New Models
  • Peg It on GarageMonkey
SPECIAL: Caddy Track
Need a place to hammer your new 191 mph Cadillac CTS-V? Try New York’s Monticello Motor Club.
Howard Walker  | http://www.racer.com  |  Posted September 26, 2008   Monticello, N.Y.

Cadillac's new CTS-V was made for a track, and we found just the one...if you've got the wallet for it.

OK, so you lay down $60-large on Cadillac’s latest V-rod, the 556-horsepower CTS-V. And salivate at the mind-numbing performance numericals – zero to 60 in, jeez, 3.9 seconds and a top speed of 191 mph.

Then, armed with this supercharged projectile, you venture on to America’s highways and by-ways, ready to revel in the car’s jet-off-a-carrier acceleration and that 280 feet per second top speed.

So what do you do? You spend life looking in your rear-view for Ponch and Jon on their CHiPs Harleys, or waiting for the demonic shriek of your Beltronics RX75 detector. Consequently, you drive like a Florida geezer on Prozac, with occasional bursts of lunacy.

But imagine for a sec if you could turn up any day of the week at a brand-new 4.1-mile racetrack featuring 22 butt-clenching turns and over 1.5 miles of straightaways, so you can drive your new CTS-V like you stole it.

Then, when you’re drained of adrenaline, sweating like a Bangkok hooker, and have worn your Pilotis through to your Nomex socks, you can hit the spa, grab a beer, or feed your face on gourmet fodder.

Sound divine? You bet it does.
Monticello is a superb track car for the driver wanting thrills without spills.

That’s the concept behind the Monticello Motor Club at the foot of the Catskill Mountains up in leafy New York State, an easy 90-minute drive – or 25-minute chopper ride – from the Mad Apple.

Car nut and weekend racer Bill McMichael, together with a bunch of buddies, came up with the “motor club” concept a couple of years back. He was tired of schlepping his racecar to grubby tracks and thought that a members-only club based around a state-of-the-art track would have real appeal.

He brought in ace racer Brian Redman to help design the course, and sold his health care companies to Walgreens to fund it. While the track itself has just opened, the 20,000 sq. ft. members’ pavilion, including a 30,000 sq. ft clubhouse and 5,000 sq. ft spa should be finished next spring.

That’s the good news. The less-good news is that to keep out the riff-raff, it costs a cool $125-grand to join and $7,500 a year in dues. A-listers already signed up include Porsche-aholic funnyman Jerry Seinfeld, racer Jeff Gordon (who loves to thrash his Ferrari 599 on days off from NASCAR), and team owner Bobby Rahal.

We got the chance to experience Monticello courtesy of Cadillac, which paid big bucks for almost a month of mid-week track time to launch the CTS-V to the media. As long-time Caddy fan Elvis would say, “Thank you very much”.

Page 1 of 3
Prev
123
Next
howardwalkerforracermagazine's avatar

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Howard Walker

RACER Magazine

MORE BY THIS AUTHOR
Advertising | Jobs | Feedback | FAQ | Terms of Use | NEW Privacy Policy | Ad Choices | Site Map
Fox Sports | FUEL TV | FX Network | National Geographic | IGN | AskMen
The Motor Sports Authority, SPEED and associated logos are registered trademarks of Speed Channel Inc.
All Rights Reserved © Speed Channel, Inc. 2013

All external links will open in a new browser window. SPEED.com does not endorse external sites.