Madison Area Twisties
 

I haven't been living in Madison too long, but I am wondering if anyone knows of some really good twisty roads that are halfway decent to open up the FR-S on within an hour or so of Madison?

I spend as much time as I can in the the "box" between 14 to the north, 151 to the south, 23 to the west, and 78 to the east - roads like J, JG, JJ and the area around Tyrol Basin - but that's only a few miles of good twisties and want to find some more!

If you have a really good "secret spot" that you don't want to post on the forums for fear of unwanted attention, please PM it to me!

It's pretty hard to tell if a road is going to be good based on Google Maps and I am pretty spoiled from living in NC and being able to take a day trip out to the Blue Ridge Parkway and all the insanely good roads taking you from the ridge down to the valley (Tail of the Dragon, Devils Whip and stuff like that), but I have faith in WI roads and I am sure we have some good twisties here too.

Go to Wildcat Mountain State Park. The area between Madison and there is quite pleasant.

I prefer west highway 19 not too far from Waunakee to Mazomanie. Very curvy stretch and in my experience, low traffic. A friend of mine once lived in Mazo and my best time is somewhere in 8 minutes going across that stretch.. it will not disappoint.

Looks like higher-speed sweepers on the map with a tighter area around the lake? Any suggestions for tighter, lower-speed roads where I can kick it down into 2nd or even 1st? Stuff like the S-Turn on J right by the Sugar River - where you can actually take the car to 100% without breaking the speed limit too much. You can come in doing 55, heel toe to 2nd for the first turn, take it almost to redline just in time to hammer the brakes, heel-toe to first, and redline up through 2nd and into 3rd going through the S without ever breaking the speedlimit (if you ignore the warning signs) and never leave the powerband.

I like being able to keep the car in the powerband through the twisties, so really 1st, 2nd, and 3rd are my only options if I want to stay reasonably within the speed limit. Stuff where you can take the car to 95% of it's limit while not having to worry about spending a night in jail and riding a bike to work for the next 6 months (or, you know, causing an accident with farm equipment).

The recommended speed for most of those corners are around 35 to 45 on west 19 and the straightaways you can pick it up to highway speeds. Though i must admit, I was pushing every limit trying to time attack that stretch. Have rarely seen police through there. I think I spent most of the time in 3rd or 4th. One may have to go more west and north to hit the hill/ glacier country.

I need to go explore more roads if my job lets me out of the office and scout with their van on the way to our other locations around the state :D. I know there are bound to be some gems around the hills to the north.

I like to call it the Wisconscion Triangle (enclosed by I90, I94 and the river), made for this car. Go a little further to the North side of I90 and get on almost any lettered road. Good county maps can be gotten from WIDOT in PDF format on their website.
http://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/travel...s/default.aspx


I like working my way down to Fountain City for lunch at Hansen's Hold' up and work my way back to the Twin cities. Hwy 88 and 95 are fun, 88 gets tight.

Dude, we really need to go for a drive. 33 is fun through that area though.

Thanks! I haven't spent much time up there - mostly around Sun Prairie and DeForest and the country roads around there. Spent a few hours up by Baraboo Saturday on the way back from some bouldering at Devils Lake and there was a bunch of good stuff up there.

Only problem is that are both quite a bit further than Mt. Horeb and there are so many great roads around Tyrol and the Mounds (plus I have an excuse to get a beer and brat at the Grumpy Troll when I go to Mt. Horeb)!

I made sure I put the state park sticker on my FR-S so this fall when we go to all the parks we can't take my wife's much-more-comfortable-on-bumpy-ass-park-roads SUV. Should give me plenty of time to explore and find some more good areas.

I'm thinking about GPSing some of the routes to post them here (without timestamps of course...) and would definitely not complain if you guys made any.

Being a transplant from Janesville, I hear you about the Grumpy Troll. Still you might find the area very enjoyable. I started a thread about roads worthy of a vacation and this area is definitely worth a few days, if not a week of driving. Just be nice and don't get the county mounties looking for the next guy.

This is old, but everything north of 18 and west of 78 is all amazingly good to drive. I go up there to play on my motorcycle a couple times a year.

Kettle moraine by Greenbush off of highway 23

I am located in Cross Plains. Take just about any road off of 14 between Middleton and Mazomanie and you will have fun.

Side note though, I have a 2016 wrx and am thinking about getting a twin or Miata. I test drove an ND Miata today, but I can’t find a twin to test locally. If any owners want to meet up I would be down to exchange cars and follow each other on some fun roads. PM me if interested