I decided the morning of last Saturday to drive to Portland for a Christmas party. The party was at 7pm that night, so I could have gone home for some rest before making the ~3 hour drive down from Bothell.

However, I wasn’t in the mood to take the boring route via I-5, so I began looking for a “detour”. I came up with this:

Google Maps estimates seven hours for the drive. It ended up taking me about 6.5 hours with a few quick stops. The route took me from I-90 & Snoqualmie Pass, to Canyon Rd. west of I-82/US-97 near Yakima, and then south on US-97 to Goldendale where I got off the highway and headed west, and then south on SR-142. Instead of crossing into Oregon from there I stayed in Washington and cruised along the Columbia using SR-14… I find it’s best to stay out of Oregon for as long as possible.

I had swapped the 18″ wheels out for the factory 16″ rims earlier that day… and then mounted the new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S Plus tires. They’re a high performance all-season tire that I’ll use through the winter months and likely for a few lapping sessions and autocrosses later in the year. This drive was a good excuse to ‘test’ the tires a little while enjoying the roads and avoiding large amounts of other cars.

Canyon Rd. near Yakima was awesome, and beautiful. That said, you apparently need to watch for cops as much as possible. I did pass a couple unmarked units toward the south end of the road before getting back on the main highway. The road is designated as SR-821 and it follows the Yakima River from I-90 to the southern part of Yakima.

from wikipedia:

US-97 is actually a rather nice stretch of road from Yakima to the Columbia Gorge, and without too much traffic (at least during this time of year). A little south of Toppenish I lost my Verizon data signal and lost my AT&T signal all together. It wasn’t until Goldendale that I got the AT&T signal back, maintaining full Edge service the whole way to the Gorge while my Verizon phone continued with a signal, but no data coverage. I’m still amazed at how well AT&T’s Edge covers random places in eastern WA.

Goldendale is mostly known for its observatory, as far as I’m concerned. The observatory is why I first passed through Goldendale (high school field trip). Now I mostly view it as a confluence of roads leading to cool and interesting places.

Some of my favorite roads at the moment are north of the Columbia Gorge, in between Goldendale and Trout Lake. There just a couple state highways and a few local roads connecting the communities in this region, all of which are worth driving. It can be a beautiful area; a sort of grassy plateau with amazing views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, Mt. St. Helens, and sometimes Mt. Rainier.

I first ended up on the “Glenwood-Goldendale Rd” back in 2003 when my brother and I drove around eastern Washington in his ‘84 GTI. I was using my first digital camera back then and didn’t really know what I was doing, but I did capture this shot of Mt. Adams with a barn in the foreground (which I believe no longer exists).

The Glenwood Hwy is a very long road taking you from Goldendale to Glenwood and then to Trout Lake. You end up following the Klickitat River along an awesome canyon full of twisty turns and amazing views, before driving on some incredibly boring straight sections of road toward the end.

a shot of Mt. Adams near Glenwood from a drive I did in May..

This time I turned south fairly quickly after Goldendale onto SR-142. This road is, for the moment, my new favorite driving road. It’s a state highway which, for a few miles, narrows to about 1.5 lanes wide with no center line, a reduced amount of signs, and no real barrier to keep you from driving off the edge into the deep Klickitat River valley below. This tight canyon-following twisty road is awesome fun with almost no traffic (though from my experience you are nearly guaranteed to run across a deputy sheriff since there aren’t many roads in the area).

Once you get further down hill (heading south, toward the Columbia Gorge) you a dropped onto a more normal state highway with regular markings and barriers. The road eventually takes you more level with the river as the canyon widens out, passing you through a couple of towns along the way. The area is apparently known for its fishing, so the road can be a little more full of the tourist types in the warmer months.

The highway is a roughly 13 miles long, so it’s not quite as long as I’d like (this is where SR-112 comes in, along the Strait of Juan de Fuca), but I believe it’s still a really special section of road.

