As the leaves turned in the Catskills, greenery and green cars were hard to find

On a visit to Monticello, N.Y., an open top, manual transmission, deserted two-lane roads and a gorgeous fall day are an unbeatable combination.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

MONTICELLO, N.Y. -- Quiet has returned to the two-lane roads that wind past clusters of homes framed by fall colors.

This week saw the annual invasion of the International Motor Press Association, whose members were unleashed at the wheels of performance and super cars with incredibly loud mufflers.

IMPA, the country's oldest organization of automotive journalists and public relations professionals, set up camp at the Monticello Motor Club, a 4.1-mile race circuit and playground for the wealthy nestled in the Catskill Mountains.

Many sponsors

Sponsors of the so-called Test Days included Detroit and foreign automakers, manufacturers of tires and automobile sound equipment, PR Newswire and the private club where the event was held.

Previous Test Days took place at Pocono Raceway and Lime Rock Park.

On Wednesday, writers and publicists had access to a parking lot filled with some of the fastest cars in the world, many of which could be driven on the track.

Others were meant to be driven only on quiet public roads in Monticello and nearby villages, set amidst lakes and wooded hills. 

On Tuesday, the first day of the event, all driving was restricted to public roads except for IMPA members who signed up for drives or rides with instructors on the challenging race circuit.

I did hot laps in a Fiat 500 Abarth and a Lexus GS sedan with 467 horsepower, but actually enjoyed driving several other cars over nearly deserted public roads that were a breath of fresh air compared to the congestion of northern New Jersey.

Among them were the FIAT 124 Spider, Infiniti Q60, Jaguar F-Type, a luxury sports car with loud snap, crackle and pop exhausts; and Volvo S90 AWD Inscription, a comfortable sedan that is the biggest Volvo I have ever seen.

Being confined to public roads didn't lessen the excitement for some IMPA members.

For example, a writer for the Chicago Tribune syndicate who gave me a ride in a McLaren GT shouted, "That's 90 [mph]," as he paddle shifted up through the gears on Route 42 toward Montcello's economically depressed downtown.

One of the few green cars at the event was the highly anticipated Acura NSX, an all-wheel-drive supercar bristling with 573 horsepower from a twin-turbo V-6 and three electric motors, above and below.

A pro racecar driver at the wheel of the Acura NSX took me on the fastest lap I have ever experienced at the Monticello Motor Club.

Green cars

Sadly, there were no purely electric cars at the event.

Chevy didn't bring the Bolt, the first $40,000 EV with more than 200 miles of range, even though the four-door hatchback is expected to go on sale at the end of the year.

And as usual, Nissan had IMPA members lining up to drive the fearsome GT-R, but disappointed me and others by not supplying an updated all-electric Leaf with a longer range. 

Typically, most of the writers and publicists who attend Test Days are gear heads, speed freaks and lead foots who are wined and dined by the automakers, and loaned new models for a weekend or a week.

They willingly engage in a conspiracy of silence about climate change, the 53,000 deaths every year from auto emissions, and the environmental benefits of hybrids and EVs.

I heard one IMPA member boast of driving a Fiat 500 Abarth at 107 mph on a Nevada highway, complaining he was the only one of 10 writers in a caravan of speeding Fiats pulled over by the police. 

Toyota Mirai, Prius

Toyota brought the Mirai, powered by electricity from a hydrogen fuel cell; as well as the Prius Prime, a plug-in gas-electric hybrid that has an EV range of 25 miles.

I got behind the wheel of both, and found the Mirai far quieter and more refined than the pre-production model I drove in Manhattan last April at the New York Auto Show.

The Prius Prime only went a few all-electric miles before the gasoline engine kicked in, because its handlers from Event Solutions International (ESI) forgot to plug it in overnight.

Both the Mirai and Prius Prime approached the quiet of a Tesla Model S.
   

Two more photos of the mid-engine Acura NSX, above and below. 

Toyota's Prius Prime, a gas-electric hybrid, wasn't plugged in overnight, and yielded only a few miles in all-electric mode on Wednesday, above and below.

Toyota Mirai is a car in search of hydrogen fueling stations, above and below.

Hydrogen gas reacts with oxygen in the air and produces electricity to power the vehicle.

This McLaren GT, which cost more than $200,000, didn't match the excitement of the Acura NSX.

The Alfa-Romeo 4C Spider with paddle shifters was a hoot to drive on the racetrack.

A Ford Fusion gas-electric hybrid.

A driver returning to the pits at Monticello Motor Club.

Tuesday's lunch at the Monticello Motor Club included veggie burgers, coleslaw, and potato salad. I didn't attend that night's banquet at Honor's Haven Resort & Spa in Ellenville, N.Y., but was told no fish was available for IMPA members who don't eat meat.

