Dragons Tail trip #4

[eliseowner2b]

It was late in the day when traffic was very thin but yeah, I've heard the same from others.

[Surferjer]

Just saw the short version-boy, that's my kind of driving. It's amazing how easy it is to pass in no passing zones with this car. It's so quick in V V that you're around the cars in no time flat. I swear at 60 MPH you can clear one car in about a city block, two in three city blocks.

[eliseowner2b]

I have never passed on a double yellow until this time. (virgin) The car in front was going so damn slow and he/she would not pull over when they had about 7 opportunities. The miata in front of me was flashing his lights and there were about 3 cars behind me wanting to pass. I figured, hey, Im filming and had plenty of room. Lack of weight, 6200+rpms, and Yok A048's are a great combination!!!

[eliseowner2b]

Dan, can you give us more info on how you mounted the camera? Where did you put the microphone?

Here's a few pics of the camera mounting. I put the microphone under the passengers seat and mounted my camcorder on the 3 suction cup Chasecam mount next to my head. Even though the camcorder is getting it's view from the bullet cam in the grill this works nice because the camera isn't moving around in the car and with the lens turned around I can control it easily.

[eliseowner2b]

done

[eliseowner2b]

Bottom line is Stay in your lane - Do not cross the yellow!

Sorry Tim, my bad.

[Surferjer]

On curvy roads, I find it more entertaining TO stay in my lane-makes you utilize more of what the Elise gives you. But following slow Pennsylvanians is like torture-it's nice to have a car to zip by, even if you have to cross double yellows to do so (as long as you can see what;s coming )

[Palting]

Any one know how many accidents a year happen at Dragon's Tail? How many deaths?

Seriously, all. Forget about crossing double yellow lines. Street racing is dangerous, whether you cross yellow lines or not. Period. It's a great video and all, and you're all probably excellent at driving your car, but public roads are uncontrolled areas where anything can go wrong. You may be good at handling the car, but doing it in public roads makes you more of a stupid driver than a good one. It probably is no big deal if you kill yourself, but you could kill others as well. Just the thought that this is being done at Dragon's Tail makes me want to stay away from there and drivers who race on public roads.

Just take it to the track!!

[Surferjer]

I read the stats on the Tail a few months ago, and it was like an average of 3 deaths/year, and each and every one of them was a motorcycle driver. That doesn't mean they weren't run over by overzealous car driver, but it's clearly more dangerous on a bike.

[kraemer]

Now I have heard it all....
You guys speed, race other cars, change lanes without signaling, and god knows what else- but this guy has committed the ultimate sin- he crossed the double yellow line of DOOM !!!
Dont be hypocrites. If you were so concerned about safety, then why did you buy the most un-crashworthy car possible?

[huggy bear]

I wouldn't be worried about head on collisions because there seems to be enough distance to see oncoming traffic for you react, but it doesn't take much to spook a motorcyclist who might be in a lean when he sees a car coming at him. The motorcyclist can easily be thrown off his line and potentially crash due to his reaction to your car over the line. Not a good idea to cross the lines.

I would hate to cause such an accident.

[OneFastLotus]

Originally posted by kraemer
Now I have heard it all....
You guys speed, race other cars, change lanes without signaling, and god knows what else- but this guy has committed the ultimate sin- he crossed the double yellow line of DOOM !!!
Dont be hypocrites. If you were so concerned about safety, then why did you buy the most un-crashworthy car possible?

No offense Kraemer, and no offenseto elise2b, but when we were at the Dragon we were hauling arse through the turns and keeping up with sport bikes. In other words we were moving FAST and if someone passed on a double yellow when we were coming ( instead of the slow oncoming SUV in that pic) there may have been a nasty crash. There are bikes who haul ass through there and its simply hard to judge how much time you may or may not have to be over those yellow lines. Yes there are sections where you can see ahead but if there were a bike or a car who was equally motivated as the person passing on double yellow or over the double yellow coming in the opposite direction there could be real trouble.