You eventually reach the Columbia Gorge at the town of Lyle, where I turned west toward Vancouver and Portland. I much prefer taking SR-14 rather than I-84 on the Oregon side (even though this choice can add an extra 20 – 40 minutes to the trip). However, the last couple of times I’ve traveled this highway I have taken a few quick detours back up into the hills above the gorge. This time I only took the “Lyle White Salmon Rd”, which is designated as an “old hwy” on a few signs. It’s an immediate turn-off once you cross the Klickitat River from Lyle, and it takes you back up into the hills a bit so you can see Mt. Hood across the river on a clear day. The sun was just setting for me on this drive, so I stopped over “Rowland Lake” (just a section of the river cut off by SR-14) and took this pano:

There are a few more fun (and relatively curvy) side roads like this farther west as you drive closer to Vancouver, but it was getting dark quickly so I ended up staying on the main highway for the rest of the trip. SR-14 is a beautiful piece of road in every way, but it’s mostly just two lanes with few passing areas and way too many cars. The drive gets a bit boring, so I just used this part to relax after the fun trip down.

Nearly seven hours, 400 miles, and 34mpg after I started I arrived in Portland, having thoroughly tested and broken in my tires (and boosted my adrenaline level a little). If it hasn’t been made clear already those tires are awesome in the wet, and I have since confirmed that they’re pretty freakin’ good in the dry as well. They cost me a lot of money but were well worth the purchase for the versatility and longevity (compared to other similar options).

And the roads weren’t too bad either…

I woke up at about 7:30 Wednesday morning for some breakfast. I crammed in a quick video of someone else driving the ring before starting my day. The tourist session started at 8am, and I was meeting some people from Finalgear’s IRC channel at about 9am. I drove back into Adenau for some gas.

The three guys I’d known from Finalgear showed up during the 9 o’clock hour: one from The Netherlands and two from Germany. All had driven the ring at least once before, and had been in Nürburg multiple times. We all watched the cars enter and exit the course for a while, catching a glimpse of a Gumpert Apollo… the actual car to have broken the ring lap record for a street car, and the Top Gear track record as well. You quickly grow numb to the huge number of 911’s around you. The parking lot is simply full of them. You start to pay more attention to the more rare cars around.. such as right-hand drive Integra Type-R’s, 190E 2.5l 16v Evolution’s, and Ferrari’s. There were a few very nice examples of older VW’s as well, including a couple mk2 Scirocco’s and mk2 GTI’s. Of course there were a couple mk5 GTI’s, but I don’t remember seeing any mk4’s at all. There was also a new Scirocco or two, along with the rented ring tools that included new GTI’s and Scirocco’s.

I believe this is the first RS4 Avant I’ve seen

I’m told the Polize like to show up and check whether modifications on cars are legal or not

the Gumpert Apollo.. there was a red one as well, but I failed to get any photos of it

quite a few of these were around that day

very clean looking gti

I’ve no idea why this French car was pulled off to the side of the course..

the r8 v10

We all drove to one of the turns on the track that’s easily accessible to watch the cars drive by, nearly crash, and take photos. Remember, this course is about 21km in length and takes around 8 – 11 minutes for most cars to finish one lap. That’s part of what makes it so special, and a mecca for car & motorsports enthusiasts around the world. The ring has a few towns inside, and you drive across a couple bridges that cross normal country roads. You are literally racing through the country side, on what is a restricted access, one way, toll road, with no speed limit. You still must have a completley road legal car, technically you can’t follow to close, and you’re supposed to pass on the left (most people do). There are actually speed limits imposed in two places as well. One is at the Adenau bridge where a second track entrance is. This is mostly used for annual ring pass holders and for emergency vehicles. The other speed limit is at the end of the course, on the famously super long straight, where you have to eventually slow down to 50kph so you can safely re-enter the toll area.

