Ultimate roads you have driven

[K1FFLOM]

edit.

Edited April 12, 2017 by K1FFLOM

[sivispacem]

I've done the Black Mountain Pass a few times, both cars and bikes. Most incredible was on a sunny winter's day in a Porsche Cayman. Most terrifying was on a snowy winter's day on a Yamaha Thunderace.

 

It's basically 25 miles of this:

 

 

-EDIT-

A4069, Brecon Beacons, South Wales

 

The North to South run is better than South-North. Start at Llandovery, head Southwest on the A4069 towards Llangadog. The first four or five miles is fast and sweeping, you can carry enormous speed across most of it. Out of Llandadog you start heading Southeast, through the forests, which is again fast and flowing until you get to Pont Aber, when the climb starts. It stays relatively fast (and NSL, aside from in the villages) until you break out of the forest, then it's 40-50 limits (not that many people obey them) and grows steeper and tighter, with numerous chicanes.

 

The best stretch is between the edge of the forest and Herbert's Quarry, which is four miles of hairpins bringing you out onto a flat mountain peak with incredible views. That's the stretch the above photo is from. The descent over Nant Gaws and into Upper Byrnamman widens out but remains pretty hairy. And the sheep! They're literally f*cking everywhere.

 

 

Decent video of a South to North run, just over the mountain, in a Caterham. The best bit starts about four minutes in (but we do it as a climb rather than a decline)

 

[DOUGL4S1]

Camanducaia - Monte Verde, it is a 29 km road that goes through the mountains, it's very beautiful but very dangerous because of the blind sharp turns. Monte Verde itself is a very beautiful city. Unfortunatelly, Google didn't went there yet, so I found this video in Portuguese:

(If you want to, skip to 2:40 to skip him complaining about dirt on the road, and where the cool part begins)

Edited March 16, 2017 by DOUGL4S1

[SouthLand]

If you ever come to the Spanish region of Catalonia let me suggest the following:

 

 

Carreta de l'Arrabassada:

 

 

 

Info:

 

- It's a Road that connects the city of Barcelona to a both a small town in the top of the mountain called "Vallvidrera" and also, to another town on the other side of the mountain called "Sant Cugat"

 

- Historically, the road was used as part of a Rally stage.

 

- This is what it is to drive:

 

 

 

 

Pros:

 

- The view

 

 

- Nice curvy road

 

- Friday nights there are car meets and a lot of biker fans as well

 

- You have a Theme Park at the top of the mountain called "Tibidabo" you can stop by.

 

 

 

 

 

Cons:

 

- There is always a little bit of traffic. Rush hour is just madness.

 

- Cops usually go there to catch people speeding. Not always but like 60% of the time i go there i see cops.

 

-There are a lot of drivers there that drive ridiculously slow. Like 20km/h under the limit. Not a problem if you are driving a bike, but if you are driving a car, there are very few spots where you can overtake cars.

 

 

Location:

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/41.4177349,2.1385136/41.463969,2.0873204/@41.4314317,2.1103607,15z/data=!4m2!4m1!3e0

 

And also this part:

 

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/41.40426,2.1170875/41.4178848,2.1384075/@41.4195519,2.1198868,14.75z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d2.1154019!2d41.4166071!3s0x12a49828b30b4b09:0xb17d903b74e92fe9!1m0!3e0

[Tchuck]

The beautiful Ashinoko/Hakone Skyline.

 

 

Runs from somewhere south of Gotenba all the way to Hakone. Not very long, about 10km, but oh my god is it stunning.

You can get amazing views of Mt Fuji and surrounding area. Really breathtaking, and filled with twisty turns, as you can see from the route map:

 

And here's a dude driving it with an 86:

 

 

Drove there on the MX5, and it was bliss. Beautiful day, good weather, with the top down, and just cruising. Even has a section with "musical" asphalt that plays a tune as you drive over it.

[SouthLand]

Let me continue with other roads my region has to offer.

 

 

SS5 El Priorat / El Lloar - Gratallops

 

 

 

 

Info:

 

- This road is used on every edition of the WRC of Spain as a Rally Stage

 

- VERY VERY VERY fun road to drive

 

 

This is what the road looks like: (You can skip to 3:15 if you want)

 

 

 

 

Pros:

 

- It's a hell of an experience. The road is designed for you to both take your skills and your car to the max.

 

- There is literally NO traffic whatsoever. Since those roads are used to go between villages that barely hold up to 100 people, and you won't find cyclists either.

 

- At night, since there is NO traffic, you can drive on your high beams without bothering other drivers.

 

-There is NO police whatsoever

 

- The scenery is also beautiful. Classic Mediterranean forest/mountain views.

 

 

 

 

Cons:

 

- I am not going to lie, it's a road that requires some driving skills. I have seen many people crash and accidents do occur often by car enthusiasts that push their limit way beyond their skills. So It's safer if you take it easy, and drive at the speed where you are comfortable with, and feel safe and in control of the car at all times.

