Hello, dear reader, writing to you from Colorado Springs, Colorado. I was out here this week embedded with Chevrolet's Pikes Peak team as they made an attempt at breaking the production record set by 000 Magazine's Porsche 911 Turbo S a few years back. Chevy brought a 1,250-horsepower Corvette ZR1X and gave it over to racer J.R. Hildebrand to do the deed.

How did he do? Pretty damned well. I'll be back next time with a full report from the ground, and the sky, and everything in between. For now, let’s talk vans.

If you spend much time in Tokyo, you'll see a surprising number of what we'd call minivans wheeling around the city. The JDM variety, models like the Nissan Elgrand or Toyota Esquire, tend to be taller and boxier than what we get in the States, occasionally brutalist even in appearance, but more importantly they tend to serve a different purpose than ours.

While your average American minivan is positioned as a family-friendly kid-hauler, in Japan they're often used as executive transporters -- a more roomy, more comfortable means of getting where you need to go.

Mercedes-Benz is looking to elevate that concept to new heights with the VLE. It’s labeled a "Grand Limousine," a somewhat evocative description for what is ultimately a really, really nice van, but after spending some time driving one around in Spain, I'm reasonably convinced.

Those vans are built atop a new, electric platform called Van.EA, which I got to sample back in prototype form last year. This architecture not only makes room for the typical skateboard battery pack in the floor and a pair of electric motors, but creates a more rigid and refined foundation for vans, something suitable for handling executives, not just their luggage.

The VLE I drove was outfitted with an 8K ultrawide television that swings down from the ceiling and a pair of second-row captain's chairs that offer much of the same luxury as your average narrow-body business class seat. The experience isn't perfect -- those seats need work -- but overall, I was really impressed by the way the VLE drove.

Is it good enough to convince the American market that vans can be cool? The VLE certainly looks sharper than your average Caravan, but those minivan preconceptions run deep in these parts. Personally, I couldn't care less. I'd love it if I had a VLE to shuttle me around, but it's going to take some serious red-carpet product placement to shrug off that family-hauler vibe.

More impressions? Check out my write-ups here:

That's all for this week. I'm now off to Germany to drive a certain drop-top Porsche that online purists have been having a real good time hating on. Something tells me that, despite the vitriol, it'll be awful nice.

Oh, and sorry this is a day late. Those 3am wakeup calls to hit the mountain this week really messed with my clock, among other things.