Once I read about the track editor/designer that should be released, the first thing I thought of building was a road (US129) on the Tennessee/North Carolina border. This road is named "Tail Of The Dragon" it is 318 curves in 11 miles in the smokey mountains. A friend and I have taken two 4 day trips down to this road with our sport bikes(Suzuki GSXR750) and have learned alot from it. This area is extreamly popular and this road is what attracts people from all over the world to come ride/drive it.

http://www.dealsgap.com/images/arielDragonT.jpg
http://www.grahamcountytravel.com/maps/DRAGONmap.gif

I dream about this road and eating it alive on a sportbike. It has consumed us in everyway possible. Unfortunatlly it is 11 hours away, but we still make the trip.

This would be a wonderful LFS user created track. :woohoo:

... then you'll have to be very patient. IIRC, the devs have said they will consider opening up LFS to user-created cars/tracks after S3, and that'll be a few years further down the road.

It looks like one hell of a route though, must be a real blast on a powerful bike if you live to enjoy it all.

Quote from al heeley :

It looks like one hell of a route though, must be a real blast on a powerful bike if you live to enjoy it all.

Yeah, last time we where down there two people died. One guy took the Gravity Cavity a bit to fast(2 Apex's) and got a face full of granite. We road right past him as he was laying in the ditch(TONS of other poeple already stopped to help him).

The other poor guy was on a Gold Wing, he was looking at the scereny a bit to much. He drifted into an oncomming pickup truck.

You have to take a bit of care for obvious reasons. There are no sand traps or run off areas, if you over shoot you hit mountain or go over. Also it take an ambulance about 45 minutes to get there. Ill push myself on the race tracks.

It's fake! We all know that there are no curves in US!
Real foto please

BTW, it's cool feature of LFS, that devs can get inspiraton from all over the world

...and maybe someday we will get some cool road courses like this.

I've got a mate who lives close (ish) in American terms.
The other MASSIVE problem is 18 wheelers driving through. They are so long that they have to cut the corner to get round, some even get beached due to the huge elevation changes around the corners. As a biker, I would love to blast along that road, but there is just too many truckers using that route for my liking.

I've mentioned the Dragon on several occasions here, mostly when folks comment on how there are no curvey roads in the US . I've posted the links about the trucks on the Dragon as well.

So, BEEAH, you're the first I've personally come across that I can converse with that has actually been on the Dragon. How is it? Awesome? How many trucks have you come across when you were there? I've always wanted to take a trip down there when I had the bike (just a little ole Nighthawk 550, hence my online server LFS name.) I'm up in PA, so it wouldn't be to bad of a trip, but marriage, work, and kids get in the way. I've since sold the bike, but plan on another one in the future when the kids no longer like to hang out with Mom and Dad, LOL.

Bah, what good are kids for? (Wives on the other hand have fringe benefits )

Me and a buddy of mine from college are plannin on a road trip down to/through the tail of the dragon in a couple years; although we'll be in a car, it should be a sight to see for sure!

One of many fun and exciting things us two are planning on; another is the racing school at Mosport once we're both done college, as well as a trip to Germany to blast about on the green hell.

To both of you, The Dragon, is in every way, the one of the single most amazing roads you will ever expierence in your life time. I say that with no hesitation or second guessing. The layout and elevation changes are so outta hand that you can actually see the headlights of the person infront of you. In a normal everyday car, supercar, or sport bike, it will be a blast. When we went up it the first time we had our bikes in the back of a 05 Ford F150. I was driving and my buddy was white knuckled the entire time he told me after. The road itself is in perfect blacktop condition with little to no dirt/gravel of anykind the entire lengh. The people on it and locals treat the road like its their home and keep it clean. Bring the family, camping, rapids, fishing sight seeing.

Not only the dragon but the entire surrounding area of the mountain range has even more roads and small towns to explore. The road through the national park is beautiful. Another road called The Cherohala Skyway starts very close to where the Dragon ends in Deals Gap. This is also one of my faves. http://www.cherohala.com/ I would bring the bike up to about 100mph and cruze for 38 miles on these long sweepers that seem to go on forever. You compleatly forget about anything else. I slept under the stars at Deals Gap and listend to the blowoff valves pop and rev limiters bounce in the mountains at night. I can't say enough about this place

As far as trucks, its not THAT bad, they are occational, usually only on the weekdays. If you really wanted to ride hard on the dragon, being there during a week day helps huge.

If you are a BMW guy, Last months issue of Roundel Magazine (the BMW Car Club of America magazine) has a section on the Dragon while driving a new BMW Z4 Coupe. Nice road, and nice car.

The only problem with using it in LFS, is it does not loop back on itself. You could only do a one lap race, or timed runs.

