Miata Heaven: The Tail of the Dragon (with PICS)

[GTaudiophile]

My dad, his girlfriend, and I drove The Tail of the Dragon yesterday. Despite having left Atlanta with bad weather, once we arrived at the famous road in NC, we had the best driving weather one could ask for. And since we were there on a Monday, we had the road largely to ourselves. I drove my Miata (manual) through twice and my dad's girlfriend's BMW 328i convertible (automatic) once. The BMW had the power, but my Miata easily out-handled it in those conditions. Here are the digital PICS I took yesterday.

For those who know nothing about this road, it's located on US129 in the mountains of western NC. It contains a total of 318 curves in 11 miles. I was told that over 300 Miatas went through there a few weeks ago, and BMW brought a dozen or so pre-production Z4s to the road for testing.

If you love to drive, have a car that's worthy, and live in the southeast, you MUST ride The Dragon. It's the best road I've driven.

 

[dakata24]

looks like a fun drive.

nice website. if you dont mind me asking, did u write that script for the pic gallery or is that something that something that's available?

edit: oh, and no. i've never driven the tail of the dragon. i havent ventured past arizona.. looks like something to do if i ever take a trip to the east coast.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: dakata24
looks like a fun drive.

nice website. if you dont mind me asking, did u write that script for the pic gallery or is that something that something that's available?

edit: oh, and no. i've never driven the tail of the dragon. i havent ventured past arizona.. looks like something to do if i ever take a trip to the east coast.

Did all the coding myself. Nothing special.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Man, where are the REAL drivers in this forum???

All these "YACTs" and NO enthusiast drivers who have driven one of the best roads in the country?

 

[slick230]

Forget driving the Dragon, you gotta RIDE the Dragon. Nothing like doing that stretch on a bike. That REALLY takes cojones.

 

[WinkOsmosis]

I've never heard of it... I have a local road though. Almost killed myself a couple times on it . 240sxes really do handle like sex.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: slick230
Forget driving the Dragon, you gotta RIDE the Dragon. Nothing like doing that stretch on a bike. That REALLY takes cojones.

Yeah, I saw some PICs of bikers who had messed themselves up on The Dragon. Not for me I think.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

Originally posted by: slick230
Forget driving the Dragon, you gotta RIDE the Dragon. Nothing like doing that stretch on a bike. That REALLY takes cojones.

w00t, motorcyle on the dragon is WAAAAY better than driving in the cage.

 

[GermyBoy]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile

Originally posted by: slick230 Forget driving the Dragon, you gotta RIDE the Dragon. Nothing like doing that stretch on a bike. That REALLY takes cojones.

Yeah, I saw some PICs of bikers who had messed themselves up on The Dragon. Not for me I think.

Like Harley guys? Or were they cyclists?

 

[slick230]

Originally posted by: GermyBoy

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile

Originally posted by: slick230 Forget driving the Dragon, you gotta RIDE the Dragon. Nothing like doing that stretch on a bike. That REALLY takes cojones.

Yeah, I saw some PICs of bikers who had messed themselves up on The Dragon. Not for me I think.

Like Harley guys? Or were they cyclists?

A few cruiser guys get messed up there, but it's MAINLY the knobs on the sportbikes that think they're cooler than they really are that get killed and maimed there. You know, the same dorks that do wheelies on major highways in traffic, etc. They go there and end up becoming greasy smears on the road, or they get launched off the road down a ditch 30 feet. Morons.

 

[mAdD INDIAN]

Very nice pics. But the road looks fairly straight (in the pics anyway). Looks like beautiful scenery for sure. How far is this place from Baltimore area? I've just passed through NC when we went down to Florida, we stayed on the major highway (I-95 I believe).

Looks like a very entertaining drive, I wish we had roads like that up in my area!

 

[GTaudiophile]

Bump for fellow Miata drivers.

 

[Imported]

I wanna drive that someday.. :.drool;!

I've driven Highway 243 over here in SoCal (awesome), done the Mt. Palomar route (South Grade Road at night is f-ckin awesome)..

 

[CChaos]

Hmm. I may have been through there a few times without realizing it. I've camped in the Smoky Mountains a time or two.

 

[AmigaMan]

cool! My brother is a huge Miata fan, hangs out regularly at the miata.net forums. He's ridden Deals Gap several times and loves it.
Here's some pics of his slightly modded Miata

Page 2 has pics of outside the car while we were up at VIR (Virginia Intl Raceway).

 

[BigSmooth]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
Man, where are the REAL drivers in this forum???

All these "YACTs" and NO enthusiast drivers who have driven one of the best roads in the country?

It's a little tough considering it's 3000 miles away.

 

[dman]

That looks like a great place to drive.

Are there traffic lights or stops there, or is it all go? I would imagine if it's an enthusiast drive there are lots of coppers around and the speed limit has probably been made exceptionally low, is that true?

 

[MaxDepth]

Bah! Try driving US 52 from Winston-Salem to the Virginia Border. Nothing but switchbacks and 18 wheelers that are running illegally because a) overweighted b)high on meth c)improper driving license d)all the above.

 

[BDawg]

US 129 is an AWESOME stretch of road. I drove it before in my old SVT Contour. I'm hoping to get the SAAB out there in the new future.

 

[Fausto]

I've done Deals a few times on my Triumph....it's definitely challenging, but really not the best overall stretch of road up in that area IMO. Everything is first or second gear and so tight that you can never get any kind of rhythm going. Hwy 60 north from Dahlnonega or the Cherohala Skyway are a lot more fun. They're also less crowded with squids.

 

[BDawg]

Highway 221 between Boone and Spruce pine is another awesome road in that general area.

 

[GTaudiophile]

Originally posted by: Fausto1
I've done Deals a few times on my Triumph....it's definitely challenging, but really not the best overall stretch of road up in that area IMO. Everything is first or second gear and so tight that you can never get any kind of rhythm going. Hwy 60 north from Dahlnonega or the Cherohala Skyway are a lot more fun. They're also less crowded with squids.

Cherohala was quite nice. I got to drive that in the BMW 328i

 

[Fausto]

Originally posted by: GTaudiophile

Originally posted by: Fausto1
I've done Deals a few times on my Triumph....it's definitely challenging, but really not the best overall stretch of road up in that area IMO. Everything is first or second gear and so tight that you can never get any kind of rhythm going. Hwy 60 north from Dahlnonega or the Cherohala Skyway are a lot more fun. They're also less crowded with squids.

Cherohala was quite nice. I got to drive that in the BMW 328i

It's a great road since all the corners are constant radius (ie- no surprises when a corner suddenly tightens up on you). You can pretty much do 80+ the whole time on a bike and just sweep through the corners.

 

[BoberFett]

There are quite a few guys from my forums (see sig) that have ridden the dragon. I hope to get out there someday to see this legendary road.

 

[Ultima]

I checked the "law enforcement" section of that site, and wtf.. they can take your license away for a year just for "racing"? Just flooring it at a stop and you lose your license? wtf? Do it a second time and you lose your license permanently? Yikes..