Dirt roads, anybody ? Options

[jsteele22]

Went for a ride yesterday, and decided to get away from all the foliage traffic. There's a highway up in the mountains (HWY 67) that has some pretty sweet twisties on it : speed limit is 20, and the advisory (yellow sign) speeds are 10 MPH ! Very little traffic. So basically, 914 heaven.

Now one little issue is that a stretch of it, maybe 5-10 miles, is unpaved, which is what keeps folks away from it. I had some major second thoughts, but when I thought of all the traffic I had come through (people who slow down and constipate the left lane anytime curves threaten. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/ar15.gif) ) I decided to try it. There were a few places with a little washboarding, which is no fun (I've got KYBs and no rear window gasket to speak of), but mostly the road was smooth.

MAN ! Talk about some fun. Plenty of driving right at (and past) the limits of traction. Easy to play with throttle steering, and I got a good feel for the front/rear brake bias. And the weight balance (like nobody ever noticed that before...) made it a blast. This was the kind of driving where 2 digits of HP was plenty, and I would bet that a 914 could beat damn near anything. Hard to say for sure about a WRX, but it would be fun to see if good weight distribution trumps the advantage of AWD.

The strange thing is, this kind of driving is so, so non-914. Of course, anything with bumps is right out. But does anybody drive 914s on dirt roads ? I wouldn't want to do a lot of it, just b/c of the vibration and dirt being hard on the car, but for a little out-of-the-ordinary fun, its an awesome way to kill a sunny Saturday afternoon !

[SpecialK]

QUOTE (jsteele22 @ Oct 16 2005, 02:47 PM)

Actually, that's a great point. My engine is "a tad" on the oily side. I've been meaning to clean it up a bit....

Sounds like a good winter project....just be careful not to fall into the "Well hell, while I've got it this far apart, I might as well...." trap! It's hard to resist!