2011 Mustang (305HP v6)

I was able to get a Saturday away from work so decided to head-out with the 2011 Ford Mustang rental car to shoot some video. This is the road that I drive to/from work each day:

The Mustang has a 3.7L 4V Ti-VCT V6 producing 305 horsepower and 280 lb.-ft. of torque. The balance and handling of the car is very predictable (or maybe it’s because I’ve been driving this road every day for three months). In the twisties I really wished there was some more torque to get the rear-end to rotate through the exits of the corners, as it is the ‘Stang tends to push a little more than I would like (the 225 all season tires I’m sure don’t help). I know the car is down on power being between 5226ft and 6535ft over this pass, so having the V8 from the GT would make the drive really interesting.

Video was shot over multiple runs using a pair of GoPro HD cameras and then clipped together using Final Cut Pro video editing software.

Road Trip!

I’ve spent the past two months working in the deserts of Utah without much time away from work. I was lucky to get this weekend off… so decided to take a road trip!

For the last month I have had a paycheck sitting on my desk, but with no bank branches in Utah that can accept deposits… the closest place is in Pocatello, ID (Yes, I will say it again… Bank of America doesn’t have an ATM/branch that can accept deposits in Utah!?!). I’m always down for a fun drive, so decided to plan-out a route that would take me through the back roads of Northern Utah into Idaho.

First off… a little warning for the G8 and GTO folks… my vehicle while I’ve been on travel has been a rental 2011 Mustang (v6) and that is what I went on the road trip in.

With 305HP the v6 is no slouch, but it’s definitely not a v8… and has only 280 lb-ft of torque. The inside of the Mustang is a little small for me (the parking brake is always cramping my leg), but it is much better than the alternative… a Kia!

Day 1: 388 miles (8hr 1min)

I headed out from Tooele, UT after filling-up with gas and checking the tire pressures (40psi in the 225 tires… yes, 225 tires!?!). I wanted to wash the Mustang so it would be ready for the inevitable photos, but the car wash was broken. First piece of interesting road I came to turned-out to be my favorite. Just East of Salt Lake City off of I-80. There is a road that leads up into the Wasatch National Forest.

Hwy 65 is a ribbon of asphalt (freshly paved in almost all of the corners) that was so much fun that I had to drive it twice! Friday morning the road was almost empty of traffic (except for a few cyclists) and it made for a thrilling drive. The posted speed limit is a little low for my tastes, but the “safe speed for current road conditions” was fun enough. The up-hill climb is quite steep and the series of hairpin turns are a blast… they are just wide enough radius to allow for some fun (which is apparent by the number of tire marks from people drifting up there). At the summit there is a nice little lot to pull-off (and even a restroom). The view was definitely enjoyable!

The decent off the backside is a little more gentle (if you consider -9% grade gentle) and and has some great sweeping turns through forests of birch trees.

Utah really has some beautiful scenery along its roads… Not that California doesn’t, but sometimes the typical “brown grass” gets a little old. One of the really cool features of the area I drove through mid-day Friday was the red rock hills/cliffs that run along the road.

Once into Idaho there was also great scenery to enjoy. I really liked the rolling hills that, despite being August, were green. The blue skies with fluffy clouds were so picturesque… I had to take a photo.

I arrived in Pocatello, ID and headed to the bank to deposit my paycheck… then headed to the hotel to check-in. One perk of spending so much time on the road is that I have more free hotel rooms than I will ever be able to use (seriously, I have about a month worth right now). Just how much time have I been spending in hotels? I stayed in the hotel for free (used points) and still received a free gift when checking-in (yummy Ben & Jerry’s Tripple Caramel Chunk ice cream).

Day 2: 239 miles (4hr 32min)

After the many hours of driving on Friday, I decided to make Saturday a little more relaxed. The route I had planned for Saturday was longer, but didn’t have many exciting roads. Rather than spending almost 7 hours driving on (comparatively) straight roads, I took the more direct (and 2 hour shorter) route back to Tooele… with a detour back to Hwy 65.

The Hwy 65 ends at a small reservoir, so Saturday had all sorts of traffic on it (even a better reason I didn’t take the previously planned route… as there would have been more traffic there as well). There is also a bike (bicycle) race next weekend… so was crawling with cyclists. I was traveling the opposite direction (North to South) Saturday and was able to experience the hairpin turns with a -10% grade! Fortunately, I was able to get a clear stretch of road from the summit down… and boy was I glad this road was freshly paved!

