Victor Ozols Takes a Road Trip in a 2012 Cadillac CTS-V
By: John Ratcliffe-Lee
August 16, 2012 1:30 pm ET
Originally from Victor Ozols article “Road Tripping In a 2012 Cadillac CTS-V“
I’ve always been a bit conflicted about Cadillacs. I was brought up in the 1970s to immigrant parents who were frugal, to say the least. They were early adaptors of the concept of fuel efficiency, insisted on wearing seatbelts during a time when nobody else did, and wholeheartedly rejected the idea that cars didn’t need to be made to a high quality standard, since you’d get rid of them within a couple of years anyway. They only drove tight, safe, and efficient cars from Europe (and later Japan) and kept them until the odometer rolled over at least once.
They were smart people, and their sensible cars got me to soccer practice and pediatrician’s appointments, yet a part of me wanted to embrace the live-in-the-moment culture of reckless consumerism they seemed to disdain. I loved riding in the gigantic American land yachts of my friends’ parents, which always smelled of cigarette smoke and bounced a full three times after hitting the slightest bump in the road. I dreamed of one day driving a Cadillac of my own, Eastern European asceticism be damned. It took a long time, but last month I finally got my chance when General Motors let me borrow a 2012 Cadillac CTS-V to take a road trip with my wife.
My childhood dream was coming true. I’d be able to feel the power, decadence, and unbridled American-ness of a Cadillac. We’d drive from New York City to Nag’s Head, North Carolina and back again, a thousand miles of id-embracing fun where we’d live out our own version of Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas, minus the pint of raw ether. I was ready to regress back to my 5-year-old self, riding in my friend’s dad’s 1976 Coupe de Ville. I was ready to live the life I’d been denied in favor of good sense.
To read the rest of Victors great trip click HERE.
Featured photo by Victor Ozols.
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