I grew up driving on roads similar to this. None of them as well maintained or quite as intense as the Dragon seems to be, but amazing stuff all the same. To us, it was just the normal thing. It was also the normal thing to lose a friend or two each year to those roads (and stupid driving). But, every time you are on a section like that, it is still fun to drive and you wonder what it would be like to drive it in LFS

There is a similar road that runs along the Arizona / New Mexico border.
Actually it runs up into Utah, but I am only familiar with the 90 some mile stretch of it which occupies Arizona.

The northern parts are closed during winter, and there is little or no chance for human contact for most of the route. No semi trucks, at least I never saw any, and I've driven it's length a half dozen times in both directions. Very serious fun.

There are miles and miles of great driving to be had across the southwest.

Man, this road looks GREAT . I'd love to take my Speed Triple for a few spins there, but it's a bit long way from germany

I grew up in Tennessee. Went to college in Maryville, then the University of Tennessee. Gap is about 30 minutes from Maryville - and I visited it once a month or so. I now live in South Carolina and miss being close to the gap. I've had a whole lot of fun up there in various cars and my old GSXR-750...but I sold it to get a 2003 Evolution (Buschur stage III). Just got back last month from a trip up there in the EVO. Amazing ride - even though it was raining. Here's a full run (rainy) of the gap [150mb]:
http://www.steven-laura.net/Steven/Videos/dealsgap8.wmv

If someone made a track based on Deal's Gap...I'd be a happy man.

Quote from 56Hotrod :

I grew up in Tennessee. Went to college in Maryville, then the University of Tennessee. Gap is about 30 minutes from Maryville - and I visited it once a month or so. I now live in South Carolina and miss being close to the gap. I've had a whole lot of fun up there in various cars and my old GSXR-750...but I sold it to get a 2003 Evolution (Buschur stage III). Just got back last month from a trip up there in the EVO. Amazing ride - even though it was raining. Here's a full run (rainy) of the gap [150mb]:
http://www.steven-laura.net/Steven/Videos/dealsgap8.wmv

If someone made a track based on Deal's Gap...I'd be a happy man.

Nice Vid! To bad it was not dry for you guys. Good job at keeping it in the lines also. They(we) don't like lane crossers due to the fact they kill people. I noticed how your camera guy was a bit nervous and suggested to keep it slow. "Becareful of the leaves!" heh. I totally understand that reaction after my buddy told me he was very nervous when I was driving that truck.

Our first visit to US129 we were doing a run from the Gap to the overlook(where you started) in a tad bit under 11 minutes if I remember correctly. At this point we did not know how to drag knees(Michigan).

You mentioned KILLBOY at the start of the vid. Darryl and Lori are the married couple that run the photo site and have taken up to 12,000 pictures in on a weekend of all of the people visiting. They are some of the nicest people I have ever meet. We were fortunate enough to shoot the shit with them for a few hours after midnight on the Gaps deck. Ive seen how they drive that car, they are both very good, and nuts. Hes also very fast on his bike.

You are making this winter even longer for me, I wanna go back so bad. Glad to talk to people that have expirenced it also.

Growing up driving the gap, you learn real quick, that you are going to die, or kill someone else if you don't maintain your lanes. Everytime I go, I stress this to the people we're with (the Subi guy was outside of our group I think).

Yes, Darryl is a helluva guy. His EVO is NUTS...I've been frequenting his killboy.com site for years. I just ordered up one of the pics his crew took of my car last month:


They do fantastic work.

I'm a good three or four hours from the Dragon itself, but still in the NC mountains (Boone). We have a few roads kinda like the Dragon around here and they're a blast to drive. On the official website they have a trip report detailing their rides through this area, so it was really cool to see pictures of roads I've been on. US221 South of Blowing Rock and 194 South of Boone are both fanstastic sections. Extremely bendy, lots of elevation changes, and incredible scenery. I drove both of those roads dozens of times this past year and it was always great.

I haven't been to the Dragon itself, but I definitely plan to go this spring. I've known about it for a few years and it's high time to experience it firsthand.

bah.. i got nothing unless i go up near one of my sisters' up in dahlonega

@ lateralus, i went through those mountains the other day going up to maryland for a funeral, those aren't all to fun though since it is such a highway, but surely there are some more curvy roads in that area (atleast i think i know where your talking about)

Quote from XCNuse :

bah.. i got nothing unless i go up near one of my sisters' up in dahlonega

@ lateralus, i went through those mountains the other day going up to maryland for a funeral, those aren't all to fun though since it is such a highway, but surely there are some more curvy roads in that area (atleast i think i know where your talking about)

You went through here to get from Georgia to Maryland? Seems like a roundabout way of getting there, but OK. Which road was it? Both 221 and 194 look exactly like the Dragon, two-lanes only. Not very 'highway-like' at all. You may have done another section of 221 farther south. If you turned onto 105 North from 221 at Linville, NC, then you missed the good part of 221. It changes at the 105 intersection.

lol i figured i wasn't right, let me check what mountains i went through anyway..