The rest of the drive to Tooele was mundane freeway driving, but I did stop-off at the Sugarhouse Barbecue Company for a great lunch (yummy pulled pork sandwich).

The weekend was a total blast… some people might think driving over 600 miles just for the heck of it is kinda crazy (I did deposit a pay check right?)… but I found it very relaxing. After nearly two months without a break, it was great to just loose myself in the drive. The roads of Utah and Idaho were very welcoming… I know I will be back out there again soon (and next time with the G8)!

Mt. Hamilton Cruise

Having spent the last few weeks on the East Coast for work, I was really excited to get back to the Bay Area and the G8. To take advantage of this trip home I hooked-up with a few GTO owners today for a spirited drive up to Mt. Hamilton near San Jose, Ca.

I have been wanting to make this drive for some time, but have always been a little leery of doing it on a weekend. This is a road that the crazy cyclists come to test their muscle, and it can be quite busy when the weather is good. Fortunately, Friday turned-out to be a perfect day to make the drive… there were zero cyclists on the road!

The group met-up in San Jose and headed up towards Mt. Hamilton. I lead the cruise, not like anyone could have become lost, and it turned-out to be a good thing… the road conditions were less than ideal and having the car with the most tire sidewall up front paid-off. To the best of my ability I tried to radio back when I hit a big bump, but I don’t think it was enough sometimes… there were several occasions where the GTOs had to slow down to avoid the rough roads.

As we made the climb up Mt. Hamilton we came-up on a Toyota 4-Runner, which normally would have been holding us back, but it turned out he was a local who likes to drive! At the top of Mt. Hamilton is the Lick Observatory. The driver of the 4-Runner was heading to the observatory and had obviously driven the road quite a few times… he was actually giving me a run for my money up the mountain!

At the top of Mt. Hamilton we stopped at the Lick Observatory for some photographs and sightseeing. I had never been to the observatory, so being able to walk around and look at some of the memorabilia was very cool. They even have an original seismograph from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake! Before leaving we had to take advantage of the scenery and take a few photographs.

Rather than just driving back down the road we had just driven, we decided to head out towards the Central Valley and drive on San Antonio Valley Rd. and then out on Del Puerto Canyon Rd.

The descent from the Lick Observatory down San Antonio Valley Rd. was just spectacular! This is a smooth section of road that through a series of switchbacks drops almost 2000′ in less than 4 miles (at up to a -11% grade). If this road wasn’t in the middle of nowhere I’d drive it every day. What better way to explain… than a video!

The G8 really handled this stretch of the drive well, no matter how hard I tried to push it. The driver of the GTO behind me commented that he could smell my brakes as he was going through the corners! There were several times where I was locking-up a wheel or two… and I know if I had not been using the transmission to help slow down into corners I wouldn’t have been able to be as quick. I can only imagine how this road will be after I do my suspension upgrades!

After the wonderful descent from Mt. Hamilton we headed out into the middle of nowhere. The only thing you’ll find out here are some farms and the occasional cow, but it does lend to some nice “relaxing” driving roads. San Antonio Valley Rd. leads out to the crossing point for three roads at “The Junction”. Mines Rd. leads to Livermore, Del Puerto Canyon Rd. heads out towards the Central Valley, and San Antonio Valley Rd. to the Lick Observatory and San Jose. The Junction is also the home of a little bar, named “The Junction” (big surprise huh?). We stopped there to catch our breath, and after spending some time with the locals we headed back out to finish-up the drive.

The day turned-out to be a great outing. I had hoped to have a few more cars, but I think it worked out better than we only had the four of us… it allowed us to push things a bit harder. I wished I’d been able to spend more time with the G8, but it was great to get out and romp around while I had the chance!

CCG8CC Skyline Drive

So work has lead me to spending some time on the East Coast again… and away from my G8. I’ve been living in Maryland for the last few weeks and really been missing the company of fellow car nuts. Fortunately, I’m lucky to be staying only a few minutes from another G8 owner and in one of the most active G8 communities in the country. The Capital City G8 Car Club (CCG8CC) was nice enough to let me tag along at their spring cruise to Skyline Drive in Virginia.

A total of 13 G8’s (YES! Thirteen!) gathered in Virginia to head down Skyline Drive. Not having a worthy car (the Toyota Camry rental just wasn’t up to the task) I found myself a passenger in a G8 for the first time. Also, not having a car of my own I was forced to mount my video cameras on other people’s cars to get footage.

In the end, I had a total of 12 hours of video footage that I needed to process and clip together from this cruise. I was really impressed by the numbers the G8 community in the Mid-Atlantic region is able to pull-together for a cruise. I was really glad that I could put together a couple of videos of their activities.

