vLane Blog

Articles Matching “race track”

• Recap: The CTS-V Challenge

  Banovsky on November 4, 2009

  Sure, it's been almost a week since GM's Bob Lutz squared off in the Cadillac CTS-V against other amateur drivers at the race track. But what happened? How did the whole thing go down? Who won? Well, some people, including yours truly has an opinion, but why not check out the tweets from the event to see how things unfolded?

  

  2009 Cadillac CTS-V

  That's exactly what we have for you after the jump: all of the tweets surrounding the CTS-V Challenge. Click through for the discussion!

  Read full article | Comments (0) | Filed under Advertising, Discussion, Social Media, Cadillac, CTS, Twitter, vLane, Bob Lutz, Jalopnik, race track

• Feature: The Porsche Cayenne, on-track and off-road

  Banovsky on October 12, 2009

  If I had a better memory, I could have told you when I first heard Porsche was making an SUV. I do remember I wasn’t pleased. Actually, I was so upset I’d drafted a letter to the head of Porsche Cars North America. It sits, never sent, on the hard drive of a computer long deceased.

  

  The Cayenne Turbo S on-track at Mosport

  Since, I’ve driven the Cayenne on several occasions. And what I feel for Porsche’s SUV is very much parallel to my own life: that youthful rage and sense of purpose has subsided, into a more adult-like sense of responsibility.

  Not unlike Porsche itself. It’s taken them 50 years to come from giant-killing sub-2.0-litre race cars like the 550 Spyder and 904, to producing a vehicle in the relentless pursuit of profit. For years, the company was happy to earn extra cash, helping fellow automakers by providing engineering assistance; a kind of high performance know-how that resulted in 90s rockets like the Audi RS2 and Mercedes-Benz E500.

  And when faced with the realization their whole model range rested on the back of the legendary 911 sports car, a rarified market that comes and goes during each global recession, the company did the same thing I’d do if I made cola: invent a product that had less of the expensive syrup (sports car capability) and more filler (profit margin.) Let’s call it diet…

  Click through a hot lap video and more photos!

  Read full article | Comments (1) | Filed under SUV, Feature, Porsche, SUV, tracking, 2009, Original, Cayenne, race track, Mosport, David Empringham, 959, GTS, Turbo S