Autoblog

I'm back from the wilds of Wisconsin where I spent the past two days at a semi-annual rally for Midwest automotive journalists. For two days we took over Road America at Elkhart Lake to test out the latest offerings from manufacturers. On day one we were given access to the track, yes the actual race track at Road America, and a slew of available cars to take out. There was a Ford GT40, Lotus Elise and Mercedes CLS 55 AMG. All required a ride-along nanny to make sure the yahoos wielding pens kept them in one piece. But everything else was open to test to our heart's desire.

Day two was a half day. The morning was split between off-road and auto-cross courses. Yes I know, this is a tough gig sometimes. I just got back home and am physically feeling the effects of so much driving. My right leg is actually a tad stiff. Over the next 24 hours I’ll be posting reports from the event and all the cars I drove, so don’t worry, there will be more to come.

As you can tell in the first image, the morning I arrived was not friendly. It was in the 30s and very overcast. But a huge assortment of cars greeted me at the Road America’s hilltop paddock. I’ve never been on a real racetrack before and getting to hit this baby was mighty impressive, daunting and at times downright scary (imagine seeing a GT40 flying up behind you at triple digit speeds, especially when they space out the starts so no one has that problem!).