Who here has ran Deal's Gap?

[Bill]

So who here has slain the dragon?

I love so close that I'm ashamed that I haven't ran the tail of the dragon yet.

Bill

[MickOpalak]

So who here has slain the dragon?

I love so close that I'm ashamed that I haven't ran the tail of the dragon yet.

Bill


I've driven it more times than I can remember. Was just up there on Tuesday. It's a great road but gets too crowded on the weekends.

[MoPho]

Never driven it and have no real desire to. SoCal rds are just as good, if not better

[Martin]

You should defenitely make it a priority, and you should be ashamed ;)

Bill, you just say the word and we'll go.

And Mopho, having never driven the roads in SoCal, I can't tell you what is better. The Dragon is 311 curves in 11 miles so I have never heard anyone complain that this road isn't curvy enough, but still I don't know how that compares to out there. Guess I'll have to find out one day.

[MoPho]

While the Dragon sounds fun, the traffic and hassles don't. Certainly not worth a trip (at least on my own dime) when the roads here are incredible.

I've only bothered to count the corners on one road here (my wife was getting car sick, so had to go slow) and I counted 248 in 9 miles. Perhaps not quite the same corner per mile count as the Dragon, but the real beauty is that when you got to the end, there are over 20 other roads just like it you can take. And this is just the super tight and twisty roads in Malibu which is only 30 minutes away from the city.

http://www.lateralg.org/roads/orange/malibu2.gif

If you like to go faster, you can go a bit farther away and get on the fast and flowing twisty roads with lots of variety of the Angeles Crest Highway or my favorite loop highway 33 over to Cerro Noereste rd, both of which offer a good 50-70 miles of nonstop corners with no houses, traffic, etc. I just took a group of Lotus over this loop for a magazine shoot and everyone was giggling non stop :D
And I just mentioned maybe 10% of the roads out here, it's truly a playground for cars and bikes

check out www.lateralg.org

No doubt Deals Gap is awesome, but hard to get excited about it when you have so much in your own backyard. I've only lived here for two years and it was worth moving just for the roads :p

You should come out here :D

[4re308]

I hath slain the Dragon with my 944 Turbo S. I've never done it in any other car. It was AWESOME!

[Autocross7]

Yep, great drive. I have done it a couple time in my Mazda Miata, once as a passenger in an Alfa Spyder, and shall one day return in the Esprit...

[Martin]

Oddly enogh I ran a brief little bit of it on Tuesday. I drove the Esprit up to Tennessee for my brother's birthday. I put about 450 miles on her and it was a blast. We didn't do the whole dragon because we were on a time schedule but I still had plenty of fun. Infact, we drove up "The Wall" and on to another road that connects up to 129. All of that was awesome even before we got to the dragon!

It was great weather and the Esprit drove great, I'll see if I can post a few pics soon.

[Martin]

Here are a few pics.

BTW, the Maserati that you see is my father's car. I drove it a good bit and I have to say I really enjoyed it but it doesn't comunicate to me as well as the Esprit does. The greatest thing I heard that day was from one of the motorcycle riders. He asked, "so when your dad wants to really have fun, does he take your Lotus instead?"
Wow! I loved hearing that :) And yes, I did tell him that he did.

http://www.internetcp.com/gallery/data/500/medium/PIC_0065.JPG

http://www.internetcp.com/gallery/data/500/medium/PIC_0064.JPG

[WheelSpin]

Looks cool, but I'm with Mopho. Cali has got plenty for me to play with so I don't need to go else where.

[Autocross7]

The Colorodo National Monument is a great drive for those of you near to that area.

[Tony K]

I'd like to do the Dragon some day. While in that region, I'd also like to do the Appalachian Moonshine Run (rally)! :D

But much closer to home, in southeast Ohio, we have the Hocking Hills, Route 555, and everything around that. The car magazines in Detroit sometimes go down there when they want a twisty road, and 555 regularly makes top ten lists of best drives in the country.

Also, some of the roads in PA's Laurel Highlands area are fantastic, and a much quicker area to arrive at for anyone in the northeast.


:)

- T