Lane's SCA - 2005 SPC Rally (8)

We were very grateful to have a few special guests joining us this week from General Motors. Chris B and Ryan K work in GM's High Performance Vehicle Operations, and brought a two of their special toys to the track.

One of the vehicles was a brand new Chevy Trailblazer SS. With a very potent motor (the same one that's in the Corvette), and full-time all wheel drive, anyone that went for a ride was able to enjoy the fact that this truck seriously hauled. Visit Chevy's website for this truck HERE.

The other vehicle to make an appearance was a Saturn Ion Red Line with the newly-offered competition package.

The Red Line's competition package includes special wheels, column-mounted boost gauge with ladder tach, and a Quaife torque-biasing differential. And the fun didn't stop there. This particular car was customized with some aftermarket "extras" - to the tune of about 300 horsepower at the front wheels.

While it's enjoyable to get a close look and salivate over a car like this, nothing beats a ride-along at speed on a race track. Let's strap into the passenger seat for a ride with one of the GM engineers who took part in designing it, and really put it to use.

Those who took advantage of the offer to ride along got a rare treat. They were shown not only what this car could do, but what a handful of performance-minded engineer enthusiasts designed it to do.

Click HERE for some video of the car going by on the track's front straight (1.3 mb). Be sure to turn up your sound so you can enjoy the evil supercharger whine.

Video requires DIVX 5 codec to play - info/download HERE.