SF Bay G8 Cruise

A couple of G8’s from the SF Bay Area got together this morning for breakfast and a cruise. We met at Lou’s Coffee Shop in Palo Alto for a nice breakfast and then headed-out across Palo Alto towards the hills south of San Jose.

This was the first time I’d been on a cruise with my HD GoPro Motorsports Hero cameras. For the first part of the cruise, through town, I had both cameras on the back of the car to get footage of the other cars on the cruise.

Before we headed into the hills we stopped so I could reposition the cameras. We took advantage of the stop to grab a few photos.

The second half of the cruise was much more fun, driving wise, and really gave the group a chance to push their G8’s to towards the limits. The roads that were selected to drive were really fun and quite challenging. The start was very tight and twisty with quite a steep ascent. As the road continued it became much more sweeping and much quicker.

I had one of the video cameras mounted to the front bumper and another on the rear bumper. This produced a bunch of great footage and did quite a good job capturing the sound from my exhaust.

The cruise ended at a parking lot and the group spent quite a while talking about just how much fun the drive was. Many of us had our hoods open trying to cool things off… we were really pushing things, and the cars showed it (my IAT and Trans temps were well normal).

While I had hoped we would have more cars attend the event, it was great to spent some time driving with friends. Maybe someday the G8 community will pull together like the GTO community has…

NCG Pyzano’s Pizza GTG & Cruises

The Pyzano’s Pizza GTG has been on the books for a while, such that we could distribute calendars, but I figured that it would also be a great day/location for a cruise. After talking with a few NCG club members I planned both a Pre- and Post- cruise.

The Pre-cruise met in Martinez and headed south along some of my favorite roads.

View Larger Map

There were between 10-14 cars with me on the cruise, unfortunately the weather wasn’t very cooperative. While it wasn’t really raining, the ground was wet and it was quite foggy. Because of this I kept the pace a little slower than I would have liked, but safety first! I was surprised to see there were even quite a few bicyclists out on the roads in the sub-par weather.

The trip through the Berkeley Hills was really hampered by the fog (and the bicyclists), so wasn’t all that much fun. When we made it to Redwood Rd. and dropped in elevation a little the fog cleared out and allowed for some fun. I was really happy with the way the route turned out… we never really found ourselves split-up too much and didn’t have to deal with much other car traffic. I think quite a few of the people on the cruise enjoyed the roads, and I hope we do something again when the weather is better.

After the Pre-Cruise the gang arrived at Pyzano’s Pizza. Everyone was really impressed with the number of people who made it out.

The gang headed into Pyzano’s for some really great pizza (their sauce is awesome and their crust is nice and chewy). After eating, we handed-out the 2010 NorCal GOATs Calendars that people had ordered. I was surprised to get a couple from the club in gratitude for all of the hard work that I put into the project. It was really not necessary, but greatly appreciated.

After talking-shop with the GTO owners the group headed-out on a Post-Cruise towards Hooters in Dublin.

View Larger Map

The group left Castro Valley and headed to Palomares Rd. The weather had cleared-up a bit and visibility was better. The temperature was still cool, but the roads were dry. Again I tried to keep the pace a little conservative, but we were still able to have fun. About half-way into Palomares Rd. we caught-up with a slow moving Honda, who was nice enough to pull-over and let two of us by, but didn’t want to pull-over to let the rest of the group buy. We tried to get the Honda to pass us but he just didn’t get the clue (I actually had to pull off the LEFT side of the road to get him to go by me). We stopped for a little before proceeding, but by that time there was only a mile left before we hit Niles Canyon. Once we left Sunol we had the road to ourselves, but Foothill just isn’t that exciting of a road (sure beats I-680N though).

Overall, I was happy with the way the cruises went. I wish the weather was better and people had more of a chance to experience the roads to the fullest. I tend not to have as much fun when I’m leading a cruise, as I spend my time thinking more about the pace and keeping everyone together, but it was OK.

My Latest Project

The past week I’ve been really busy working on my new project…

I had originally planned on having something similar on this site, but I found myself wanting to write more about the activities and experiences on the roads… rather than the roads themselves. My ultimate goal with Bay Area Driving Roads (yes, I even got the domain name BayAreaDrivingRoads.com) is to have as many of the potential driving roads in the SF Bay Area mapped-out, reviewed, and rated.

