Leftlane recently attended a General Motors collections event held at the automakers Vehicle Dynamics Test Area — dubbed the Black Lake for its massive size — of its Milford Proving Grounds. In addition to a morning session in GM’s Safe Driving Program, we were also given a chance to drive several 2008 GM models on a four mile section of GM’s Ride and Handling Loop.
GM’s Safe Driving Program consisted of four different stations — skid, evasive, reverse serpentine and backing and controlled braking — all of which were supervised by an in-car instructor.
Skid
The skid portion of the driving program found us in the drivers seat of a vehicle that had casters attached to the rear axles instead of conventional wheels. We were then taken to a section of Black Lake that had three orange cones setup, creating a two-lane course. With the instructor in the passenger’s seat, we drove toward the center cone — at about 20 mph — and then were give a “left” or “right” call from the instructor. As we started to turn, the instructor released the pin holding the casters straight, allowing the rear-end to swing freely. Needless to say, the result was a lot of fun and useful if we ever found ourselves in the same situation on a slippery real-world road.
Evasive
The evasive section of the course was setup similarly to the skid portion of the program. We started out driving toward the center cone — at about 35 mph — and were given a direction call. Once we got the hang of swerving around imaginary pedestrians at 35 mph, we were able to increase our speed to 45 mph. The goal of this exercise was to teach us how to make evasive maneuvers while maintaining control of the car.
Reverse serpentine and backing
The reverse serpentine and backing portion on the program found us behind the wheel of one of GM’s larger vehicles — a four-door Crew Cab Chevrolet Silverado. Just as the name implies, we had to back around cones in a slalom fashion and then back the pickup into a lane of cones that was not much wider than the truck itself. Because we could not see over the bed of the truck, this exercise forced us to use the truck’s mirrors while backing.
The last part of the driving program built on what we learned during the evasive portion of the program, but added braking and another turn. The course was setup similar to the evasive course, but you could only turn left at the first cone and then had to swerve back to the right, essentially creating a path shaped like a bell curve. We were able to get the test car up to 50 mph for this exercise and then had to mash on the brakes while completing the two-turn course. Like the evasive portion, this session was designed to teach us better car control.
After a quick lunch, we were given a chance to drive several 2008 GM vehicles. We will post our driving impressions soon, but here is the rundown of vehicles you can expect to hear about:
- Buick Enclave
- Chevrolet Corvette
- Cadillac CTS
- Cadillac STS
- GMC Acadia
- GMC Sierra Denali
- GMC Yukon 2-Mode Hybrid
-Hummer H2
-Hummer H3
-Pontiac Solstice GXP
-Pontiac Torrent GXP
- Saab 9-3 Sport Sedan
- Saab 9-3 Sport Combi
-Saab 9-7X Aero
-Saturn Sky Red Line
-Saturn Vue Red Line
Leftlane travel accommodations provided by GM