I’m not going to post all of the photos I have online from the track, so check out the link here: http://www.fakelag.net/users/v…/ring/

Here’s a few of the more interesting photos from the first corner we visited:

this thing sounded like a Honda :sly:

the v10 r8

I thought these Opel’s were quite good looking

there were two of these Seat’s on course Wednesday

this was trailered in, towed by a diesel mk4 wagon

one of a few GT-R’s there

just a scirocco in the parking lot

I was told these were some sort of military police

After quickly making a run back into Nürburg to verify with RSR that I would have my car for the afternoon, we all drove out to the Adenau bridge area to watch the cars go through one of the slowest corners before speeding down across the bridge (lowest spot on the track) and climbing back uphill on the other side. We had an awesome sweeping view of the countryside, and of this part of the track.

the bridge is to the right, and Adenau is the town you can see in the photo

this is the track’s second entrance, used mostly by emergency vehicles and annual ticket holders. Note the “///” sign (“unrestricted”).

Here’s the 50kph sign before the entrance.. most people don’t really follow it, though this is a relatively slow portion of the track.

“one way”

this was near the entrance.. no idea what it’s supposed to be

graffiti under the Adenau Bridge

heading back up the hill from the bridge

down the hill toward the bridge

popular viewpoint

the three guys from finalgear

an ADAC emergency helicopter.. we did see a rider arrive who had wrecked earlier, so this may have been for him

A little later we all had to return to Nürburg once again so I could pick up my ring tool rental. I was given a quick briefing on the car and the track. I was basically told to keep the traction control on, try to stay out of 2nd gear once you get going (the car has some quite a bit of lift-off oversteer), and to watch out for the Adenau Forest turns (everyone warns you about this). The car, I was told by several people, is a great car for first-timers. It’s a small front wheel drive hatchback, with an NA 4-cylinder making 200hp and revving past 7k RPM’s. It actually oversteers slightly, when pushed through the corners, before the tracktion control kicks in and brakes one of the wheels to straighten the car out. The car is pretty odd inside, with switches and knobs in places you wouldn’t expect. The turn signal stock is a small lever rather than the traditional longer stalk.

I quickly got used to it though, noticed the heavy clutch, and drove off toward the entrance (heart beating quickly, of course).

As you pass the toll booth, where you swipe your proximity debit card (“ring card”) to get through, you follow some cones for the first few hundred meters before being guided through a sharp chicane and then being set free. I slowly navigated through the first corners, mostly sticking to the far right so everyone else could pass. One piece of advice I kept in mind the entire day was “the limit is not your skill or your car, but your knowledge of the track”. I reminded myself of this as much as possible throughout the afternoon, keeping myself from gaining too much confidence. This is not a track you want to feel confident on until you have 25+ laps driven, and probably closer to 100 laps completed. I went through the corners at a modest pace, but quickly relaized how fast the car really was. I was told by one of the guys at RSR that it can do 8.5 minutes around the ring. I was probably going to be lucky to get under 11 minutes.

I quickly returned for my second lap, with the tires (P-Zero Nero’s) and brakes starting to warm up nicely. The car really accelerates nicely after about 4k, and easily keeps up with most of the cars on the ring. I’ll say right now that I walked away at the end of the day very impressed with the car. I would have to seriously consider it if I lived in Europe. I took some corners on the second lap way too quickly and made use of the traction control and ABS quite a bit. The third lap I settled down quite a bit and started to recognize a couple corners… and started to have more fun.

I returned to RSR to check in with them, look over the car a bit, and to let the engine cool down. Ten minutes later I was headed back to the ring for my fourth lap, which was awesome. I fell in behind an older 911 and in front of an E30 for most of the lap. They were about as quick as I was, but seemed to know the lines a little better. I was able to follow and keep up nicely, and this very quickly schooled me on running the course better.

