This was not my car—and it definitely was not my driving style.
This was an Acura NSX on a track at Atlanta Motorsports Park. And Bridgestone was asking me—Ms. Avoids Highway Driving—to push its Potenza Race tires and get an honest-to-goodness feel for the level of engineering behind them.
I'd ridden with professional drivers as they demonstrated tires' capabilities. But I'd never driven on the track.
And, yet, here I was.
For this demonstration, I wasn't alone—not entirely. A professional driver was there the whole time, in the NSX ahead of me and on the radio beside me, taking and talking me through each curve, each straightaway.
All I had to do was follow his lead.
The concept was simple enough: Drive fast. Brake hard. Turn left. Drive faster, brake harder, turn right. Then do it all over—only with more speed each time.
In practice, it was counterintuitive to everything I knew, everything I do as a driver. And what was I supposed to do when I couldn't trust my own instincts?