Tail of the Dragon

This year the guys' weekend was planned for northern Georgia, just a stones throw from Tennessee.  I elected to drive, logging miles on the FR-S.  I also elected to insert Highway 129 into the route, since roads like that are the reason I own an FR-S.  After a scenic, uneventful, and ultimately boring jaunt for 6 hours down Interstate 81, I exited off in Knoxville, loaded up on gas and headed down 129.

Before you get to the section of road known as the Tail of the Dragon at Deal's Gap, you run past the Chilhowee Dam.  The leaves on the hills were very vibrant fall colors.  After the dam you run alongside Chilhowee Lake.  The view and vibe were spectacular and a perfect, tranquil lead-in to the Dragon.

It was a beautiful day.  I can see why so many motorcyclists, car enthusiasts, and people in general enjoy this drive.  Had my intentions not been testing the suspension and making the tires howl a little this would have been as scenic and enjoyable as our leisurely trip down Skyline Drive.  In fact, colors seemed to be at- or near-peak in this area of the country this past weekend.

I don't have any pictures from the run on the Dragon, for obvious reasons.  I started out enthusiastic but still mild by some standards, and almost immediately ran up on a Jeep Cherokee out for a leisurely drive.  Buzzkill.  I pulled off at one of the designated areas to let them get further down the road.  When I felt the elapsed time was adequate, I looked to resume the journey when I heard the roar of tuned exhaust coming up quickly. Three BMW 3-series of assorted vintage blew by and I headed out afterward to follow.  No sooner had I got into second gear when I saw the rest of the BMW crew that had lagged behind.  I was now in the middle of a BMW car club of some sort attacking the Dragon.

It was clear that many in the group were very familiar with the road.  Or, they were just in a really big hurry.  Regardless, given the fact that 3 were in front of me and 4 were behind me, I was committed to the pace.  Having lead cars in front made tackling the road much easier for the first time, helping to call out braking zones by watching the cars in front and how they moved over the terrain.  The FR-S was very flat, very stable, and appeared to be limited only by the all-season tires and the skill of the driver.  Keeping up with the pace was not an issue.  In most instances the traction assistance didn't come on at all, and if it did it was expected since I was digging hard out of a hairpin turn, hard on the gas and the tires would slip a bit.  It's pretty cool to be on a quick pace through a mountain road, and the bonus is that when there are enough of you, slow traffic gets out of the way quicker.

The Tail of the Dragon was a truly phenomenal drive.  There are so many different sections, so many turns, so much elevation change... so much personality.  I could see driving it numerous times repeatedly and getting something different out of it every time.  Hitting turns with varying approach angles, speeds, etc.  The Dragon was predominantly a second gear run with rare 1st gear or 3rd gear instances.  It was a major rush to drive, and was perfect to insert into the overall route.  I was grinning from ear to ear, laughing at times.  It was just pure Fun, in a Fun car.  Below is a picture of some of the BMW group after I was able to let them all regroup near the end of the run, and the FR-S at a scenic overlook.  Man, the smells coming from the car said it all!

I had to cut the trip short due to Hurricane Sandy coming, a hurricane with the same name as my mother-in-law, heading straight for the house.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Leaving Georgia at 6am, driving on the country roads in the dark, I decided to try the Dragon once more, hoping that by the time I got there at least some amount of daylight would show up.  And that the rain would stay away.  I got one out of two, there was no rain but it was still dark enough to require the high beams for the first 6 or 7 miles.  I was pretty much the only car out there.  The road was damp in places, the weather chilled, and leaves accumulated in certain sections due to lack or traffic.  Not ideal, and I had to back the pace well below where it was on the preceding trip.  Nonetheless it was a great drive and got the juices flowing better than any coffee.  As I neared the end and the sunlight began to appear I stopped snap a pic, given the fact that there was no one else around for miles.

These are the trips, the roads, the experiences that I bought the FR-S for.  I could have done these in the old Miata, and it would have been a great experience as well.  Different, top down, and raw.  But I never had the confidence in the old Miata to push it that hard on roads like this.  It also did miserably in the rain, without air conditioning and the flimsy top that Miatas have, and would have been equally miserable on certain legs of this trip.  Lastly, for the highway legs, the FR-S did awesome.  MPG was in the low 30's, stereo via USB as flawless, and the seats are as good at 80mph and straight as they are at 40mph and curvy.  The FR-S is loud on the highway compared to just about everything else in the $25K price range, but it's inviting and pleasant compared to the old Miata on the highway!  It's really an apples and oranges comparison when it comes to highway travel, but the car's can't be compared in a vacuum.  Some will excel at certain things and make compromises elsewhere.  The FR-S was essentially designed around this philosophy of compromises in certain areas in order to excel in others.

