Try looking at, and moving along the Dragon in Google Earth, close up and at low angle. It makes you appreciate (again) how twisty it is (and makes you want the next 60+ days to hurry up).

 

::swoons::

That's awesome!

 

wooooo hoooooooo

 

nice new screen name, what ya goanna change it to after May ???

 

Isnt that episode from last season? But yea that road looks like epic fun.

 

Same road at night.

Attachment 30125

 

Wow, that is sick.

 

For some reason I seem to recall seeing that road in that terrible live action Initial D movie. It was in the opening credits or something, I believe. Maybe it was just a similar road but unsure whether they filmed that movie in Japan or kept it in Hong Kong.

 

i actually bought that. man was it good (thats sarcasm dripping out of my eye). they changed so much too. like all of a sudden, in the live action movie, Takumi's dad was an abusive drunk that beat him all the time. i especially liked when they showed the speedometers, and they would jump like 20 mph or more in 1 second. that said, the anime was pretty ridiculous to. Gutter run? come on. especially when he raced on that mountain where there were no covers on the gutters, so he could do it. it was a red car i think, but i cant remember which one. anyway, there is basically a big trench going along the side of the road, so no gutter run right? no. while drifting around a turn, since the weight was almost all on the left rear wheel, he goes deep inside and the right front wheel passes over this trench cuz apparently there is absolutely no weight on it and it is just in the air, thus giving him a tighter line. of course the guy behind him tries it and cant do it so he grinds the bottom of his car until it stops. what a load of bs. but thats part of the fun of the show.

 

These pics don't do it justice. If you've ever watched the Tour de France you know this climb and it's switchbacks. The first shot just shows a section. There are 21 switchbacks on the climb. They are tight and banked.



Unfortunate that they highlighted it in yellow but to give some idea.

 

That would be the first gen Miata. Yeah, there's alot of unbelievable stuff in that show but its still fun to watch. I wonder if anyone was goofy enough to try a lidless gutter run?

 

im sure a lot of people did a lot of dumb stuff after watching that show. I heard they actually put a lot of speed bumps and thing like that in those mountains. not sure if thats true, but it probably is. I like when he races that s2000, and he is clearly going to lose, but the guy spins out and gets out of his car to puke, like 200 ft from the finish line. apparently he was over 30 and therefore didnt have the endurance or something like that. cuz yknow, once you hit 30, youre done.

btw, sorry for the threadjack, but is there any word on a fifth stage, cuz it just kinda cuts off after that episode.

 

So... where is the road in the first picture? Looks like a road engineering class project.

 

This might be the road to Machu Picchu. Look, no traffic!

 

You need to look at this link -http://www.roadandtrack.com/article.asp?section_id=7&article_id=6666

Just bought the May 2008 Road and Track and I agree with the author, Highway 36 in California may be the best driving road in the world. Better than Highway 1 and the Dragon. I have driven Highway 36 and Highway 1 several times in my MCS, but I have not done the long trip fron California to the Dragon - yet.

 

CA Highway 36 in a MINI Cooper:

That link to R&T had a link to map of beautiful road through Boulder, Utah, worth a trip.

 

Nice clip!

But... did you lose half your bag or M&M's on the floorboard

That noise would drive me nuts, I can hardly handle the little squeaks

 

I don't know if that video is representative of the whole thing... but what the video shows is much more similar to sections of the Cherohala Skyway than it is to the Dragon. The part of Hwy 36 shown has much more "sweeping" curves than the Dragon, and I didn't see anything like the numerous decreasing-radius hairpin and "fish hook" curves that the Dragon has. That road also looks MUCH less treacherous than the Dragon - wider, lots of places to pull off, real guardrails, even a passing zone! The Dragon looks like the Road of Death compared to that segment of CA36... but you could certainly carry more speed on that road (like the Skyway), and that is a different kind of fun than the intensely technical Dragon. All IMHO. If there's a more Dragon-like section of Hwy 36, I'd love to see it! My comments only apply to the section shown in the video...

 

I was there about 20 years ago. There is only a bus to take you to the top (no cars). There was a kid who would take bets and run to the top and win, I think he had a twin....

If you kept your lunch down first from altitude sickness and then from the drive, you were a winner.

 

Just wait till people get wind of the video showing crossing of the double yellow line---this thread is going to ****.

 

I've got a video of a sportbike on the Dragon, 15 minutes worth. I haven't been on the Dragon in person, but from that video clip above, I agree with just about all of what you said. The Dragon looked like it had a lot more decreasing radius turns and a lot narrower. Some day I may have to drive it. We have a ton of nice roads out here. Pashnit.com (use to be free site) has many of them with detailed maps and pictures. Roads with endless turns.

 

I was just there this past December, still only allow buses up the muddy 1.5 lane road (if that), and now they have a group of young boys that run down the mountain trying to beat your bus. It's probably a little bit more commercialized, but the actual site is still unspoilt IMO.

Sorry, not trying to hijack the thread, just brought back some good memories.

 

Thanks for confriming the Machu Picchu road.

I had reservations about posting the CA 36 video. No excuse to blatantly cross the double yellow like that. And AZ 89A looks more fun than that, sharper turns that require shifting, steeper grades, etc.

 

both of these are sweet

 

After I saw that road on Top Gear, I immediately named as of the great roads I want to drive on before I die.

60 Hairpin turns (22 of which are in that picture) and the road goes on for miles. This is the kind of road where it makes the Tail of the Dragon feel like an oval racing circuit. (in terms of skill not turns)