Cops, congestion really aren't too big of a deal as long as you aren't going on holiday weekends or during big meets. If you get held up behind someone holding you up, just pull off and wait a minute, its not a big deal, its not a racetrack. As for tickets, on the way before the first corners, I passed a van on the dotted pass zone and ended up zooming by a officer and didn't get a ticket. I think you'd have to be doing something blatantly offensive with your driving- cutting lines, tailgaiting, otherwise causing trouble for other drivers, to be any concern to them.

The speed limit is low, and you'll quickly realize why because the turns are so tight it's almost impossible to take some corners over 35 mph, at least on a stock BRZ.

OP, if you're planning a trip from Nashville, be aware it's a longer drive than it seems, so do plan on picking rest areas, bring a cooler with snacks, printed maps so you don't get lost out there with no phone signal.

It is supposed to be in the Joyce Kilmer Park. I do not see the road name on the map either. You can find the details on the under upcoming events at svra.com

No they don't but I get what you're saying. Much easier to stay in a lane when your vehicle doesn't even take up half of it.




Since people bumped this, I guess I'll throw in my 2 cents. The dragon is a lot of fun and a must at least one time for any sports car or driving enthusiast. Go in the morning like others have stated. I highly recommend running it slowly at least once to make sure you know what you're getting into. I also highly recommend buying or renting a gopro (they rent them out there). I didn't last time and I regret it massively. Avoid the car days. The ones I know of are the Z one, Miatas at the gap, and an S2000 one.


Someone mentioned other roads and Asheville before. I came from the East and once you get decently high up in elevation on the blue ridge parkway, most of the parkway exits that you take are tons of fun. Many are every bit as fun as the dragon, if not more. There is also the diamondback road a few hours away that circles a mountain. I personally found the elevation changes and layout of the road to be more fun than the dragon. It reminded me of the Japanese mountain roads in all of the cartoons and racing games, and is probably the closest I'll ever get to driving on them. I stayed in Asheville on the way back and was impressed with how much fun the downtown area was. Check it out if you get the chance.

Not sure if I've shared this in this thread, but its a quick dragon run:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBjjJfFm-tM&t=101s"]Tail of the Dragon - Quick version - YouTube[/ame]

Classic track from Queen. We'll done!

Downtown Asheville is a fun time, though for people not local to the area it's worth mentioning that Asheville is 110 miles away from the Tail. Asheville has been named Beer Town USA on more than one occasion too, if that's your thing. ;)

I'm heading up to the Tail for some driving on the 21st of this month. Gonna combine the trip with good viewing of the total eclipse!

Here's a shot from my last visit:
https://scontent-ort2-1.xx.fbcdn.net...3d&oe=5A271487

Asheville is a great town & the dragon is a good time at night when you can have it all to yourself:

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ALJVtzrVAc&t=750s"]TT-East 2016: Tail of the Dragon Night Run - YouTube[/ame]

Look rock overlook on the Foothills Parkway is a really great spot for night sky viewing.

I'm heading up there with a buddy in a WRX STI on sept 16-18, cant wait! Very interested to see if I can keep pace with the STI.

You definitely could. Your speed will ultimately become dependent on how well you know the road. During my last visit I had to pull over and let a Miata pass me by. He was way faster than me and I quickly lost sight of him. And he had a passenger! AND his car was mostly stock, lol.

Talk about humbling...

My wife and I did the Dragon back in June on a trip from TX to DC. Her in the passenger seat slowed us a bit. The stock tires scream like piglets at mealtime on some of the new asphalt on the skyway and 68 (I think) between Ducktown and Telico Plains. The louder the tires complained the tighter she gripped the door handle and the less enjoyment there was in pushing the car.

On the skyway a couple of guys on Harley's caught us. The BRZ was substantially faster in the corners but they'd wind me up on the straights. It was interesting to watch them in the mirrors. They obviously knew the road and their bikes. They'd be showering sparks off the foot pegs and mounts.

Eventually, the preservation of my marriage overtook my enjoyment of jousting with the bike guys and I found a pull out and waved them by. A mile later we came up on a group of 5 or 6 Harleyites sight seeing and that put an end to the fun and games.

On the Dragon we did fine for about 8 miles and then I noticed her color wasn't so good. Rather than clean her lunch off the dash and floor, I slowed considerably.

All in all though, it was a very cool experience. We took 28 back toward Asheville. It, too, is a very cool drive. Next time, we're bringing some Dramamine for her.

Another trip to the Dragon
[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ofxqpl42A"]I'm Back 2016 10 29 Dragon Drive - YouTube[/ame]

Anyone have much experience with the Cherohala Skyway? Is it a fun road to drive on? The route looks pretty cool but I'm worried that this road is too much like the Blue Ridge Parkway, i.e. touristy with a strict 45 mph speed limit.

Additionally, I'm open to suggestions of other roads in Western NC to drive on. Already took note of the Diamondback.

The Skyway is fun, but is certainly a little more scenic than the Dragon. It's nowhere near as bad as the BRP for gawkers and sight-seers, though. If you're headed to Deals Gap, you might as well hit both, since they're so close.

Other fun roads in western NC are the Diamondback like you pointed out, the Rattler (NC-209), NC-197 between I-26 and 19E, NC-80 (Devil's Whip). If you want to venture up to VA, the Back of the Dragon (VA-16) is fun.

