Ventura County (805) Car Meets?

[Kevinmp7]

Originally Posted by VenomRush

my first vid using a go pro. nothing crazy but i was averaging about 70 mph throughout the first half of the vid

Very Nice! I took a cruise on the 150 today also.

[CenCali86]

Does anyone cruise up to the Santa Barbara cars and coffee on Sunday mornings?

[P@ul]

Originally Posted by CenCali86

Does anyone cruise up to the Santa Barbara cars and coffee on Sunday mornings?

What time is Cars and Coffee in SB? I didn't even know they had one.

[Ganthrithor]

Originally Posted by P@ul

What time is Cars and Coffee in SB? I didn't even know they had one.

8-10 on Sunday mornings. It's usually down on Coast Village Road, but I think on the first or last Sunday of the month (can't remember which) they move it up to Montecito Village, which has a bigger lot to handle a bigger turnout. Those big weekends are the ones to come up for if you're going to drive a ways.

[CenCali86]

Originally Posted by Ganthrithor

8-10 on Sunday mornings. It's usually down on Coast Village Road, but I think on the first or last Sunday of the month (can't remember which) they move it up to Montecito Village, which has a bigger lot to handle a bigger turnout. Those big weekends are the ones to come up for if you're going to drive a ways.

Well I'm about an hour north but I would love to cruise down one weekend to check it out.

[Kevinmp7]

Anybody up for a Sunday cruise on the 150? Santa Paula to Carpinteria

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by Kevinmp7

Anybody up for a Sunday cruise on the 150? Santa Paula to Carpinteria

Yes. However... I'm rashly assuming that Kevin isn't making a firm proposal for this coming Sunday (Mother's Day). My suggestion(s): May 18th? IMHO, CA-150 is a better drive from Carp to Santa Paula (mostly uphill till Dennison Grade summit). Why not start from Rincon Beach Park, as a nice place to hang around while everyone's getting together? Maybe start with a side trip up to Montecito to cruise by Santa Barbara Cars and Coffee if we meet about 8:30 AM; that would add about 24 miles to the round trip, including swooshing along Foothill past Toro Canyon. Lunch in Santa Paula?

Anyway... anybody... just pick a date, place, time and route, and we'll do our best to be a part of it.

[Kevinmp7]

Originally Posted by Wayne

Yes. However... I'm rashly assuming that Kevin isn't making a firm proposal for this coming Sunday (Mother's Day). My suggestion(s): May 18th? IMHO, CA-150 is a better drive from Carp to Santa Paula (mostly uphill till Dennison Grade summit). Why not start from Rincon Beach Park, as a nice place to hang around while everyone's getting together? Maybe start with a side trip up to Montecito to cruise by Santa Barbara Cars and Coffee if we meet about 8:30 AM; that would add about 24 miles to the round trip, including swooshing along Foothill past Toro Canyon. Lunch in Santa Paula?

Anyway... anybody... just pick a date, place, time and route, and we'll do our best to be a part of it.

Yeah, Mother's Day slipped my mind. I'm in if we decide to confirm a cruise on the 18th. I'm in the process of getting a gopro so maybe we can even film it . Also should it be just a FRS/BRZ cruise or can we invite friends with different cars?

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

[Bonner]

What time?

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by Bonner

What time?

Folks, we need a bit of coordination here. So far, only two local 86ers have declared a serious intent to get together on a specific date. I think the next move is for anyone else who's in the range of 80% probability for a group drive on Sunday morning May 18th to post to this thread, with suggestions or limiting factors for where to meet at what time and where to go. Again, my input is:

Where: Meet at Rincon Beach Park, just off Pacific Coast Highway (CA-1) between La Conchita and Carpinteria)

Time: 8 to 8:30 AM if the group wants to cruise by Santa Barbara Cars & Coffee in Montecito; later (10 AM) if not? Early birds swing back by the Rincon to pick up the late sleepers?

Route: Optional loop off freeway through Carpinteria, Summerland and Montecito. Up CA-150 past Lake Casitas, though Ojai, over Dennison grade, through downtown Santa Paula, ending with an optional lunch there.