The fourth and fifth laps were done in succession. I again took a couple corners too quickly in the fourth lap, making heavy use of the TC and very nicely saved me from hitting anything. The fifth lap had me pass my first yellow flag and accident. I passed by another RSR owned Clio Sport first, which was sitting on the side of the track. It turns out they had hit the barrier and damaged the car enough to cost them a significant amount of money. After passing the downed Clio I passed by a GT3 RS, driven by someone from the Ring Runners of Sweden group, with both the front and the rear quite damaged and the car turned around on the side of the track. This group, made up mostly of 911’s, had been travelling around the ring in groups all day, causing others to have to slow down quite a bit in order to let 5+ cars pass at the same time. I can’t exactly say that they were driving very safely at times either. The track was closed due to this accident (gravel and car parts everywhere), so I drove back to RSR, disappointed that I had had a great lap and was just starting to get heat back into the tires.

some photos from around RSR

the other Clio that was damaged

this Frenchman had his Porsche damaged on the course. RSR helped pull the body work out enough so he could at least get the car home

While back at RSR I started talking with another guy who was renting one of their unlimited kilometer Alfa 75’s for the day. It turns out he lives in Portland and was in Europe for a couple weeks like me. We talked for a bit about the Northwest and about our experience on the ring so far. He ended up doing 16 laps that day (the normal recommendation is for newbs to stop by about their tenth lap, as they’re usually starting to lose their concentration), and he didn’t have the luxuries of ABS or TC like I did in my car.

The track opened about 45 minutes later and I made my way out for the sixth lap. Surprise! It closed again right as I was finishing the lap. My package included six laps total, but I added one more on because I just wasn’t ready to be done yet. It wasn’t my best lap, but I was really starting to recognize the corners where I knew I could go fast and the corners where I had to brake more. I had my line down pretty well through the Adenau Forest as well.

After this closure passed I went out for my seventh, and final, lap. It turns out the track was closed again shortly after I started my lap, so I was able to keep it quite clean since few cars were behind me. This was my best lap by far. I can’t easily describe the feeling, or how well I did either, since I had no camera or way to time the lap. But I passed a few cars, didn’t have to use TC at all, used ABS only a couple times, and ended up with a fairly good line for most of the course. It was an awesome way to end the day, so I thought.

the track is often closed to bikes when there is any fluid on the track

the area of the course in between where cars exit and enter is closed during tourist sessions, so these guys were using the closed part of the pavement to film an R8 driving in a straight line, for some reason

I pulled back into RSR and worked on breathing normally and calming down from my amazing day. I drove back to the track entrance to meet back up with the guys from Finalgear. I arrived to find out that if I hurried I may have a chance to ride with race driver Tim Schrick in a Renault Migane R26R (fast car.. twitchy… weird looking, etc.). They were giving free rides around the ring for those in the know (this wasn’t widely publicized). Also there was Jörge van Ommen, a former DTM driver, driving a standard 911 (996) Carrera. I ended up getting my ride around the track with him. I had never ridden in a 911 before, let alone around a road course driven by a professional race driver.

Jörge, standing behind the 911 I rode in

Tim Schrick, about to scare a German kid who wanted a ride in the Migane

Simply put, I was amazed by the 911. The engine is a little underpowered compared with the faster cars on the track (we were passed by one car.. a new M3), but the car is perfectly sorted, on stock tires and suspension. He was able to take corners and hop over the curbs without unsettling the car one bit. The car had worn brakes and tires, if that matters. I was impressed none-the-less, and it was a perfect way to end the day!

The four of us hung out at the diner near the entrance for a while before parting ways, well after dark.

I’ve been across the border into BC four times now. The first time was when I was much younger; with my grandparents to see Pt. Roberts. The last three times have been only for the annual Great Canadian VW Show. The most recent show was last weekend. I had intended to try and take a ‘quick’ side trip up to Whistler after seeing a little of Vancouver (which I still have yet to see), but ran out of time.

On our way back I caught a glimpse of the mountains. Now I know that I must get back up to BC this year. I may end up making a loop, but this would obviously require an over night stay around Vancouver. That may not be a bad thing though since it would be an excellent excuse to see the city a little more. I honestly can’t wait to take some photos around the area.

I hope to be able to do this in late September or early October. We’ll see how I feel once I get back from Germany next month.