Exia
Seasoned Member
I had the chance yesterday afternoon/early evening to do the Ron Fellows Performance Driving school at Canadian Tire Motorsports Park up here in Ontario, Canada.
The track was purchased by Ron Fellows himself about 10 years ago. This isn't the full experience of what you would get down at Spring Mountain but for us Canadians its a great way for us to experience the cars without going over the border.
They do 3 sessions and you rotate through all the GM performance vehicles, C8 Stingray Z51, Camaro ZL1 1LE and the Blackwings.
I got the Blackwing first and immediately went for the manual. I drove a manual ZL1 1LE as well when the Camaro came up.
I was in the fast group for this event. Between all 3 cars, the 5BW impressed me the most. It was incredible how easy it was to drive fast and how effortless the manual was. The shifter was like butter, the clutch didn't feel that heavy and this thing went around that track with ease. Power delivery was incredibly smooth. I had zero complaints about the car, everything was great about it. Usually there's some small nitpicking that can be done with GM vehicles but I couldn't find a fault with this or at least I wasn't skilled enough to bring out any faults.
As a comparison, the Camaro which uses the same chassis (or a derivative rather), engine and transmission felt completely different. I know with the 1LE package its almost a race car but the ZL1 was a wild ride, it would hop a little when you got on the throttle, I had the TC stepping in everytime I went down the straight (which is after a hard right). The shifter and clutch were great but didn't feel as nice as the 5BW and its the exact same transmission. The 5BW has more power, less tire and it felt more effortless. The Camaro you had to work for it, the Caddy was confidence inspiring.
The C8 was a C8, its a good car to drive, but everyone knows that, the most shocking revelation was how well a 4 door Caddy drives around a track.
I could tell GM really did something special with the Blackwings, even if a lot of the components are from the parts bin, I can tell the engineers really went above and beyond to create a special product.
Almost everyone there (group of 18) said they preferred the 5BW. A lot of them had never been on a track before but the car just instilled a lot of confidence and its a damn 4 door luxury car at that. I figured a lot of them would say they would take the C8 but most wanted to take a Blackwing home.
Ron Fellows himself even prefers the 5BW as a car to just drive. He put 3500km on them to get the break in done for race track use when he only needed to do 1000. He just couldn't stop driving it.
I'll probably still be waiting a while (hooray Canadian allocations) but after experiencing that, it will be worth it.
Or I'll just have to go again!
The track was purchased by Ron Fellows himself about 10 years ago. This isn't the full experience of what you would get down at Spring Mountain but for us Canadians its a great way for us to experience the cars without going over the border.
They do 3 sessions and you rotate through all the GM performance vehicles, C8 Stingray Z51, Camaro ZL1 1LE and the Blackwings.
I got the Blackwing first and immediately went for the manual. I drove a manual ZL1 1LE as well when the Camaro came up.
I was in the fast group for this event. Between all 3 cars, the 5BW impressed me the most. It was incredible how easy it was to drive fast and how effortless the manual was. The shifter was like butter, the clutch didn't feel that heavy and this thing went around that track with ease. Power delivery was incredibly smooth. I had zero complaints about the car, everything was great about it. Usually there's some small nitpicking that can be done with GM vehicles but I couldn't find a fault with this or at least I wasn't skilled enough to bring out any faults.
As a comparison, the Camaro which uses the same chassis (or a derivative rather), engine and transmission felt completely different. I know with the 1LE package its almost a race car but the ZL1 was a wild ride, it would hop a little when you got on the throttle, I had the TC stepping in everytime I went down the straight (which is after a hard right). The shifter and clutch were great but didn't feel as nice as the 5BW and its the exact same transmission. The 5BW has more power, less tire and it felt more effortless. The Camaro you had to work for it, the Caddy was confidence inspiring.
The C8 was a C8, its a good car to drive, but everyone knows that, the most shocking revelation was how well a 4 door Caddy drives around a track.
I could tell GM really did something special with the Blackwings, even if a lot of the components are from the parts bin, I can tell the engineers really went above and beyond to create a special product.
Almost everyone there (group of 18) said they preferred the 5BW. A lot of them had never been on a track before but the car just instilled a lot of confidence and its a damn 4 door luxury car at that. I figured a lot of them would say they would take the C8 but most wanted to take a Blackwing home.
Ron Fellows himself even prefers the 5BW as a car to just drive. He put 3500km on them to get the break in done for race track use when he only needed to do 1000. He just couldn't stop driving it.
I'll probably still be waiting a while (hooray Canadian allocations) but after experiencing that, it will be worth it.
Or I'll just have to go again!
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