What a great day of driving! I've had a minor case of writer's block in regards to figuring out how I wanted to type this post, just because there's a lot to express but yet difficult to find the best words to do so.
First of all, I didn't expect 6 cars to roll out to Alameda by 7:45am to join me today. Especially coming all the way from San Jose, Napa, Stockton, and Tracy. Your excitement and dedication to come drive these cars like they're meant to be driven is really awesome. THANK YOU for coming out!
We had an extremely foggy, misty, and wet start as we climbed and navigated through Grizzly Peak at 8am. I was thinking to myself "No! It's going to rain again!", but then as we dropped into Pinehurst it cleared up and the roads were mostly dry. Although thanks to the recent rain, there was a good amount of dried mud, gravel, and tree matter on the road. Perhaps the dreary conditions convinced everyone to sleep in, as it was completely free of any slow cars.
Redwood Road conditions were good, with zero gravel and a nice dry tarmac to attack. A few cyclists coming the other direction, but nothing major. I saw a wild turkey posing on a mound of dirt with it's tail feathers fluffed out! Always fun to see wildlife on these drives. Redwood continues to be one of the best driving roads in the bay area, with a nice mix of technical corners and high speed S curves. I was so thankful that the road was clear of other traffic!
After a short break and car discussion behind Peets Coffee in Castro Valley, I was happy to see that the passion for our cars is still palpable after ~3 years. Love talking current and future mods with fellow drivers. As we pulled out for Palomares, I saw a number of expensive looking Porsche coupes pulling into the lot. I was worried that this meant there was going to be traffic on Palomares but fortunately I was wrong as it was completely free of slow traffic in our lane. As a small bonus, Niles Canyon was also completely open - how nice to be able to ease on and off the accelerator at my leisure on this road without being impeded. Spectacular.
We stopped at Sunol Super Stop for a quick fuel up and continued on to our final destination of Mines Rd. Since it was so late in the day at this point I didn't have high expectations of Mines since it's a fairly popular road. However, it turned out to be completely clear of other cars in my lane on both the way down and back up. Special props to @
TheMedakaBox (you'll have to let me know what your forum name means sometime) as he was staying right with me even on stock tires. Loved the comments as we arrived at The Junction: "Do you ever brake?" and "You're so FAST!"
Had a nice leisurely chat outside The Junction and enjoyed the eye candy when a group of Audi owners showed up! We were all hanging out near our cars and they near theirs, and eventually they walked up to us and said "Mind if we check out your cars??" and immediately we said "Go ahead - and we'll go check out yours!" and we traded places. Very cool exchange and nice to see some fellow enthusiasts on Mines.
Headed back up Mines with a slammed silver BRZ @
SLEEPER WRX (bonus pic of your tire tread - is it weird that have a very strong and visceral positive reaction to this tread pattern? I need these tires in my life.) chasing me and then had a nice sushi lunch at Wasabi Bistro. Hope everyone enjoyed the food!
I've said it before and I'll say it again: We're really lucky to have such an enthusiastic, friendly, respectful, and fun group of enthusiasts in our bay area 86 community. So awesome to see some new faces as well as established regulars make it out today. It's hard to describe how it feels leading a caravan of 6 other twins as you go canyon carving down a great road. Maybe someone else can lead next time and then they'll be able to have the same experience that I had today.