There's a reason they painted those lines on the ground and a reason even www.tailofthedragon.com preaches constantly about crossing those lines.

Head on collisions happen with bikers and large trucks every day. They even have a page on the website above dedicated to ipictures of it. You'd think the biker or car would see the giant semi in his way and have time to react wouldnt you? People move REALLY fast through there and sometimes its not as easy as you think to stave off a collision.
http://www.tailofthedragon.com/dragon_trucks.html

I doubt if those people stuck under trucks just sat there while the truck fell on them. Replace those heavy slow moving trucks with uber fast moving sports cars doing the same thing and you have a recipe for disaster IMHO.

[eliseowner2b]

You can't see it in the video but when I made that pass I could see much more than the camera shows. The leaves are falling and the view around that corner was much better to the eyes than the video showed. Another factor is the time of day. It was dusk and headlights could be seen as well.

Thanks to everyone for their concern.

[OneFastLotus]

Elise2b, I was more addressing Kraemer than anyone.

Im not judging you or your actions, I wasnt there and as you say we cant see it all on the camera, but I am telling Kraemer that there IS cause for the concern over line crossing in general being expressed in the thread.

[khamai]

Originally posted by eliseowner2b
The leaves are falling ....

Just a general comment on driving in the mountains at this time of the year...

Wet leaves on the tarmac have ZERO traction. Driving over them in anything but a straight line or braking on them spells dissaster!

I've seen too many bikes go down & cars off the road & into trees because the driver went over a bunch of leaves on the road.

Kiyoshi

[khamai]

Originally posted by eliseowner2b
The leaves are falling ....

Just a general comment on driving in the mountains at this time of the year...

Wet leaves on the tarmac have ZERO traction. Driving over them in anything but a straight line or braking on them spells dissaster!

I've seen too many bikes go down & cars off the road & into trees because the driver went over a bunch of leaves on the road.

Kiyoshi

[Surferjer]

To each his(her) own. I believe PENDOT, for example, is overzealous in their use of yellow paint. Remember, these are same morons who put a stop sign at the end of the freeway on-ramp merge lanes in PA!!! There are lots of places to safely pass that are double yellow lined, so I will not pass judgement on 2b. His pass looked plenty safe to me.

I prefer to stay on my side in spirited twisty running, makes it more fun. But I have no doubt 2b had plenty of vision in using the whole road.

[zvezdah1]

the gap has solid double lines about 90% of the way even plenty of short straights to safely pass, so if you get behind someone going slow youre stuck for the whole distance unless they pull off. On our trip up couple weeks ago this is exactly what happened, right at the start got behibd someone going Under the speed limit, I passed on the double line, yes, I admit it, shott me now!!
Chris
I think the continous double lines are as much a factor of revenue earnings for the law enforcement as anything else.

[TimMullen]

My objection to crossing the double yellows has nothing to do with passing slower traffic. It that just about every corner in the video was crossed - significantly. That's just not acceptable. You never know what may be coming around a corner even if you think you can see.

In my opinion, it takes a lot more skill to drive your car within the lane instead of using the whole road.

I'm not meaning to insult anyone or anything. I just think you should stay within your lane.

[eliseowner2b]

I guess this topic really has no conclusion. Some will say it looks unsafe while others may disagree. I really didn't intend on causing a safety discussion with this thread (top speed thread, I should have known better) but I guess it's unavoidable. I think the wide angle lens makes the amount of crossing look more extreme then it was from the drivers seat because I always felt that if I needed to change my line to get back over into the right hand lane it would have been with the twitch of a wrist and in plenty of time. In the few corners where I caused a little oversteer you will notice that there were no cars any where near me. Most of the driving was at 7 - 8/10ths so the room for corrections was always there. I appreciate all the opinions, which ever way they went but Ill stand behind my actions because I feel I put no one in danger.

end of topic, for me anyway.
dp