s2000Junky

Leavenworth is a great drive if there is no traffic, especially on the last 5miles along the river before town. Seafare weekend may be a good weekend for this reason. I'm looking forward to hitting this at least once this season. N cascades too of course.

s2000Junky

The best I think is to make sure the last guy has a radio. barrow it from someone, and the fast more confident drivers up front with the leader and the reluctant guys holding up the tail. Makes it more fun for everyone to have some kind of organization this way. The guys in front just pull over once in a wile if they get to far ahead for what ever reason. Of course depending on the size and location dictates allot, but at least this gives you a fighting chance with a bigger group.

WestSideBilly

It should be just the opposite when you have a large group (by large, I mean 25 or more). Slower/less experienced drivers up front, fast guys in the back. It's much easier to keep the group together. Having slower drivers in the back all but guarantees they will lose the group at some point.

But yes, the car in back needs to be in communication with the leader. As groups get bigger, it helps to have every 5th or 6th car have a radio, too. Helps when going through the small towns.

WestSideBilly

Gina's Leavenworth weekend is a 2 day thing. It was on SeaFair weekend last year, and at least a few people who wanted to do the drive to Leavenworth (either the loop drive I led or US2 straight there) had plans for SeaFair and couldn't go. Doing the drive on SeaFair weekend cuts down on traffic, obviously, but I would rather avoid forcing people to choose between the two, and deal with a few cars.

kelvin96gsr

it still needs to be on the drive calender

Especially because it is the most attended drives we have had in the past few years .

s2000Junky

[QUOTE=WestSideBilly,Feb 26 2008, 08:18 AM] It should be just the opposite when you have a large group (by large, I mean 25 or more).

Muffkin

That was pretty funny stuff!!!

WestSideBilly

Have you ever been the last car in a 30-40 car line?

Here's what happens... You get on a boring straight stretch, the cars accordion out over about 1 mile, basically 3-4 second gaps. You get to a twisty section, the leader goes at a good pace, the people right behind him go about the same speed to keep visual contact. The further back in line you are, the FASTER you need to go to keep visual with the cars in front of you. If you put the slow people in back they get separated by a significant distance and lose contact. It sounds really weird, but the back cars should always be the fastest. Unless you have extremely slow drivers in the middle of the group, this ensures that most people get to drive at a good pace and the group stays together.

If there are turns involved, it's very easy to lose people this way. Been there done that.

I was back car on a drive in Kentucky. I'm no slouch, but the drive leader was driving at/near the limits of his Prelude and knew the roads really well. Nobody else did. He lost half the cars or more on three occasions, and the back two cars (myself and another very fast driver) a 4th occasion to the point where our radios didn't even reach the next car with a radio. We ended up improvising the route. This was an extreme example of a shitty leader and having fast drivers in the front, then slow drivers, then fast drivers, but it was probably the worst group drive I've been on.

Also, the same thing applies when the group goes into towns. The leader needs to slow WAY down, 10-15 UNDER the speed limit, and let everyone accordion in. Otherwise the back cars have to keep going 10-20 MPH faster than the leader to keep the group bunched. Any gaps in the line create problems (stop lights and cars pulling into the middle).

Last... If you want to go banzai and drive at your limit, group drives are not the place.

BB_S2K

Sign up threads for a few of the Oregon drives are up:

April 26 - Mt. Hood

May 24 - Stonehenge

July 26 & 27 - Crater Lake

WestSideBilly

Thanks for the update.