Way to go GM! Camaro, Cadillac, Corvette Test drives for HP employees....

My colleague Bill, and I strolled up on a brilliant spring day in Michigan to our HP Pontiac Facility carpark.

The lot was full of the latest GM vehicles.

"What's the deal here?", asked Bill as we spotted a dozen HP employees milling around.  "Oh, we're all waiting to drive the Corvette. But you can drive anything here"

"You mean I can just take the Camaro for a spin?"  

Oh dear. What a choice. Cadalliac CTS, Buick Lacrosse, Enclave, Acadia, Terrain, Malibu (OK, so who would really want to test drive a Malibu?) All the vehicles that prove GM is more than back in the game in terms of design, functionality and style.

First up: 426-hp 6.2L V8  SS Camaro.  This car puts a smile on your face. Slide in to the deep bucket seats, retro dash and dials, red leather, broad fat bonnet. Throaty howl. Loads of fun.  Macho through and through. The window down and the elbow hanging out just happened, honest.

 Need a bigger ego...

Next up: Cadillac CTS Estate. Slide in to walnut, the most beautiful set of instruments I've ever seen, luxury everywhere. Makes Audi, BMW, and Mercedes seen, ah, well, Teutonic. This is really how luxury should feel like. Drives smooth as silk, no feeling that this is as good size estate with slick styling to boot.

Need a payrise...

Last up: 2010 Corvette Coupe V8. The line for the Corvette was down to four people, and the GM folks were starting to lock up cars. The cherry red coupe slunk up, V8 burbling. "Anyway want to drive the stick shift?" the guy from GM called out. "Last drive of the day". Murmurs of nervousness from those waiting. "I'll drive it" I called out. " You can tell I didn't learn to drive in the USA!" I added... More sliding in to deep leather buckets. Surprisingly, my 6ft frame had 3 inches of headroom to spare. I eased it out to the main road, gettting the feel for the angled, leather shifter, then stepped on the gas.. First gear 40mph, second, 60mph a second or three later, the headup display flickering higher in fluro green over the sweeping bonnet.  Ah, whoops, speed limit is 45 mph ...  The drive was way too short, with my colleague Bill riding shotgun, in between the laugther at how good this car made us feel,  worried about the Pontiac police catching the guys in the red Corvette doing 15 over the limit in second gear...

Need to stop smiling like an idiot...