There are other sites out there that have reviews of driving routes, but most of them just focus on the well-known roads/routes… with very little attention to the smaller roads. Also, there are roads that may not be ‘worthy’ of planning a vacation around, but there are many that are great alternatives to just driving on the freeway from point A to B.

Another aspect of the site that is different than others that I’ve seen is the ability for the viewers/users to rate each of the roads based on several different criteria (Fun, Difficulty, Speed, Road Condition, Traffic, Accessibility, and Length). With this it’s not just about what I think about a road… rather what everyone thinks about the road!

This project has required a bunch of work so far, and I’ve not even started with the actual reviews yet… but I’m really hoping that people will find the site useful when trying to decide where to drive. I remember back to February when I purchased the G8 and was trying to find fun places to go driving… I spent hours and hours looking at maps and trying to find information, but there was never one centralized pace to find everything. Now people who are in a similar situation to what I was should have a place to find what they need.

Toys 4 Tots Cruise

The NorCal GOATs joined together with several Northern California Corvette clubs to be part of a Toys 4 Tots cruise to benefit a few local charities. Groups gathered around the Bay Area and headed up to Sacramento for the cruise… I joined-in with the group of Vettes leaving from the Dublin Hooters (along with a couple other GTOs). It was rough waking-up at 5:15am, but the cruise was for a good cause!

The Vette guys seem like a good bunch of guys (and gals). The cruise up to Sacramento went quite quickly (catching-up with the faster driving Vettes really made the trip go fast). Unfortunately, the cruise route wasn’t the most exciting… but hanging out with a bunch of other car guys is always fun.

There were ~130 Vettes at the meet and quite a cash few donations were made. I picked-up a dicast Corvette for the Toys 4 Tots (I thought it was fitting), and I wasn’t the only one. I probably should have brought a ‘girls toy’ so that things were not so unbalanced, but I knew I’d rather have the dicast!

It was really great to see all the GTOs come together with the Vettes to do something charitable. It just shows how great all the club members are… we are about more than just having fun with our cars!

Sacramento Cruise

It has been a little while since we headed-out for a cruise (GoatRun was a month ago!), so it was about time to get out and relax behind the wheel. Some of the guys around Sacramento organized a cruise through some really great roads on Saturday afternoon with a dinner afterward.

I had debated on how to drive up to Sacramento, as I had driven the I-5 route two times in as many weeks. I ended-up going I-5 again so that I could cruise with some of the Stockton GTO owners. Because of the GPS and radar detector I found myself being the leader and it turned-out well… other than the huge flock of birds that flew over the freeway dropping bombs all over out cars.

When we reached the meeting location I needed to stop and get some gas. I pulled-into the Shell station and what did I see? A brand spanking new, JetStream Blue Metallic, Corvette ZR1 (yeah, the one with the 638HP supercharged 6.2 liter LS9). As I was filling-up I had to go over and tell the gentleman how nice his car is. I asked him if he was here for the cruise (the ‘vette guys were invited to the cruise as well), but he was just a local.

There was a nice turnout, including two other G8s… there was even a GXP! As always, it was great meeting new people and seeing what they have done to their cars. After some talking, we headed out on the cruise.

View Larger Map

We had a little trouble getting onto the freeway as a group, and without knowing who the last car in line was, I didn’t want anyone to get left behind. I dropped back and kept an eye-out… turns out there were several people who needed to catch-up. From that point on, I stuck at the back of the pack making sure everyone was still around. Because I was at the back I wasn’t able to have as spirited drive as I would have liked, but the company was great and the roads were very scenic.

It is a great time of the year in California… the hills are starting to turn green again and the leaves are turning all sorts of bright colors. The weather was perfect too… cool, clear, and sunny (I should have been at the drag strip!).

After the cruise I headed out to dinner with some of the guys (I think I was the only non-local in the bunch). We ate at a nice diner and the food was good. There was lots of talk about mods, smog, etc. I think we need to have a few more meets with the Bay Area G8 owners. While I love a drive, talking shop is always fun. Everyone has their own way of doing things, and it’s great to see how people have modified their cars.

After the dinner I headed back home. It was a long drive alone, but I made it before it got too late. After this cruise, I think I need to re-think some of my NorCal Exploration drives… there are some really great roads that are just begging to be driven!

GoatRun’09: Wrap-up

Total Distance: 1,355 miles
Average Fuel Economy: 21.3 mpg (Including the trips down the drag strip!)
Speeding tickets: Zero (for anyone who was driving in my proximity)

I’m so glad that I decided to go on GoatRun. There is really no way to explain just how much fun it was. I’m already looking forward to next year!