Need for speed pushes automotive writers

05.02.12

The fair-skinned Mercedes-Benz C-Class Coupe pulls up to the start profile on the test track, idling quietly.

A marshal with a walkie-talkie holds it up to his ear for a split go along with, then wind-mills his arm like he's throwing a softball. We're off to the races.

Kelly Taylor steps on the gas and the car jumps off the strand, purring as the needle on the speedometer surges to 100 km/h in seconds.

Without braking, Taylor zigs and zags through a heritage of red pylons set along the runway at the Niagara District Airport. He's one of 70 automotive the media assigned to give the newbie journalists, including yours truly, a knee-trembling, knuckle-whitening and bladder-testing spin around the squiffed-speed test track set up to review 170 new vehicles at TestFest 2012.

As instructed, I gave my seatbelt a tug before we started, I'm easy in the passenger's seat. My feet are firmly planted at the sides of the footwell and I'm clinging to the arm rests. If I had any ringlets on my head, it would be standing on end.

We whip around the final corner and I issue forth for the first time in what feels like five minutes. Then Taylor's words earlier to the ride creep back into my brain. That was just the warmup lap — now we're common to really put the car to the test.

I suppress the girlish squeal I sensation welling up in my throat as Taylor turns the corner for a move lap.

This time the turns come faster, the speeds are higher and the wheels squeal as we general area of the cones more violently.

"I like this car," Taylor says as we guardianship toward the end of the course.

"I feel like I'm in a Fast and Furious flicks," I say, trying to laugh along with him.

"Once you get to drive cars on a track like that, it becomes addictive," he said. "It's a Brobdingnagian adrenaline rush."

Taylor, a Winnipeg-based automotive journalist for the life 11 years, is currently host of the radio show The Track Trip. He's made the trek to TestFest to help rate the top cars for Canadian consumers as identified by the Sports car Journalists Association of Canada.

"We're breaking things down for consumers," he said. "(Cars are rated) on a lower from zero to 10. No car ever gets a 10. Very few cars ever get a nine. Nothing is usual to be absolutely perfect."

The writers are split into groups and parade a series of cars across classes and price ranges, enchanting them on the test track but also out on the road for real driving position.

Source: St. Catharines Standard