 

- If you crash and you are alone, you are in the middle of nowhere and it can take hours before someone notices you. So take that in mind

 

- As i said, you are in the middle of nowhere. So after a few rides, don't expect to stop at a nearby Mc Donald's to get food because there isn't one. The closest big city is Reus which is a 45min drive

 

-Lanes are very narrow. At some points, it looks like two cars wouldn't be able to go through at once.

 

 

 

Location:

 

https://www.google.es/maps/dir/41.1837533,0.747972/41.1956479,0.7780882/@41.2069309,0.7397878,13.5z/data=!4m9!4m8!1m5!3m4!1m2!1d0.6971784!2d41.2290768!3s0x12a12c5d4fa88469:0xd7cb51b7a1449171!1m0!3e0

Edited March 17, 2017 by SouthLand

[sivispacem]

So far I've only done the Evo Triangle once, but it's a great piece of road. If you've seen Top Gear or read English language motoring mags you've probably seen it.

 

 

A5/A543/B4501, Snowdonia National Park, North Wales

 

21 mile triangular (duh) loop, all NSL. One side long, fast, progressive lakeside B-road up past Llyn Brenig reservoir, one side wide and very fast A road and one side fast switchback roads through relatively flat moorland. Splendid piece of road. Again, main risk is sheep death though.

 

[Gnocchi Flip Flops]

Yall make me feel like I live in a sh*t hole. Best road I've been on has probably been Highway 16, widely known as Bandera road once it enters San Antonio from the west.

 

Back in June 2015 I suggested we take a trip up to the town of Fredericksburg in the Hill Country. Gorgeous town. We took I-10 which itself is beautiful once it starts slicing through all of the bedrock and turned off onto Highway 87 which took us straight to Fredericksburg. That route itself would make a very relaxing and fairly scenic drive. After we did some touristy stuff it was time to go and I again suggested we take Highway 16 back. Little did I know, that was about a 60-80 mile drive back and it headed all of the way to Kerrvile then cut deep into the Hill Country. It was worth it though. The vistas were pretty great and the road got very twisty and just gave you the sense of truly being out in the country. Also there was a lime green Scat Pack in front of us for a big chunk of the drive and my mom isn't exactly a Sunday driver, sure as hell doesn't like to drive slow, so that was nice. I would love to drive on that road myself once I get more comfortable with driving. Definitely not the most scenic part of the road, but here's a coupe of snaps:

 

 

(very rarely do the trees turn that color here, that was after the drought of 2011 and a loootttt of trees died, everywhere you look today you see patches of grey dead trees in most hills sadly)

 

Another beautiful road is Highway 360 in Austin itself. East Austin is as flat as stereotypical Texas but west Austin is very reminiscent of some hilly East Coast city I mean it's really nice. We take Highway 360 every time we go to Austin's cars and coffee and actually went that way last Sunday. There's lots of curves, beautiful views of the hilly landscape (covered in some pretty wild mansions), lots of slicing through bedrock and even a bridge:

 

 

Of course these pictures, or Google Streetview, don't do either of these roads any justice. They're not fancy scenic byways but they're undoubtedly beautiful for sure.

Edited March 19, 2017 by Scaglietti

[slohbur]

The lovely scenery of the Serra da Estrela mountain range in Portugal.

 

[Audi]

I live at the foot of the Rocky Mountains so I have a lot of great roads near me. The last cruise I was on with some guys from the Audi forums was from Red Rocks/Morrison up highway 74 to highway 103 to Echo Lake and back down 103 to Idaho Springs, then just take I-70 back home. Great views on Mt. Evans and only 45 minutes to an hour out of the Denver metropolitan area. There are even better roads deeper into the mountains though.

 

Really need to invest in a go pro for these cruises, they're a lot of fun.

 

 

Some of the scenery (not my pics)

 

One road in Colorado I really want to drive is US 550 between Silverton and Ouray, also known as the million dollar highway

 

million dollar highway

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 21, 2017 by Audi

[V4S]

Went above into the clouds before

10,023 ft above sea level (3055 meters)

 

It's called Haleakala and it's located in Maui, Hawaii. At night its pitch black up there and all you see are the BRIGHT stars. You tend to have to get there around 3-4am, claim a parking stall, then set your alarm for sunrise before you nap. Absolutely stunning.

Edited March 24, 2017 by V4S

[jpm1]

don't know if ultimate means scenic stunning or dangerous. but when i was a kid my dad worked on a dam in Colombia. and when we came from France, we had to take the roads 55 and 56 from Bogota to where the dam was located, in the purest Colombian jungle. the road 55 (1st part) was pretty good, but the road 56 (2nd part) was very dangerous. the typical south american jungle road, when during the rainy season, you didn't know if the road was still there or not. i saw numerous dramatic accidents there. some felt off several kilometers ravines. impossible to do in rainy season without a 4x4

 

here you can see a picture of that era. from left to right. my dad, me, my dad's chauffeur, and a couple of friends of us, having a moment of relaxation during the 4 hours trip (150 km). you can see the 2 company cars too, that were used there. it was in the 80s. today according to google street map the road has been improved a lot