I slayed the Dragon!
12-10-2005, 11:29 AM
#1
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I slayed the Dragon!
As the title says, I finally got the chance to slay the Dragon (Hwy 129 in Deals Gap), but unfortunately it was in a fully loaded pick up. I was moving my son from NY to Naples Fla and the pickup had most of his worldly possessions in it which made him very nervous, but even so it was fun.
For those of you not familiar with the Dragon or Deals Gap it is the mecca for many, many sports car and motorcycle clubs. tailofthedragon.com is just one sites dedicated to the road. Do a search for Deals Gap or tail of the dragon for lots of video and other sites.
As my T shirt says "318 curves in 11 miles". The curves are named things like: Guard Rail cliff (my first close encounter), Swift Corner, Dalton Esses, the Hump - AKA Gravity Cavity, The Wall, Triple Apex corner, Crud corner, Little Whip Horms of the Dragon, peraly gates, etc. and they mean it!!
It will make a passenger seasick, but it doesn't hold a candle to the road to Hana on Maui because that road goes on for 50 miles or more and is narrower than the Dragon's tail, but this is a lot closer and is definitely a very fun road! I'll be back with the S one day.
I was very surprised and pleased at the road construction. It was very smooth and a lot of thought had gone into the construction to minimize offs. Most corners had a little dip to set the suspension and enough camber to make you feel (over)c onfident). But then again, at times you have corners that would double as great Evil Kneivel type ramps that could propel you into space several hundred feet down the mountain if you missed a braking point.
The road begins in Tennesse and ends in North Carolina and is very picturesque. Soon after the official "end" of the course you see the bridge that Harrison Ford jumped off of in the Fugitive.
The beginning of the road is deceptively easy and way too fast! I was doing 80 in the pick up and holding back cause I wasn't sure what was ahead of me.
I caught up with a girl in an Explorer and she decided to give me a run for my money. Boy was I ever glad to have a front door as it got much tougher quickly! She had obviously done it before and that helped a lot. There are so many blind corners and corners that literally wrap around themselves that you have no clue what's ahead of you. You would just start getting confident and start upping your pace and then suddenly a Semi or other large truck would appear around a blind corner.
So how long did it take me to go the 11 miles? Well, that's a question I can't answer easily. Come to find out we started timing way too early and then there was that girl in front of me (I don't care what anyone says I am going to claim she was a big impediment) so I did it in 33 minutes. I have heard tales of 17 minutes or less in cars or bikes. Since I was doing 80+ on many sections at the beginning you can get an idea of how tight some sections are. Also I think JD wanted to win the bet that I couldn't do it in less than 25 minutes so he might have fudged on the timing device.
At no time did I have the truck floored and at no time did I ever push the throttle enough for the transmission to downshift. I also only squealed the tires 2 times. One of those times had the front of the truck and the passenger side looking straight down a several hundred foot cliff., but I wasn't worried. JD was petrified, but I wasn't worried.
Just so you get the gravity of the situation, 2 people were killed on the road doing just this kind of run this last year. At the end of the road they have a tree of shame. It has parts of the cars and bikes that didn't quite make it thru. There must be a hundred rear view mirrors, mulitple bent bike rims and fairings. There was a Miata headlight that said. Semi 1 - Miata 0.
All in all we turned what Mapquest said was an 1100 mile jaunt form NY to Naples Fla into something over 2,000 miles and had some fun doing it.
For those of you not familiar with the Dragon or Deals Gap it is the mecca for many, many sports car and motorcycle clubs. tailofthedragon.com is just one sites dedicated to the road. Do a search for Deals Gap or tail of the dragon for lots of video and other sites.
As my T shirt says "318 curves in 11 miles". The curves are named things like: Guard Rail cliff (my first close encounter), Swift Corner, Dalton Esses, the Hump - AKA Gravity Cavity, The Wall, Triple Apex corner, Crud corner, Little Whip Horms of the Dragon, peraly gates, etc. and they mean it!!
It will make a passenger seasick, but it doesn't hold a candle to the road to Hana on Maui because that road goes on for 50 miles or more and is narrower than the Dragon's tail, but this is a lot closer and is definitely a very fun road! I'll be back with the S one day.
I was very surprised and pleased at the road construction. It was very smooth and a lot of thought had gone into the construction to minimize offs. Most corners had a little dip to set the suspension and enough camber to make you feel (over)c onfident). But then again, at times you have corners that would double as great Evil Kneivel type ramps that could propel you into space several hundred feet down the mountain if you missed a braking point.
The road begins in Tennesse and ends in North Carolina and is very picturesque. Soon after the official "end" of the course you see the bridge that Harrison Ford jumped off of in the Fugitive.
The beginning of the road is deceptively easy and way too fast! I was doing 80 in the pick up and holding back cause I wasn't sure what was ahead of me.
I caught up with a girl in an Explorer and she decided to give me a run for my money. Boy was I ever glad to have a front door as it got much tougher quickly! She had obviously done it before and that helped a lot. There are so many blind corners and corners that literally wrap around themselves that you have no clue what's ahead of you. You would just start getting confident and start upping your pace and then suddenly a Semi or other large truck would appear around a blind corner.