Columbus Day

Today me and the little one had off from reality to celebrate Columbus Day.  What to do?  Well, we were getting a bit stir crazy and we had a FR-S that was close to finishing break-in miles.  Time to head west!

This time we headed out to Luray in the Shenandoah region.  To get there, we had to cut through the Shenadoah National Park on highway 122, which turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip for me.  Unlike Skyline Drive which cuts north-south through the park, this road cuts east-west and has a 45mph speed limit as opposed to 35mph.  In addition it is multiple lanes at times to allow for passing, and is an upward climb with banked "S" and hairpin turns until you reach the peak at skyline drive, then is a downhill with more twists and turns.  I have no pictures of this part of the journey, but I was grinning ear to ear the whole time and only smiled more when my co-pilot yelled "Whee!  Daddy this is just like a roller coaster!".  And it was just like that.  We were hauling some serious speed through the turns and the car was absolutely planted.  I kept waiting for the rear to step out but it never did.  The phrase "on rails" came to mind, even with these miserable all-season tires.  Speaking of the tires, it was only 5 or 6 turns into the uphill jaunt that we could smell them, umm, heating up.  This was just a fantastic drive.  Never reckless, never out of control, few cars around, and keeping with the speed limit of 45, whether going straight or hitting a turn.  A very rewarding car in the turns and hills.  Power was adequate and since break-in was still ~80 miles from completion this was not an exercise in redlining.  Just maintaining a steady speed and letter the suspension and tires do their thing, keeping between the lines and keeping momentum.

First stop was the Luray Zoo where they had a surprisingly robust collection of venomous snakes, a Tiger that really didn't like me, and a noisy donkey that had a few personality issues.  Its a small zoo to say the least, but we had a good time if only for a short while.

This guy didn't like me.  I've never been yelled at by a tiger before.  I can take a hint, we moved on quite briskly.

Here are some goats and the crazy donkey.  I can't say I've heard a donkey do the stereotypical "EEE-AWWW" before to perfection, but this guy hit it dead on.

This is one of the venomous snakes, the king cobra.  He was very active and thankfully behind glass.

Still, it would get close enough to scare little children ;-)

After the zoo we hit up McD's across the street.  After that we headed back to Skyline Drive and another uphill climb on the twisty roads.  No pictures, but miles of smiles.

We headed into the park onto Skyline Drive north to begin a gradual route back home.  We stopped at the first overlook to take in the recently changing fall colors and hike a bit.  Below are some pictures from that stop.  I love seeing the changing colors, even if not a peak colors.  Its always a sight to behold, and the brisk cool mountain air is so refreshing.  Even if they are just "east coast" mountains.

A shot from down the trail.

This area below had some nice colors happening worth checking out.

This next stop had a great panorama and a cool tree to check out.

We were driving along as the weather began to turn rainy and the clouds began to form in the valley.  I am not a good enough photographer to capture how awesome these low clouds looked as they rolled through.

We headed out of the park and kept on north onto Lord Fairfax parkway, eventually hitting highway 7 and back to Leesburg.  The FR-S did fantastic when called on for enthusiast driving, and nice enough amenities and cruising disposition for the more leisurely travel segments.

Observations 1,000 miles in:

-This engine is a bit rackety at idle, both inside and outside.  This car has one of those gimmicky tubes that pipes in engine noise, so I'll look into disconnecting that to alleviate the cabin noise associated with the engine.
-Now that break in is over and I've been above 4,500 RPM several times, it is like a whole different car.  There's a horrible torque dip in the 3K-4K RPM range, and being able to shoot above that makes this car much more pleasant!
-I've got a random clunk when the suspension 'unloads', such as heading over a hill at speed where the weight shifts forward slightly.  Will have to research if something in the interior is loose or if this is a bushing issue.
-The suspension is much firmer than the 1996 Miata I had.  This thing will transmit all undulations in the road... which is great, it is sticking to the road like a slot car.  I can see how there will be people that get this car that will regret it though, based on ride quality.  This is a purpose built car, and it serves that purpose well.
-My original impressions that the car was a 'tail happy' car are not entirely true.  It is true that with minimal effort the tail can be kicked out.  However, I was concerned at speed that the car would be skittish on the rear end.  On the contrary, it stays planted so long as you're holding a smooth line and letting the suspension be predictable, and lets you drive out to the edge of tires or mettle.
-HD Radio has been a pleasant surprise once I figured out how to access the multiple "channels" offered by each station.
-Once the oil in the transmission is warmed up, this shifter is something else.  Just so nice.
-Fuel economy is 30.9 MPG.  We'll see what happens to that now that break-in is completed.