Took advantage of the nice day for a drive on Black Canyon Road through the Cleveland National Forest. It's an 11 mile "road" -- county maintained gravel road.

Saw maybe ten cars the whole way. Which is a good thing as there's plenty of one lane blind curves. Parts of the road are great, then you hit the washboard sections where you better slow way down lest you shake everything loose including your teeth. Perhaps this is where the term "shakedown cruise" came from?

Here's a picture at the start of the unpaved section:






And here's the picture at the end of the unpaved section:






Just a wee bit dusty.

Thankfully, it's a nice day today for a proper bath.

 

You're doing it right.

 

One more bigger view of the scenery picture ...

 

Nice car! and looks like a great place for a Saturday drive. Also looks like a good place to have runflats. How do they feel on the rough road?

 

Rough road wise, the tires were fine. The washboard areas would have likely done in non-runflats also -- it really got the car shaking good until I reduced speed appropriately. All in all, the road was actually in great shape given the rain we had a week or so ago.

I will say that the airflow both can make for a dirty rear end, as well as blow off dry dust. By the time we made it to civilization in Santa Ysabel, most of the heavy dust coating had blown off. But, still needed a bath...

 

Just want to say, again, that the roof looks great. Nice work on the concept, execution, and working with MINI to get it done!

 

Next time, please call me! I make an excellent co-driver, or navigator and will emit little gleeful yelps with fast cornering which should add to your driving pleasure

 

Thanks J_L. No real fast curves in the dusties Diana -- I'll reserve that for dry paved roads.

 

Might want to check the air filter more often with those drives. Nice car and pictures.