QShip

During the work week you only really have to watch for careless drivers drifting over the centerline coming up or down the mountain; the flatter parts of Skyline, etc. are usually fine.

It's almost always the non-locals on the weekends. Thankfully they usually only take themselves out. Too bad for any passengers though.

CAlexio

i am in the glass house and I won't throw stones. I have some real deep guilt pangs driving those roads yesterday leading the pack as we headed from Alice's to Canepa.. and i realize it's the same thing i used to do on my Ducatis.. even if I didnt feel like I was pushing it.. the truth is that the margin for error is extremely unpredictable and undoubtedly smaller than i realize.

I'm also a cyclist and while i try to let off the throttle and give cyclists wide berth, I can think of multiple occasions when i'm rounding a corner hugging the inside line and come up on cyclists suddenly. and i ******* HATE it when a loud bike or car screams past me as I'm focused on the climb ahead.. am I respecting them how I would want to be respected? I can't be the bitchy cyclist talking about the motorized vehicles treating the mountains like a track, AND the boyracer who is mentally timing himself up hwy 9.

I had to ask myself some hard questions as i cruised back up 280 to SF yesterday.. was the fun I had worth the risk I had undoubtedly taken? Wouldn't i have had more fun with a dedicated track car, spending the money on tires and suspension upgrades rather than farkles and worrying about how much brake dust would be accumulating on my calipers? Even a lowly Spyder is just too fast for the road when driven even at 6-7/10th's.. why am I driving a 400hp car fast on mountain roads? have I just been lucky not to hurt myself or someone else?

I need to think about this.. could be that i invest in a garage at a track as i can't trailer or store a car in Sf, and just move to some kind of cheaper track formula to enjoy myself, exchange the spyder for a nice slow diesel range rover with which i can tow the track car around.. and forget the world of shiny cars and clearbra OCD.

just some wine-induced gearhead confessions.. if not here, where?

FLT6SPD

Man Saturday the wife and I went down 101 to 152, then we headed back up hwy1, the plan was to take 84 back over but there was so much traffic once we got to Santa Cruz we diverted and ended up taking 17 back home.

bk_911

In a GT4? (I see your account photo seems to be a GT3). Part of the reason I bought a GT4 over a used GT3 is precisely your reasoning.

Another great solution is to give yourself time on a Tuesday morning or another low traffic flow time.

But yeah sadly track days are the best way to get this energy out. I think Sonoma has a club where you can use the track fairly frequently. Disclaimer I didn't look into that program much and have never known anyone who is a member.

laranja

Thoughtful post, and after a few rides in the mountains with the GT4 and the
Spyder, I pretty much have given up on the high speed group tours.
I agree that those drives feel more risky than a track day does.
Esp when there's any wetness or fog around (which is most of the time).

I do have to say
that I spend a LOT of time
cleaning cars after track days.

So you can still be OCD.
Proof from today

mooty

car cleaning is good therapy

Marine Blue

Add me to the list of drivers that is trying to tone it down on the canyon roads. I did a run a couple of months ago which I personally thought was too fast for public roads with very little room for error.....or someone else's error for that matter. I think that last part is what worries me most about extreme drives. I'm not worried about pushing too far as I have learned my limits but when you're on that edge and someone invades your space there's no time or extra traction for evasive measures. A couple of weeks ago I was on a very tight mountain road and I was driving about 6/10th's when a motorcycle coming the other direction crossed the line and was headed straight at me in the corner. I had plenty of time to pull tighter into the corner and avoid an accident but if I was going any faster it could have been an ugly scene even if it wasn't my fault.

Be careful out there and enjoy these awesome machines with due diligence.

Crazy Eddie

Very sad
I have had talks with Rick and Marty on this very same subject and the consensus seemed that sooner or later something bad is going to happen, and it may have little to do with the Porsche drivers but rather right place at the wrong time,for the other guy, be it a bike another car, or even a clueless pedestrian .,. The margins of safety are shrinking when certian speeds are reached ... And it can even be a simple as one straggler trying to keep up with the pack gets behind a bit and feels they have to make up the distance and all of a sudden he is roaring forward and catches up only to find traffic Up front of the pack had slowed big time and now it's a F1 full wheel lock up and he's about to experience....
Newton's physical law of " A body in motion tends to stay in motion"
All was innocent until his front bumper was about as close as, the hairs on a ticks ear, to my rear end .... And that one wasn't really that dangerous compared to some other stories out there ...
I am no saint, and I would not like to become one either
Best regards
Ed

RDCR

That is some serious soap John!

Archimedes

I've done one PCA group drive, one of those overnight trips, and I will never do it again. There were four groups, I was in group 2, the 'Intermediate' group. The speeds run by the group leader were ridiculous. In order to keep up, we were hitting 115 on some of the straights and over 85-90 in some of the sweepers. Granted it was on remote roads, but not closed roads, and there was no air fence in place. A number of the drivers, including myself, were shocked at the stupidity of it. Including the group leader hitting 100+ on the open freeway between driving roads, which makes zero sense and is just asking for a ticket (which a bunch of drivers almost got). Finally, late in the day, when we were almost wrapped up, one driver made a seriously bonehead move that almost took out a whole line of cars. I stopped in time, but the guy behind me couldn't and wound up swerving around me with brakes locked. No thanks.

Personally any street drive where they have groups, other than a simple drivers vs. cruisers, is retarded. Just asking to be roped into the inevitable lawsuit when someone in the group kills someone.

Radiantm3

Track time cures any urges to go fast on public roads. In fact once you are faster on track, you won't even bother on the streets because it's just no fun anymore.

QShip

I may have got a shot of you and your friend's car on the way into Alice's with my breakfast with my family.



Also, thanks for considering being a little careful up here. My wife is marathon training on Skyline on the weekends. Not a lot of flat training space in these parts

CAlexio

not me but I'm flattered.. if I had a Carrera GT I'd be out driving it day and night...

this was us.. a few parking spots over.

RDCR

Yep, problem is there is no cure for needing more track time!

FergusH

+1

Ironically, it's the track time that made me think that the GT4 probably isn't the car for me: its limits are so high that I don't enjoy driving on the street as much as lower performance cars.

Great safety ad from Australia. I'd replace the phone booth with packs of cyclists that lurk around every corner where I live.