Jim, thanks for the update. Very interesting. Just out of curiosity, were you disengaging the safety before the gun cleared the holster? I also realized, thanks to MattK's post, that we may have had a miscommunication ... possibly. The drill we did was with arms hanging at sides and a cover garment (light jacket opened in front). As such, I could not "rest" my thumb on the safety. As well, as I'm not practiced in "quick draw", I am not comfortable disengaging the safety on a 1911 before it is at least 30 degrees forward (from vertical down) and clear of the holster. I also made sure to keep my finger out of the trigger guard until the gun was nearing level as well and it is possible that the others I shot with were putting it in as soon as it was available.
Perhaps when the weather warms up around here I'll try the same drill (just gotta get a timer). As it is, our indoor ranges do not allow drawing (except during competition, and I don't want to ruflle any feathers trying my experiment during that). Another drill I'd like to try at that time would be the typical IPSC start with the gun lying on a table, and you're seated with both palms flat on table (except, for this experiment, I'd probably stand). That would eliminate any hesitation I'd have with regard to muzzle direction and allow me to simply grab the gun and fire at a 2yds target as fast as I can ... from there, it's simply drawing from the holster.
MattK, the point of the drill I mentioned was that the BG is on you before you know what's going on. And, I tend to believe that this is most common in CCW situations. The more time between presenting the gun and actually shooting the BG affords the BG more opportunity to respond to the presentation. Are you suggesting that one who wishes to CCW need not concern themselves with this drill? I have no clue what your interpretation of "super fast draw" is.