Since I was in Vegas I thought I'd check it out. There was a pretty good selection of Vettes, Solstices, GTOs, STSs and CTS-Vs for sports cars; and mostly Hummers for the off-road section. For $10 you can drive any two cars. Unfortunately they have only automatics for those cars that come so equipped. I chose a Vette and Solstice.

My overall impression was that there wasn't much to it. You get two laps on a road course set within a parking lot, probably no more than 1/2 mile long. Having a GM rep with you isn't bad, except with the manual cars they don't let you launch hard or even shift gears once you're in second

As to the cars, I was disappointed in the low end torque of the Vette (I don't think they're limited for this demo). I could swear my LS1 Z28 with 2.73s launches harder than that. And there's no chance to explore the top-end whatsoever. The Solstice's engine was very weak and not refined at all. On my only chance to upshift, it really hung onto the revs which made for a jerky shift (although most new cars do that now, thanks to emissions). I had been thinking about buying a Kappa and even overlooking their impracticality, but now I'm not sure I could live with a car that slow.

Anyhow, if you don't normally have a chance to drive cars like this and you're in the neighbourhood, it might be worth checking out, but just don't go out of your way to try it.

 

I agree with you about the lack of low-end torque.
My '02 T/A is the same way. It doesn't really start pulling until 3-3500 RPMs. Then it starts to move.
As a matter of fact, my Colorado is the same way.
I would like to believe that it's something in the programming that makes the cars behave like this (both of these vehicles are manuals). I hope it's not poor design.

The next question is, how does one get these cars to have more low-end hit?

 

I remember the first thread about this, i mentioned that it seemed a lot like the auto drive in motion....well if this thread didn't have a title, one might think you were describing just that! Some thought this would be much more exciting, guess not....


Keeps people safe though, and i'm sure some of us could really shorten the lifespan of the cars given the chance.