all i know is that i was trying to pay very little attention because driving in a car for 10 hours with 5 other people.. isn't fun

i think we took 40, i know it was way out of the way, i really can't remember the name now

all i know, is that if you plan on going through virginia, make sure you have a GPS (maps may not help) because the intersections, even exits are rediculously confusing
on an exit, we gave up and left after we came across this intersection which was a 4 way intersection, and the direction we were in split into 2 parts, and went at seperate times even though we were all headed in the same direction, and when the light went green for our.. half i guess, we could turn right, left.. or go straight even though we were in the center of the road, it was .. weird

Lateralus, I envy you. I love Boone. I plan on having a nice cabin up on some mountain there when I retire. Boone/Banner Elk/Blowing Rock have some fantastic roads...and are right at the Blue Ridge Parkway. I'm in Greenville, SC - so it is about the same (3 hours to the Gap).

XCNuse - I was in your neighborhood today. Visiting one of our manufacturing plants in Duluth. Atlanta has to be one of the top 5 worst places to live as far as traffic in the US...luckily, there are some escapes around. Have you ever driven up to or around Highlands GA (I think it is something like that)? If I remember correctly, it is highway 15? There are some fantastic little sprints up there. From the map, it looks like it is near Dahlonega.

Good stuff.

yep there are plenty of manufacturing plants around my area, some are pretty cool looking at night (yes random but.. they can be cool looking)

traffic here isn't to bad unless your driving at the wrong time lol, anywhere from 8-9 AM, 11-1 AM/PM, and the worst starts around 4ish to 8 PM
it could be worse, depending on where you live up north, people just can't drive or drive dangerous and most people are mean in traffic lol, here it really isn't to bad, i bet if we had some of those express type lanes for rush hour traffic like they do up in maryland and wherever else they are traffic here wouldn't be so horrible, most traffic here is just because of people getting across lanes and spectators watching a wreck, and some idiot just hitting their brakes randomly causing a huuuge build up in traffic, just because of one or a few people.. which actually thats how it is everywhere i guess

I agree. I wish the US or States would mandate more strict forms of testing to dish out licenses. Idiot drivers in America are why we'll never get an autobaun. My biggest pep peeve is people that don't adhear to "slower traffic keep right". They are so afraid, that if they move over, they'll never get to maintain their 5mph over the speed limit - and get trapped driving just under the speed limit. So they stay left, and doddle past at 1mph faster than the right lane. Then there's those folks that just have no clue - with no one in front of them, and won't get over to the right. Argg. If I lived around Atlanta, my blood pressure would go through the roof.

dang 56, that's a real clean Evo you've got, very nice. I can't wait till I get back to NC (I'm stationed over in Vegas for now) and hit up the gap in the STi. There's a road over here on the west coast known as GMR that's pretty popular, and is not nearly as long as Deal's Gap, but is just as curvy. Plus, the roads going to/from it and almost as curvy, and it's just a great deal of fun! I think single-laning it is far more fun than crossing over, it really forces you to perfect your lines, and make every inch count.

Hmmmm, that road looks killer. I'd really want to drive it.

I had my personal playground, because I grew up in the Ottawa Region. We are lucky to have a national park that actually stabs INTO the city, complete with roughly 25kms of 'promenade' roads. That means, in the summer only road cars/bikes/cycles are allowed, no commercial (anyway there's no deliveries to do in the middle of nowhere), and in the winter, those promenades become cross-crountry ski trails. The asphalt is pristine, and the sides are grass, mostly level with the road. Just look at this



It's not a racing road as on a typical sunday, you have a bunch of pappys driving at scenic pace in their huge caddies and cyclists (they are actually more dangerous, once a RCMP officer tagged a 40-men strong pack that churned a corner at 40kph and at the same time didn't obey the stopsign and gave them all a ticket) but some less dense times of day (like dawn) this road can be really entertaining.

This is all in very hilly terrain, there's a 8 km climb/descent at 5-10% average. What's fun is you can plan a 42.5km run without having to stop and turn around on the road and come back to your start point. We used to do that on our road cycles each thursday night when I was in shape with the cycles club.

Take a look at that asphalt!!!
http://www.ottawafreelance.com ... llpaper/Gatineau-Road.jpg

And take a look at the map!!! (there's a red X marked at the bottom right, that's my parents' house)

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/2797/gatineauparkfa6.jpg

The parkway's in white, there are a couple intersections, but minor stops to do.

Quote from Nard :

I had my personal playground, because I grew up in the Ottawa Region. We are lucky to have a national park that actually stabs INTO the city, complete with roughly 25kms of 'promenade' roads. That means, in the summer only road cars/bikes/cycles are allowed, no commercial (anyway there's no deliveries to do in the middle of nowhere), and in the winter, those promenades become cross-crountry ski trails. The asphalt is pristine, and the sides are grass, mostly level with the road. Just look at this

That sounds just like the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is only about three or four miles away from where I live now. God, I love the Parkway. :thumb3d: