So I had to travel from Tennessee to South Carolina last week. Since the lady wasn't coming with me, I figured this would be one of the few chances I got to really test out my new suspension setup. Last time I drove in the mountains I was completely stock. For the curious ones, my suspension setup currently includes: progress/illuminas, SFCs, RSB, FSTB (next up is a LTB then RSTB). It goes without saying that the difference is night and day.

Anyway, I plotted out a trip on google maps purely by looking for the most twisty roads I could find. It added about 3.5 hours to the trip but was totally worth it. I left TN at about 3 a.m. (yes, a.m.) because I wanted to hit the mountains at around sunrise and didn't want to see any other cars (especially police cars).


So anyway, to the highlights:

1) Up first is the big daddy. The highlight of the trip. The famous, and infamous, Deal's Gap. Also known as the Tail of the Dragon (http://www.tailofthedragon.com/). 318 turns in 11 miles - enough said.



2) Now that the sun was all the way up, I was ready to cut across Wayah Rd., a narrow backroad through some pretty countryside.



3) In North Carolina now, and after a breakfast in Franklin I head up the mountain towards the lovely town of Highlands. The road up there was downright scary. Imagine a narrow road with a rock wall on one side, and a small rock barrier on the other side overlooking a cliff. Highlands has an elevation of 4,100 feet and has a nice little lake up there.




4) Into South Carolina now and going through Ceasar's Head state park. This is where I really pushed the car the most. I was really impressed with the General Exclaim UHP's. With my stock setup I would just plow into a understeer slide when I pushed the limits. With the new setup the slide comes on very gradually and controlled. I played around with a guy in a Mazda pickup truck who, for some unexplicable reason, thought he could hang. But that's not the purpose of this thread. Here's the state park road.




In closing, I was very proud of my max and recommend a nice mountain trip to all you guys! I've got to try autocrossing next, although I don't think the views will be as nice.

 

Ummmm the Dragon



But you really need one of these to really experiance the Dragon.

 

Sounds like a great road trip!

 

Nice write up....wish we had roads like tht here in Fla.....straight and flat here.

 

Howd the shocks work out for you?

 

Oh, and what months does that ride open up in the spring. I heard the mountains can get some narly snow

 

so at what speed did the max start to feel like its loosing its grip? any fast cornering? how fast? what was your average speed though the dragon tail? And how was your gas economy? You have a 5.5gen?

 

The Tail of the Dragon (Deal's Gap) is in my backyard. The two real enemies for the A33 on that road (aside from chassis, suspension, wrong wheel drive, etc.) is the weight of the car and how much you cook your brakes. I took the car down through there shortly after I bought it (stock) and I could really smell the brakes (and feel the heat coming off them) when I was done.

 

I took a trip up there in my spec V a couple of years ago and had a blast. Never really considered taking the max.

 

I've got a 01 SE but the 3.0 had more than enough power for that type of road. I'm not sure what my average speed or gas mileage was on any portion of the trip. I was going the downhill direction down the dragon, so I tried to take it easy on the brakes because they are a weak point of the car as mentioned above my MetaOrbit.

nsnrider, it's tough to say what speeds the max would start to lose its grip. Let's just say that it was a much higher speed than the car would do stock. In fact, on most turns I underestimated how hard I could push the car, and would easily maintain my grip all the way through. On some turns I'd say to myself "alright, let's just take this turn a little too fast and try to get this thing sliding a little bit" - and then the car would just squat down, the tires would start squealing, and it would pull through the turn with ease. It was only when I got into Ceasar's Head, after about 2-3 hours of mountain driving, that I really knew how hard I could consistently push it. I ended up getting on the gas pretty early in the turns, and it just pulled right on through.

SLP - the shocks are great from what I can tell. The car is much more responsive now. I use to have to dip the car into the turn first, let the weight settle as the car leaned over to the side, and then turn in. Now I can just whip it in quickly and it holds. The difference isn't due solely to the shocks, but they certainly play a part.

 

I find my maxima with mostly stock suspension understeers hard if I don't give it a really hard turnin to rotate it some at the beginning of turns. Like you were describing above about "dipping" into the turnin.

I can't wait to get some suspension mods going. I've been spoiled by having that 2600lb spec v with coilovers and most other major suspesion mods lol.

 

sparks03, don't forget to do some chassis bracing. I'm looking forward to getting a LTB from BlehmCo this summer.