Texas 85 mph road

[Barney Eaton]

Just received my Automobile magazine (April 2013) with a article on driving the new Cadillac XTS on the Texas toll road with the 85 mph speed limit. The road starts at my town and goes south (around 90 miles) This highway also skirts the new Circuit of America track that held the F1 race back in November.

The 85 mph section is only the the last 20 mile section, the rest is only 80 mph. I have had the Reatta on it several times but 75 seem like a comfortable speed.

The road was built to reduce the traffic on I-35 going thru Austin. However the toll fees for heavy trucks is so high they stay on I-35 and the trucks are the main problem. Many are coming out of Mexico carring goods to the north, just this week one lane of I-35 was closed for several hours when one truck crashed thru the concrete center medium and hit another oncoming truck. If you read the article, on the 85 mph south section, there was a good 4 lane road that had a 70 mph limit. When they opened the new "toll" road, they reduced the speed on the old road to 55 mph... to encourage people to use the toll road........ our goverment at work for us.

The writer also stopped at the ranch of Dollie Cole (outside of Lockhart) he says some nice things about her but they could have written a book. She is the widow of Ed Cole, GM executive, engineer, and father of the Corvair. After Ed was killed in a plane crash, she move back to Texas. She purchased some land, an old cotton gin, and a quarry. In her words, she told her builder, keep building until you run out of wood from the gin and stone from the quarry. She also sponsors a boys ranch in Lockhart and has retired race horses on her property. She is quite a lady.

I suggest you read the article, it is much more than a road test of the Cadillac.