Eggplant Rollatini, Potato-Crusted Cod and Caesar Salad were on Wednesday's lunch menu at MMC.

I had dinner on Tuesday night at Crust Italian Eatery in Rock Hill, N.Y., a restaurant next to my hotel. Steamed Clams were $10. A glass of red wine was $6.

I also had a Caprese Salad with Fig Balsamic Glaze ($12), but the only off note were the roasted tomatoes, which had been refrigerated and were much too cold.

Crust Italian Eatery bakes 24-inch pizzas. Bottles of wine are $20.

On the way home, I stopped to charge my Tesla Model S 60 on Route 300 in Newburgh, N.Y., where six free Superchargers were available in the parking lot of a strip mall, above and below.

Customers were dining outdoors at Cosimo's on Union Ristorante & Bar, which serves wood-fired pizzas. I had a yogurt next door at Hoopla Frozen Yogurt (51 cents per ounce).

In the Catskills, you could hear the death rattle of those infernal gas, diesel engines

If you aren't a speed freak with the mentality of a high school student, you couldn't help but enjoy driving a Hyundai Sonata gas-electric hybrid over winding country roads draped in fall colors.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

In the wake of the Volkswagen scandal, automobile writers who gathered for their annual race-track ritual served to focus attention on the environmental damage caused by the antiquated internal-combustion engine.

The emphasis at Test Days is speed, though members of the International Motor Press Association are warned repeatedly they are there to "test" the latest production models, not "race" them.

I attended Wednesday's session at Monticello Motor Club, which bills itself as "North America's premier automotive country club and private race track" just 90 minutes from New York City. 

TV commercials show cars being driven at 100 mph or more, appealing to the male race-car driver fantasy, and then the manufacturers bring their most powerful -- and loudest -- models to Monticello.

There, auto writers and other IMPA members, who pay $100 each, can drive some of the fastest, most expensive cars made over the challenging 4.1-mile race track, loud mufflers echoing off of the surrounding hills.

But course workers were ready to report over-enthusiastic drivers who put a wheel off the track or wiped out traffic cones meant to slow them down. 

The penalty: Cutting of the wristband all IMPA members had to show to get on the track. 

More green leaves than cars

IMPA sold more than 230 tickets, but the turnout of green cars was disappointing, as it was last year.

Nissan didn't bring its all-electric 2016 Leaf, and Toyota didn't show up with the highly anticipated 2016 Prius, the next generation of the world's best-selling hybrid.

Oh, BMW did make available, only for driving on public roads, the noisy, overpriced i8 plug-in hybrid sports car that debuted last year.

The only all-electric car there was the 2015 Tesla Model S I drove from my home in New Jersey.

Early today, Tesla downloaded new software to all owners who bought their Model S four-door hatchbacks after October 2014, giving them Autopilot, Autosteer and Autopark, a huge step toward a fully autonomous driving experience.

One owner reported commuting to Manhattan on the Long Island Expressway this morning, and using Autopilot, which he said worked flawlessly both at 60 mph and in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

One of the cars in high demand on Wednesday at Monticello Motor Club was this 645-horsepower Dodge Viper.

Burning rubber and gasoline

The horsepower race at the track usually is won by the Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, which packs a ridiculous 707 horsepower.

IMPA members who drove it on the road course were accompanied by an instructor who made sure they didn't go completely crazy.

Before the track opened on Wednesday, writers attended a so-called drivers meeting.

Test Days Coordinator Paul Licata scolded unnamed members who were doing "burnouts" in the Hellcat on public roads.

Licata recalled that was something he did in high school, and called those who did the burnouts now "dumb."

But can you blame them?

The auto writers are accustomed to having the world's fastest and most expensive cars provided to them free for a weekend or a week, ostensibly to evaluate them for reviews.

They are delivered to their home or office -- and picked up -- by a small army of low-wage workers employed by ESI, STI and other companies that clean and service the press and marketing fleets maintained by all of the major domestic and foreign automakers.

If the writers or VIPs damage the cars, they aren't held responsible, though the fleet-management companies will insist that any one of their drivers who scratches or dents a car pay for the repairs. 

Few, if any, of the auto writers and bloggers are worried about climate change or the number of people killed by air pollution, and if they are, you never see that reflected in media supported by ad revenue from the major automakers.

VW's so-called clean diesel

These are the same writers who helped Volkswagen pull off one of the greatest scams in automotive history, the so-called TDI Clean Diesel Engine (turbocharged direct injection).

