Getting schooled at the Cadillac V-Performance Academy
I spent two days at Spring Mountain Raceway outside of Las Vegas, Nevada to get my learning on in Cadillac's performance models.
Car for the day
My steed for the day, the 2017 Cadillac ATS-V.
Getting tips
Receiving some instruction at the wet figure-eight at the V-Performance Academy
A wet track
A lesson in weight transfer.
Beautiful place to drive
The CTS-V strikes a fine pose on Spring Mountain Raceway.
Learning time
Classroom time is an integral part of the V-Performance Academy.
Nimble driver
The ATS-V proved to be quite nimble around the track, and almost as fast as the larger CTS-V.
Track sessions
Each track session is done in a lead-follow format.
Accessible teachers
Personalized instruction is hallmark of the V-Performance Academy.
Line of cars
Follow the leader!
In Nevada
Spring Mountain Raceway is located outside of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Cadillac V-Performance Academy
Cosworth Toolbox
At the end of the day the Cosworth Toolbox helps make sense of all the numbers from the Performance Data Recorder. These are the stats from my fastest lap.
Slightly outdated map
Unfortunately, Cosworth Toolbox uses Bing maps, which hasn't updated in a while. Here it looks like we took a turn in the dirt, while in reality Spring Mountain altered the corner a bit... four years ago.
More data
Tire pressures and temperatures for a session.
Compare stats
The toolbox lets you overlay comparison data. Here the instructor's stats are in orange, mine in blue. My line is pretty spot on, though I'm significantly slower.
Braking data
You can see from the graph that my braking is a bit off. Each burst of data should start high and descend. A few of my braking data sets are the opposite.
Health data
The Cadillac ATS-V kept its health throughout my track sessions. No overheating here!