What a great afternoon.
I'm starting this thread as a way to prompt some of the local Southern Californians into organizing another Saturday-morning canyon run.
It was about 80 degrees here in Los Angeles today. I had a big stack of work in front of me, and the sun was just catching the black paint on the 911 as I looked out the window of my office.
Still, there was no time for a drive today.
Southern California has some of the worst freeway congestion in the country, and weekends usually don't bring much of a break. But you can check the current freeway speeds
online, and for some reason, I took a look. There was a green line of dots along the 10 to the 405, and then all the way along the 101 to Topanga Canyon.
Still, there was no time for a drive today. Too much work to do.
The Porsche 911 is probably the most famous and victorious sports car of the 20th (and 21st) century. It was introduced at the Geneva Auto Show in 1963. It is a car that combines the Porsche 356's somewhat ill-advised power train layout with a more performance-oriented suspension, and the improved power of a six-cylinder air-cooled boxer-type engine. My particular 911 has a 250-hp motor in the back of a lightweight chassis with an improved suspension and some very wide wheels. This gives it tremendous cornering capability, as well as torquey bursts of power that make navigating tight, twisty roads a whole lot of fun.
These were some of the thoughts that were going through my head.
There was no use resisting.
I fired the engine up, and headed down to the Shell station for $40 worth of Supreme.
($40?! WTF? Didn't we blow half of the middle east up recently? Shouldn't that entitle us to some cheap oil? But I digress.) Then I followed that line of green freeway dots out toward the Pacific, up through the Sepulveda Pass, and then along the north end of the Santa Monica Mountains to the exit for Topanga Canyon.
23 miles of freeway. Did it in about 15 minutes.
Nice.
It was about five in the evening, but the days are getting longer, and there was still plenty of light. I probably should have put the video camera on, but you can believe me when I say that the route from Mulholland Highway, to Stunt Road, to Saddle Peak, to Piuma Canyon, to Las Virgenes, back to Mulholland Highway, past the Rock Store, all the way to Decker Canyon, and back to the 101, was pretty freakin' excellent.
Very little traffic.
Hundreds of turns.
No blips on the Valentine One.
One question, though, for you motorcycle guys: What's the deal? I always try and leave a generous amount of space between me and bikes when I come up behind them. But unlike cars, motorcyclists seem to never want to move over and let faster guys past. Is it a pride thing that bikes should be faster through these kinds of roads than cars? Should I get closer? I want to be polite, but damn: either speed up, or wave me by, okay?
But the bike train delay was very short. Virtually all of the trip was wide open, with spectacular views down into the Valley, and also out over Malibu and the Pacific.
Both windows down the whole time. Warm air washing in with the scent of evening and the approaching Spring. I got back a couple hours after I left with 98 new miles on the odometer.
I'll be up late with work, but it was definitely worth it.
I stopped twice to shoot some pictures of the car, including this trademark Jack Olsen self-portrait.
I'll mix the pictures into the text of this post.
So guys: when's the next canyon run? If not for ourselves, then for the roads. Twisty pavement is really a terrible thing to waste.