When VW unveiled what it claimed was a cleaner diesel engine in 2009, the automotive media merely regurgitated the company line, even though they should have known a diesel could never be cleaner than a gasoline engine or a gas-electric hybrid.

Now, after admitting that 11 million Volkswagen and Audi diesel engines worldwide were rigged to fool government emissions testers, VW says it will invest more money in plug-in hybrids and purely electric cars.

Still, will the company's reputation or the environment ever recover?

Don't forget, this is a company that was born in 1937 at the behest of Adolf Hitler, who directed engineer Ferdinand Porsche to design a "People's Car" or Volkswagen.

It won't happen in my lifetime, but I can envision a day when production cars equipped with internal-combustion engines of 200, 300, 400, 500 and more horsepower are banned from public roads, and can be driven only on a race track like the one at the Monticello Motor Club.

This Dodge Challenger with a 392 cubic inch V-8 engine is what the company calls a Scat Pack Shaker Model.

Options on this 503-horsepower 2016 Mercedes-Benz AMG GTS include $9,900 for Solarbeam Yellow Paint and $8,500 for an AMG Carbon Ceramic Braking System. Total retail price is $171,900.

Pro race-car driver Andy Pilgrim, who works for Cadillac, gave me and my wife the ride of our lives around the 4.1-mile circuit on Wednesday. Pilgrim said he was doing 110 mph through the S curves; my wife, who sat in the back seat, said she had her eyes closed most of the time.

Pilgrim drove a stock Cadillac ATS.

To me, the onetime owner of a 1966 Fort Mustang GT, the new model is noisy, heavy and not much of a thrill, even on a race track.

The most entertaining car I drove on the track Wednesday is this 380-horsepower 2016 Jaguar F-Type S Coupe with a manual, 6-speed transmission, above the below.

Jaguar calls this color Italian Racing Red. The car's MSRP is $91,145.

Jaguar's 6-speed manual transmission. 

The 707-horsepower Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. When I drove it on the track, an instructor gave me tips on turn in and braking.

IMPA Test Days Coordinator Paul Licata reminding automobile writers they were at a private race track on Wednesday to "test" cars, not to "race" them.

I took a spin on public roads in a Fiat 500 that was similar to the one Pope Francis rode in when he visited the United States.

One of the public road loops marked with IMPA signs included Dingle Daisy Road in Monticello, N.Y., connecting Sackett Lake Road and Route 42.

At summit of automobile writers, hybrid and all-electric cars were scarce

The spectacular BMW i8 plug-in hybrid sounds and drives like a sports car, but scissor doors and a high sill make it difficult to get into and out of. And it lists for nearly twice the price of an all-electric Tesla Model S with a 60 kWh battery and an EPA range of 208 miles. The BMW i8 was available for test drives last month at a meeting of automobile writers in Monticello, N.Y.

Another new car from BMW, the i3, is the polar opposite of the hybrid sports car. The i3 is a stylish, all-electric four-door sedan with a range of 70 to 110 miles per charge. It proved so popular with writers and other participants, I not only didn't get to drive it; I didn't get a photo.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Where are the hybrids? 

I scanned the rows of cars lined up last month in a parking lot at the Monticello Motor Club, a 4.1-mile racing circuit in New York State's Catskill Mountains, looking for green cars.

Where is Tesla, maker of the world's most advanced all-electric production car?

There weren't any Teslas to drive on beautiful, two lane country roads, and hybrids were scarce. 

At an annual East Coast summit meeting of automobile writers last month, the emphasis seemed to be on raw, naked horsepower from the internal -- or infernal --combustion engine.

Despite a legacy of unsafe and inefficient cars -- and polluted air that kills tens of thousands of people each year -- the major automakers remain firmly invested in the conventional.

Toyota, which introduced the Prius to the U.S. in 2000, now sells hybrid versions of many models, including those offered by its Lexus luxury division, and a plug-in version of the Prius.

But its all-electric RAV4 has a Tesla powertrain, and is available only in California.

Toyota has more green cars than any other major manufacturer.

BMW shows two i models

BMW made two new green cars available for test drives on public roads, the i8 plug-in hybrid sports car and the more practical i3 all-electric sedan.

It's hard to believe the two cars come from the same manufacturer.

The i3 has a base price of $41,350, and a range of up to 110 miles when fully charged.

Another version of the i3, with a "range extender" (a gasoline generator with 1.9-gallon tank), goes up to 185 miles on a full charge, BMW says. 

Think of it as a security blanket.

The base MSRP is $45,200.

The 707-horsepower Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat was at the top of the heap in terms of raw horsepower. Another reborn muscle car, the Chevy Camaro, also was represented, but no Ford Mustangs were on hand to drive.