made it up Everest

[T77911S]

both of my brothers have made it, several times, but something always comes up and I cant go. this trip was no exception.
I have mineries disease. I can get wicked bad episodes of vertigo. to the point of throwing up. I am in between drug studies so the vertigo is back. its not always spinning. sometimes things just are not steady when ever I move.
so the plan this trip was to play it by ear and go as far as I could go and if I got vertigo I would just stop and get a hotel and hang out until I felt better then go back home.
so the day before I am suppose to leave for "base camp" I get dizzy about 10am. pretty much in bed until the next day,. still felt bad the next morning but hoping I would get better in time to leave.
not 100% so I leave for the drive south, 1.5hrs, to base camp to my brothers house where my other brother is also.
we get up the next day and leave for the next location about 4hrs away. the BMW plant in Greenville SC. so we are off, 2 930's and one Z4.
we get to the BMW museum and I feeling a bit "drunk". things just kind of move when I do. I was actually doing better in the car.
next stop is the final camp before the summit.

we get on 28 off of I85, the moonshiners highway.
very tight twisty roads. man this is going to be the death of me. I CANT drive this slow. some of the lefts really do me in. I feel like my back is up against the wall and I am just spinning around one of the carnival rides.
finally a stop. I just need to stop moving for a few minutes.

so an evaluation of how I am doing.
am I going to make it to the final camp for the push to the summit?
not feeling that great. so lets find a place about an hour from the summit. If feel bad the next day (summit day) I can stay in my room. that means about 45 minutes to the hotel and more tight and twisty mountain roads.

summit day:
not 100% but I did not come this far for nothing.
an HOUR of twist mountain roads. man I cant keep my foot out of no matter how bad I feel. yea a few turns put me on the carnival ride.
I NEED TO STOP.
thank goodness we did and at the base of the summit.
here I am at the east coasts Mulholland drive THE TAIL OF THE DRAON

feeling a bit better so LETS GO.
not too much holding back. just to stay within my limits. new tires, conti's, that I really don't like, the slip angles are very hi but traction is very good, so I am not confident in the tires after having very good Michelins. also still learning to drive the 930.
with the exception of a bad habit of turning in too soon, I did very good.
got to the end MY brakes were smoking and so were my brothers in the Z4.
once I realized my bad habit the other 3 runs we did later on went much better but I never drove the entire course as hard as I did the first time.

as my brother said a great day is when you get to drive the car home.
yea only one wreck, some kid ran off the road.
Tuesday was a great day to go, very little traffic.

I must admit having oncoming traffic coming at you in the corners was a bit nerving, mostly as I did not want THEM to hit ME.

if you don't know, tail of the dragon, 318 turns in 11 miles.

the roads getting there were just as fun,. its just the history of the dragon and everyone on the dragon knows why you are there and will move over for you.

you can see photos at
killboy.com
19th of this month starting at 1040am and going to about 230pm.

2 blue 930's and one Z4.


with the way I felt I really could imagine this being like climbing Everest in the fact that everyone wants to get to the final camp for the push to the summit the next day. that's the way I felt. just wanted to get to within about an hour so I could make the final drive the next day.

the trip back was something else too.
5hrs, 90-120 when traffic let us.
I don't know how race car drivers get out after several hours of 150+ then drive 60.
I am still trying to SLOW DOWN.

[tirwin]

GREAT story!



Glad you made the summit!

My wife has MS and some of the meds have a side effect of causing vertigo so I feel your pain. Hope you find a treatment that provides some relief.

My first TotD experience was when we were on our honeymoon. This was back when people used paper maps, not Google Maps. We supposed to drive from Chattanooga, TN to Asheville, TN late one night in December. Someone recommended we take I-40 through Knoxville. Me being the GENIUS that I am looked at the map and said that's ridiculous! We can take this straight shot through the mountains. We drove the Dragon at about 11 o'clock at night in a Honda Accord. We needed new brake pads by the time we made it to the other side.

[T77911S]

we usually hit the mountains once or twice a year staying in different areas and driving the roads. we also usually do it when it is cooler out.
I put AC in the car just for this trip.

[Bob Kontak]

Nice!

[Gogar]

Cool!

I’m riding in Knoxville in July and we will do pretty much anything to avoid the dragon.

[Jims5543]

I cannot count how many laps I have done on TTOD.

I used to own a home 40 minutes from there with my 3.6 swapped 1980 911 tucked in the garage.

Shame you did not give us a heads up you are in the area I can point you to a road, just like TTOD except not LEO, no traffic and the road is pristine with a dead end or I should say turns into a dirt road at the end so no oncoming traffic.

Me chasing a Pelican in a 400HP 911 in my 550HP RX7

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paxLFqj3uBo


I have a video somewhere, never uploaded it, I should. It shows a motorcycle rider coming at my signalling to slow down. I was leading a pack of Pelicans in their Porsches. I lifted and slowed and glad I did I had to lock up my brakes as the nose of my car almost went under a 18 wheeler tractor trailer on my wide of the road.

It is a fun road that has turned into a circus. 15 years ago it was starting now it is.

If you ever are in the area again, PM me and I will tell you where an old Mooshiner road is that is a 1 hour ride away, the ride is fun to get there that is empty.

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by T77911S

the trip back was something else too.
5hrs, 90-120 when traffic let us.
I don't know how race car drivers get out after several hours of 150+ then drive 60.
I am still trying to SLOW DOWN.

This reminded me of a story.

When I had my 3.6 911 I would have to sometimes drive from NC to Florida and back due to my business.

We would stay at our house in the NC Mountains as much as possible duty would call and every 2 weeks I needed to be in my office for a couple of days.

I would typically fly back. This one time I decided to drive the 911 back and forth.

The drive, according to my GPS, was supposed to take 12 hours.

I did it in 8.5 hours.

Average speed on the trip was 80 MPH with gas stops.

Here is the cool part best I could tell my 911 had an 18 gallon tank, when cruising at 80 MPH I could get about 30 MPG. So I could easily go 400 Miles on a tank of gas in that thing.

My trip was 730 miles one way. One gas stop in 8.5 hours of driving.

I stopped once.

I also peed in the old school Aquafina Water bottles that had the large opening in them. I had a cooler in the car with those bottles and Reb Bulls in it.

The trip back to Florida started at 5 in the morning and I was at my house in Florida by 1:30 on a Thursday afternoon.

Showered and in the office by 2:30.

Spent the day Friday doing what I needed to do then leaving Friday at 4PM to drive back to the mountains. Not pushing my luck taking it easy and getting in by 2 int he morning.

Weekend in the mountains. Nothing better.

Love WNC best place in the world.

[Jims5543]

The other secret road.

https://youtu.be/B5AKVqCt9F0

[T77911S]

Great stories

Will take you up on it next time.
Was going to do a post before and post pics along the way but I never felt good enough to do it.


For some reason I can't upload pics

[Don Ro]

"if you don't know, tail of the dragon, 318 turns in 11 miles."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Never been, only heard stories.
This photo from somewhere on the web....20 yrs. ago...I kept it cuz as kids on motorcycles we used to burn circles like this...called them "brodies" for some damn reason.
The girls were always impressed.
Same "brodie" but with eyes 'n a smile.
I recall reading that it was burned either at the beginning or the end of The TOTD.
Who knows, eh?
~~~~~~~~~~~
.

[T77911S]

[T77911S]

End of first run

[T77911S]

BMW plant/museum