So how long did it take me to go the 11 miles? Well, that's a question I can't answer easily. Come to find out we started timing way too early and then there was that girl in front of me (I don't care what anyone says I am going to claim she was a big impediment) so I did it in 33 minutes. I have heard tales of 17 minutes or less in cars or bikes. Since I was doing 80+ on many sections at the beginning you can get an idea of how tight some sections are. Also I think JD wanted to win the bet that I couldn't do it in less than 25 minutes so he might have fudged on the timing device.
At no time did I have the truck floored and at no time did I ever push the throttle enough for the transmission to downshift. I also only squealed the tires 2 times. One of those times had the front of the truck and the passenger side looking straight down a several hundred foot cliff., but I wasn't worried. JD was petrified, but I wasn't worried.
Just so you get the gravity of the situation, 2 people were killed on the road doing just this kind of run this last year. At the end of the road they have a tree of shame. It has parts of the cars and bikes that didn't quite make it thru. There must be a hundred rear view mirrors, mulitple bent bike rims and fairings. There was a Miata headlight that said. Semi 1 - Miata 0.
All in all we turned what Mapquest said was an 1100 mile jaunt form NY to Naples Fla into something over 2,000 miles and had some fun doing it.
12-10-2005, 06:57 PM
#3
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Where did you start/end and what kind of time did you turn?
How about oncoming traffic? Must of an issue?
I am guessing that due to the time of the year that we probably faced less oncoming traffic than would be normal.
What did you think about the planning they put into those corners? I was probably half way thru before I realized the engineers were helping me out.
How about oncoming traffic? Must of an issue?
I am guessing that due to the time of the year that we probably faced less oncoming traffic than would be normal.
What did you think about the planning they put into those corners? I was probably half way thru before I realized the engineers were helping me out.
12-12-2005, 07:05 AM
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We started at the bottom and went all the way up and ended on the other side. We were road testing all 3 cars, so we didn't time ourselves; we usually would stop along the way to swap vehicles, tinker with video equipment, etc. We were moving, though.
Oncoming traffic wasn't an issue. However, we would frequently catch-up to slower vehicles, which was annoying, especially since we went on a Monday in order to avoid as much traffic as possible. A noteable slowpoke was a late model 911 Carrera that had trouble losing the RL in the corners.
This is the most fantastic road I've encountered, followed by some mountain passes in the outskirts of the Bavaria region of Germany.
Ryan
Oncoming traffic wasn't an issue. However, we would frequently catch-up to slower vehicles, which was annoying, especially since we went on a Monday in order to avoid as much traffic as possible. A noteable slowpoke was a late model 911 Carrera that had trouble losing the RL in the corners.
This is the most fantastic road I've encountered, followed by some mountain passes in the outskirts of the Bavaria region of Germany.
Ryan
12-12-2005, 08:16 AM
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Hey is there any way you could make a map. I am wanting to go but need a map. I am from the OKlahoma group so we might go there as a group drive. How long does it take to get there 20 or more hours? Thanks.
12-12-2005, 08:26 AM
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You can look at the map on the back of my T-shirt 
I don't have my map with me but it is South of Knoxville Tennesse and just west of Pigeon Forge (Dollyland) and Gatlinburg.
The road starts in Tennesse and ends in North Carolina.
It is Hwy 129 on the maps. Some maps actually show Deals Gap, mine did.
EDIT: I found a map, just not a good one. You can take the 129 exit out of Knoxville and head south. This makes a jog back west at Maryville. You can also take Hwy 321 out of Farragut which is before you get to Knoxville and 321 joins 129 in Maryville.
I don't have my map with me but it is South of Knoxville Tennesse and just west of Pigeon Forge (Dollyland) and Gatlinburg.
The road starts in Tennesse and ends in North Carolina.
It is Hwy 129 on the maps. Some maps actually show Deals Gap, mine did.
EDIT: I found a map, just not a good one. You can take the 129 exit out of Knoxville and head south. This makes a jog back west at Maryville. You can also take Hwy 321 out of Farragut which is before you get to Knoxville and 321 joins 129 in Maryville.
12-12-2005, 09:54 AM
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12-13-2005, 07:36 PM
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After the looks of the tree (of shame) it seems that it is a "shame" to do it on 2 wheels!!
almost every broken piece of equipment was from a 2 wheeler!
Does lifting 2 wheels when you go round a corner count as doing it on 2 wheels? I can see that happening!
almost every broken piece of equipment was from a 2 wheeler!
Does lifting 2 wheels when you go round a corner count as doing it on 2 wheels? I can see that happening!
12-15-2005, 10:04 AM
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Originally Posted by Wildncrazy,Dec 13 2005, 08:36 PM
After the looks of the tree (of shame) it seems that it is a "shame" to do it on 2 wheels!!
almost every broken piece of equipment was from a 2 wheeler!
Does lifting 2 wheels when you go round a corner count as doing it on 2 wheels? I can see that happening!
almost every broken piece of equipment was from a 2 wheeler!
Does lifting 2 wheels when you go round a corner count as doing it on 2 wheels? I can see that happening!
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