Repeating my earlier post: We're fairly flexible and open to any other suggestions, and will do our best to fall in behind whoever feels the urge to act as untitled, unsalaried (and quite possibly underappreciated) leader.

Originally Posted by Kevinmp7

Also should it be just a FRS/BRZ cruise or can we invite friends with different cars?

Unless there's a lot more interest shown here for what is essentially a first-time 805 86 outing, I think it would probably add to the social interaction to have other 'sporty car' types join the parade, but either way is good with me.

VRR-OOO-OOMM, VR-OOO-OOMM...

[Ganthrithor]

I'd be up for a drive on the 18th.

Edit: didn't see second page. I'm down for C&C + some driving next weekend. Maybe we can do the below stuff another weekend.

If you guys are up for it, I highly recommend the roads behind Ojai. Here's a link to a google map:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/34.4...37623a!1m0!3e0

Highway 33 goes over the mountains from the town of Ojai itself and is a fantastic drive. Hudson Ranch road (from the Cuyama valley to Frazier park) is a long road that's like the Nurburgring of the south coast-- lots of elevation changes, banked corners (both on- and off-camber, to keep things interesting), and a huge variety of scenery as well (since you ascend from a dry valley into high pine forest). Lockwood Valley road (from Frazier Park back to the bottom of highway 33 right where it enters the Cuyama Valley is another fun road: for any of you who saw Motortrend's review of the new WRX (where that dorky dude jumped the car and they replayed the footage like a hundred times back to back), that's Lockwood Valley. It's slower and more technical than the other two, with even more pronounced elevation changes and tighter corners.

All these roads are two-lane, and most of them sit relatively deserted the vast majority of the time. The only exception to that general rule is right around the town of Frazier Park and Mt Pinos, where there's a little tourist mountain village-- people come up from LA on the 5 and drive into these towns, so there are plenty of other cars on the road in that area. Other than that, though, it's not uncommon to drive Hudson Ranch / Lockwood Valley and not see another car. On highway 33 the number of other cars you see can usually be recorded using your fingers only.

I don't know if everyone would be up for ~4hrs / 160mi of driving, but I really cant recommend that route enough: it's just fantastic driving. I doubt it could be bettered without renting a track, and even at a track you wouldn't get the awesome, ever-changing scenery. I last drove the loop a few weeks ago and wouldn't mind leading a group if people would enjoy having someone in front who's driven the roads before. Fuel is available with a short, ~5-10min detour into Frazier Park if people need a splash halfway through. There's also a deli right where you turn onto Lockwood Valley road if people want to stop and eat: I've never eaten there, so I can't vouch for the food, but it's there.

Final note: the pacing of this route is also good: you've got 33 first, which tires you out a bit, but then you've got a long, relatively straight highway cruise across the valley floor during which you can relax for a while. Then you do Hudson Ranch road, which again is intense, but then you can stop at Frazier Park for fuel, food and a stretch. Then you tackle Lockwood Valley after lunch, which is probably the most challenging section (but which has some straight bits to let you unwind between difficult parts), and then after a bit of relaxed cruising through some ranch-land at the end of Lockwood, you head up and back over 33 into Ojai. It's the perfect mix of slightly-manic and chilled-out.

[Kevinmp7]

Originally Posted by Ganthrithor

I'd be up for a drive on the 18th.

Edit: didn't see second page. I'm down for C&C + some driving next weekend. Maybe we can do the below stuff another weekend.

If you guys are up for it, I highly recommend the roads behind Ojai. Here's a link to a google map:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/34.4...37623a!1m0!3e0

Highway 33 goes over the mountains from the town of Ojai itself and is a fantastic drive. Hudson Ranch road (from the Cuyama valley to Frazier park) is a long road that's like the Nurburgring of the south coast-- lots of elevation changes, banked corners (both on- and off-camber, to keep things interesting), and a huge variety of scenery as well (since you ascend from a dry valley into high pine forest). Lockwood Valley road (from Frazier Park back to the bottom of highway 33 right where it enters the Cuyama Valley is another fun road: for any of you who saw Motortrend's review of the new WRX (where that dorky dude jumped the car and they replayed the footage like a hundred times back to back), that's Lockwood Valley. It's slower and more technical than the other two, with even more pronounced elevation changes and tighter corners.