The Cherohala is great, although maybe similar to the BRP. They repaved the NC side last year and it feels amazing. Not too much traffic or enforcement, although I usually have gone during the week. I believe 40 speed limit in TN and 45 in NC. I had a TN park ranger witness me make an illegal pass and get up to 72mph once. He was cool and told me to keep it closer to 40 than 100 and I wouldn't have any problems with him. It might have helped that the girl on the back of my bike was cute though.

When my brother and I went and met up with one of his buddies from high school, the intent was to check out most of those that you mentioned. His buddy swerved off the road to miss a dog while circling the mountain on the diamondback about an hour before we got there to meet him, and totaled his car. Ironically, he wasn't even driving spirited when it happened, but he was the "guide" who had planned everything out and he had to opt out before we even started. We ended up doing the dragon and the diamondback, and having an amazing time but I still wish we could have seen some of the other ones.

Thanks guys, I appreciate the advice.

GD..... and harleys are grossly slow except for a few models.

I'm doing my mtn trip in tandem with a Focus RS on Cup 2 tires. Wonder if I'll be able to put any distance on him on any of these roads. :burnrubber:

Haven't been there since Yellow Wolf (I think that's what we called him) was out there changing sportbikes on his taxi yellow Goldwing. I remember him running an Iron Butt on the Dragon one evening. I don't think they ever approved him though.

Such a fun, technical road, but fortunately we have plenty of that in California, too. We have our own Dragon out in the Sierras :)

Does the older couple still run the Two Wheel Inn outside of town?

It wasn't so much the bikes as the riders that caught us. These guys knew the roads and their bikes. I was treating the straights as bridges between corners and they would push a bit on the straights.

No denying, they knew their stuff.

I still appreciated your suggestions, but you failed to mention that part of 197 is GRAVEL. As I had no idea how long that went on for, I turned around and that totally fucked the rest of my day, whomp whomp.

The Rattler was OUTSTANDING - holy shit what a great road! :confused0068:

Tail of the Dragon was a clusterf*ck. Arrived there at 8:20 am and there was just too much traffic. None of the people there just using the road for regular travel were letting sports cars by, it was really aggravating. Did 4 runs but all were complete messes. A real shame, but it IS a public road so what can you do.

Drove my buddy's Focus RS on one of the runs. Fun car, but I thought it would feel faster. Also thought the exhaust would have been louder, hehe. It stuck really well though - never had any understeer.

Shit - I had no idea! Very sorry. I'll have to remove that from my queue - I've been on all the others, but only recently have been told how great 197 is, and by bikers no less. I can't imagine they run on gravel, so they must have a better idea of where to get on/off than they told me.

Glad at least the rest of the trip was fun.

It's all good. Because we turned back we weren't able to check out Diamondback or Devil's Whip, but those are the 2 roads "closest" to Raleigh so I'll make a trip out there again just for them some day soon.

We did some sleuthing with Google Maps later that night and discovered that most of the road is paved. Might just be 1-2 miles of 197 that are gravel (and this was starting around 8 mile when traveling eastbound).

I use this to hunt roads.
http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motor...es-__3082.html

OK, coupla questions before I go to the Dragon in October.

-Will I have any trouble finding 93 up there? I'm tuned on 93 but I can tune for 91 or whatever if they don't have the good jungle juice.

-What else should I see while up there? We're going to cruise the Blue Ridge Parkway as well as the Tail of the Dragon and Deal's Gap. Is there anything else to see up in them thar mountains besides trees and the KKK?

You'll have no problem finding 93. Actually, the Motorcycle stop across from Killboys and Fontana Village only have 93.

We just came back from our 4th year at MATG (Miata's At The Gap). The Dragon is great don't get me wrong, but it can get pretty crowded especially on the weekend. I prefer the Moonshiner for driving as my turbo Miata prefers the longer straights. The Cherohala Skyway is great for the scenic view and don't forget the top of Fontana Dam and Cheoah Dam.

Cheoah Dam also known as Fugitive Dam where Harrison Ford jumped off in the movie "The Fugitive". Its right at the bottom of the dragon.

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4331/...0e0feb23_k.jpg
https://flic.kr/p/WywTVT

93 is common.

Sights to see:
The Fugitive train wreck
Fugitive dam
Tunnel to nowhere
Elk along 441
360deg curve on 441

^^I totally saw all you Miatas at the Tail. Hard not to, haha.

I drove past that dam and didn't even think about The Fugitive. Makes sense now! Also it's worth noting that the drive around Santeetlah Lake is a pretty great drive in and of itself.

That 360 degree turn on 441 is pretty ridiculous. I was so amused with it at the time that I took a screen shot of it on my Waze directions.

Hey there, vadriven buddy!

guybo: If you have time a trip to Biltmore could be interesting. General Spaulding and I did that on our trip in June. It was amazing. We never had trouble finding 93 for the whole 4000 mile trip.

Oh, Hey Awesome!:party0030:

update: drove the dragon yesterday in the wife’s forester as part of a blue ridge mountain trip. we were lucky enough to literally not once have anyone directly in front of us the entire way through. with the excpetion of the camaro coming the other way that crossed over the double yellow on a sharp blind curve it was a lot of fun, even in a cuv and i can see what the fuss is about.

will definitely make it back with the brz next year when warm weather season is here. (hopefully with some new sticky summer tires)

Did you hit the Cherohala (spelling)?

Camaro trying to be a Mustang?

we just kept on 129 till 74 and although it wasnt as cool as the dragon it was nice to have a 55mph curvy zone. there were even a few rods in and around asheville that were almost dragon like too.