Hi again, everyone! I drilled up the Drive last week and thought I would give my impressions of it after throwing it in league for a few games.
First of all, I need to say a couple of things:
1) I hate pearl balls. They give me more over/under than I can handle.
2) I love asymmetric balls because of the roll they generate on the backend.
As you may or may not know, the Drive is an asymmetric pearlized ball, actually the first one EVER made by Columbia (only other asymmetrics were Mass Chaos, Total Chaos and Alter Ego if I'm not mistaken). This in and of itself makes the Drive a landmark ball for Columbia. Also of note, this ball uses the new Accelerator coverstock and not the Superflex or Enhanced Superflex which have become cornerstones of the company.
Impressions:
1) This ball doesn't handle like a normal pearl ball, which I was very happy about. The core gives it a more dynamic nature in the midlane, which helped greatly to control the backend.
2) The ball clears the heads as easily as any ball there is.
3) I was kind of expecting the ball to handle a lot like the Alter Ego (same core), which is all midlane and not much for backend...boy was I wrong. The Alter Ego is a product of the coverstock and so is this ball. If you've enver believed that coverstock is the most dominant force is ball reaction, comparing these two balls is proof enough.
4) I drilled mine very similar to my Alter Ego, with teh pin at about 4 3/4" under and just right of the ring finger and with the Mass Bias about 1 1/2" right of the thumbhole. The main difference was in the CG placement, with the Drive's CG being kicked out much further because it was not in line with the other two. Fortunately, the Drive I drilled only had 2 ounces of top weight so I was able to kick the CG a lot without needing an extra hole in the side of the ball. This made me very happy.
5) The Drive generated more midlane than any other pearl reactive I've thrown, but saved the energy for the backend. On the backend, the move was sharp but not uncontrollable and the ball straightened out just perfectly in order to transfer that power to the pins. This, to me, was the best part. I love it when the ball doesn't continue at that stupid angle and does the thing where it straightens out without rolling out. To me, this is where a ball shows its true power in sending pins flying all over the place.
6) Although carrydown isn't a strong point for this ball, it definitely handled it much better than other pearl balls would and I was able to stay with the Drive when I otherwise would switch to something that would handle carrydown a bit better, like my Bully.
7) The color of the ball is great - very aesthetically pleasing
Columbia's arsenal definitely needed a ball like this. Very impressive piece
