned out to be Jack Baruth, one of my favorite Road & Track
writers (now that Peter Egan contributes only occasionally). We ended up in
the same 4-car group of CTS-Vs for a 2-lap tour of the circuit (one pro driver
in front followed by 3 guests). Later in the day Jack asked if I would comment
for a R&T story he was writing. Of course I agreed, and he ended up including
some of my comments in the story! No, the story does not appear in the print
version of R&T, but only on the web version - but when we get to bragging time
during dinner and drinks, I'm just going to say it was "Road & Track".
Here's Jack's take on the day:
http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a27719/cadillac-v-lab/
I'm Lee the "scientist" that he mentions near the end of the article. Best of
all, he included my mention of my Triumphs!
The cars all include performance data recorders, so I have 4 laps of data and
video. I can sit and agonize over all the mistakes I made for hours. Even
though I studied the track map many times before the event. And yes, I still
have a silly grin on my face when I think about the day.
Lee
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