I settled in, adjusting the seat and wheel position, then doing up the
belts. My companion instructed me to head over to the stop sign, then
wait. After a few seconds he said "OK Hit it! All the way to the big
cones!" So I did. Then came the twisty bits, and a few more straight
bursts and twists. All too soon it was over.
Was this in my Tiger? No it was in a 2004 Corvette, on a closed
autocross type course. I was at the GM Autoshow In Motion, a touring
show designed to give potential customers some seat time in a wide range
of products. All GM divisions were represented this day, in the parking
lot at Gillette Stadium (the Patriots) in Foxboro MA. My son and I were
there about three hours and had a blast. It was by invitation only, but
I own nothing by GM. They must have got my name from when I bought the
Subaru from a Chevy dealer.
There were several courses, each for different flavors of cars. For
some generic cars and the Colorado pickup, they had a 5 mile loop around
the area you could drive. For SUVs, they had a comparison deal where
you drove their entry versus some equivalents from other brands. For
Hummer H2's, they had a course with some quite steep up and down hills,
dirt moguls, and a side slope crossing that would have had my Explorer
laying on it's roof.
For the performance stuff, including the new GTO it was another
autocross course. The Corvettes and the SSR pickup had their own
course. Some, you could drive alone, some, such as the Corvettes, the
SSR, or the Hummer, you had an escort.
I sampled the Malibu Maxx hatchback (nice generic sedan), the 4 door
Colorado pickup (OK for a truck, not quite enough capacity to tow a
Tiger on a trailer), the H2 (now I know how Dukakis felt in that tank),
the GTO (not what I would call nimble, VERY long clutch throw) and the
Corvette (base, automatic, felt really great, but $45K should feel
great). I probably didn't get more than 60% out of the Vette, but my
escort never said to slow down. Some guys there must have been
autocrossers, because they were really flying.
Yeah, I know, GM Bleaaaaaaaah!, right? Well the cost of all this was
ZERO, including lunch. There was no sales pressure. They just showed
off the cars, answered any questions (except the girl in the Hummer who
knew nothing about 4wd), and let you have fun. It was "invitiation
only", and I completed some registration details by email. But I drove
in, attended a brief orientation, and got my ID wristband by showing my
license and signing a waiver. They never checked the invitation, and it
did not appear that they were checking my name against THE LIST, or
anything like that. (There had been no local publicity other than the
mailing that I received. It makes you think that anyone who showed up
could join in. Could be that the preregistration bit is so that they
know how many to expect for the free lunch. So keep an eye out for
their visit in to your area, as this show tours around the country.
They will be ending up in Texas in November. If you have any GM
contacts in your area, see what details they might have.
I doubt I'll be buying any GM products any time soon. Of course with
one kid in college and three more to go, I may not be buying anything
new for some time. But this certainly made for a fun day.
Stu Brennan
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