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Corvette - the newest Las Vegas tourist attraction

See Vegas in a Corvette, if you're sober

GM announces plan to open a hands-on driving experience on the Strip

Susan R. Pollack / The Detroit News

Before visitors sample Las Vegas' newest attraction, they'll have to take a Breathalyzer test. And that obviously means staying sober, at least for a time, in Sin City.

General Motors is betting folks will give it a try.

In its latest marketing ploy, the giant automaker announced plans to open a hands-on driving experience this spring on an 11-acre tract at the north end of the Strip behind the Sahara Hotel & Casino.

The idea of the two-track driving course is to entice some of the city's millions of tourists from the gaming tables, slot machines and celebrity shows long enough to slip behind the wheels of Corvettes, Cadillacs and Hummers "without any pressure to buy," says Steve Tihanyi, general director of marketing and entertainment alliances for GM.

Named "The Drive," the attraction will feature two courses: a high-performance paved loop and an off-road adventure trail with a tunnel, hill climb and obstacles. Accompanying each "test driver" will be a professional driver, riding shotgun in the passenger seat, to enhance -- and, no doubt, safeguard -- the experience.

Besides showing off GM vehicles, "The Drive" is designed to boost the expensive -- and underperforming -- Las Vegas Monorail system.

As part of the estimated $6 million deal, GM becomes a marketing and advertising partner of the monorail company.

"The Drive" is guaranteed to run at least six months (and likely through 2006, says GM publicist Christi Conti). The general hope is that it will become a permanent tourist attraction, although in a different form.

Las Vegas tourism boosters are thrilled with the project, scheduled to open in March or April. "There's nothing like it anywhere in the world, except maybe Autopia at Disneyland and that's not the same as driving a Hummer through a tunnel or a Corvette around a track," says Bryan Allison, marketing director of the travel-promoting Web site

Vegas.com.

To make way for "The Drive," the Sahara's classic neon sign was removed Wednesday from the casino's parking lot, loaded on a giant truck and moved to a storage facility. Hummers escorted the caravan.

Admission to both tracks of "The Drive" will be $10 to $15 a person. The attraction is open to visitors 18 and up who have a valid driver's license and can prove they're sober.