That + your sig = :rofl: :rofl:

WOW!!!!

You guys are scarring the s&!t out of me and I'm sitting in a lazy-boy... :surprised:

Thats just cauz you drive a NSX..... doesn't handle like a S2000! :LOL:

Glad you guys enjoyed it. I understand, and appreciate your perspective.

I don't speak for Billman here, just me. I know he doesn't know the road like I do, but I believe he is a better driver than me, so this probably isn't too far off for him either...

Realize that what you do in your car would seem like 10/10ths to some people, a lot of people probably, but you know your limits and you stay below them. Of course anything can go wrong, at any speed...a meteor could fall from the sky and crash down right in front of us. A bear could land on the hood. ;) But when I tell you that I am not running MY 10/10ths, you must put yourself in that position of trying to explain to someone in awe of YOUR driving that you are not running at YOUR 10/10ths. Yes the car was wiggling...it will wiggle a LOT more than that, I've done it fairly often. That's not what this run was about for me...it's not really the fast way and I was trying to play the camera car roll and stay as close as possible. You'll notice as Billman starts to pull away, I didn't get all crazy and start driving across the center lane, or dropping tires off the road taking shortcuts...that's all I could do within the boundaries we play in, so he just had to slow down and let me catch back up.

We do this week in and week out, all year long, much faster with sticky tires, and never an incident. I'm 41, been driving since I was 15, and the only car "wreck" I've EVER been in was hitting a deer that jumped out from around a blind corner on the Dragon one night while I was poking along waiting for a friend to catch up. If I'd been going faster, even that may not have happened! But then I wouldn't have gotten the Amuse Widebody kit. ;)

So I hope that makes sense and gives you something to think about. I've enjoyed reading your comments...this has been an interesting and friendly discussion. I hope it stays that way. :tipwink:

Amen :)

:rofl: :rofl:



:thumbup:

Well Said Darryl :thumbup:

Darryl do you really know EVERY turn from the lookout spot to the gap? :) I don't think I can ever say I have the dragon memorized...but I do have a complete feel for the entire thing, I know where the sweepers are, and gravity cavity. I too am 41...I used to have a dodge charger hidden in the woods when I was 12. It was not road worthy but it ran great and it was rear wheel drive. I would ride my bicycle to the car, and race it through miles of dirt roads. I would drift it over 60 mph, and I would jump the car and fly it through the air. A good few days of jumping did the car in. But the drifting lasted over 2 years.

I always encourage my customers to go to a large empty parking lot, late at night, in the rain. Drive in a circle until it starts to slide, and just keep sliding. You will find the limits of the car and learn how to drive out of them. Loosing the rear of the car is completely second nature to me.

The greatest thing about the dragon is that this is the place where I learned my last phase of car control, and its quite simple. The dragon allows you to drive through the exact same turns, over and over, without ever touching the shifter. You can do the entire dragon in 2nd or third gear, and never clutch or shift. This allows you to learn the dynamics of DRIVING only, without worrying about car operation. This is where you become a kid in a go kart. By taking out other dynamics (clutch, shifting) you will quickly learn this dynamic one on one.....leave your ego home where it belongs, and come see what the event is all about.

I can promise anyone reading this you WILL be a better driver when the event is over. Not to mention making a bus load of life long friends and memories. There will always be threads that discourage the bad points...the other 98% of the event can't even be put into words.

Thank you, Darryl and Billman, for a great thread! :thumbup:

Oh yes, past the lookout and all the way back to Robbinsville. The Dragon part took me about two years and that was 10 years ago. Some locals have been much quicker learners than me, but having driven/ridden it an average of 3-4 times a week, every week for 10 years, I now notice every new black mark, every new gouge in the road, every piece of trash. In fact, on our run, right as we entered Pig Pen/Radar turn (about 1.6 miles in) a piece of metal flew up from the left side of your car. I saw it while we were running, and meant to mention it when we stopped but there was a slight distraction. ;) But I went straight back to it on the next run, stopped, and reached out the door to pick it up. (It was a piece of Harley Davidson branded chrome trim)