All these roads are two-lane, and most of them sit relatively deserted the vast majority of the time. The only exception to that general rule is right around the town of Frazier Park and Mt Pinos, where there's a little tourist mountain village-- people come up from LA on the 5 and drive into these towns, so there are plenty of other cars on the road in that area. Other than that, though, it's not uncommon to drive Hudson Ranch / Lockwood Valley and not see another car. On highway 33 the number of other cars you see can usually be recorded using your fingers only.

I don't know if everyone would be up for ~4hrs / 160mi of driving, but I really cant recommend that route enough: it's just fantastic driving. I doubt it could be bettered without renting a track, and even at a track you wouldn't get the awesome, ever-changing scenery. I last drove the loop a few weeks ago and wouldn't mind leading a group if people would enjoy having someone in front who's driven the roads before. Fuel is available with a short, ~5-10min detour into Frazier Park if people need a splash halfway through. There's also a deli right where you turn onto Lockwood Valley road if people want to stop and eat: I've never eaten there, so I can't vouch for the food, but it's there.

Final note: the pacing of this route is also good: you've got 33 first, which tires you out a bit, but then you've got a long, relatively straight highway cruise across the valley floor during which you can relax for a while. Then you do Hudson Ranch road, which again is intense, but then you can stop at Frazier Park for fuel, food and a stretch. Then you tackle Lockwood Valley after lunch, which is probably the most challenging section (but which has some straight bits to let you unwind between difficult parts), and then after a bit of relaxed cruising through some ranch-land at the end of Lockwood, you head up and back over 33 into Ojai. It's the perfect mix of slightly-manic and chilled-out.

I think this would be perfect for a second meetup. After we get everyone active in the meetups then we can do big caravan on the 33. I never been on the 33 so its going to be a intense experience.

[Ganthrithor]

Originally Posted by Kevinmp7

I think this would be perfect for a second meetup. After we get everyone active in the meetups then we can do big caravan on the 33. I never been on the 33 so its going to be a intense experience.

Yeah sounds good to me. It will be nice to get a feel for who's who, what paces people drive at, and who'd be interested in tackling such a big drive first anyway.

@Wayne : 8am meet at Rincon aiming to be at C&C sounds like a good plan. In reality if you tell people 8 you'll probably end up leaving at 8:30 and getting there around 8:45, which means you'll probably catch the best hour of the event (people often show up a little late and leave a bit early).

I'm definitely planning on meeting up with you guys on the 18th and doing the drive out to Santa Paula. I've only driven that way once, but I remember it being pretty fun (except we got stuck behind the world's worst driving instructor in a Mini on the way back whose student drove like 20mph through all the curvy bits and refused to pull over to let anyone by ever ). The grade just after Ojai is really fun despite being quite short.

[Ganthrithor]

Here's a clip of highway 33. I cut to a few minutes in, where the canyony/mountain-y driving begins in earnest: if you want to see the approach bit from Ojai you can start the video at the beginning:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8nJKa7uZN4#t=285"]GOPR0193 - YouTube[/ame]


Here's a video of Hudson Ranch road... the sound is garbage (just mute the video and put on some music you like), but the footage is decent. Man, I almost want to just get in the car and go driving now


[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7XI0FN6v60&list=PLD3061C84DBB090FE"]Cerro Noroeste Rd to Pine Mountain Club, California - YouTube[/ame]

Edit: and here's a good snippit of what you can expect from the meat and potatoes sections of Lockwood Valley road... again, just mute the sound and then imagine traveling significantly faster than the car in this video... it's an amazing drive. Not a forgiving place to drive beyond your abilities though:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmwi5fCYdTI"]Lockwood Valley Road - pt. 5 (HD) - YouTube[/ame]