OK -
As some of you know , I live in the suburbs of Atlanta .
This weekend , I had to go on a trip to Virginia for my families annual
family reunion .
Now although the place where the thing is held is like something out of the
movie "Deliverence" seeing as how it is coal mining country , the one thing
I love about driving there (about 6 hours drive just across the state line
of TN and VA in Wise county) is that just before getting to the small town
of Coeburn where I ws going , you have to travel a 13 mile stretch of road
that runs thru the Jefferson National Forrest .
Halfway thru the stretch is a town called Dungannon , thus the road is
reffered to as "the Dungannon road" to people in that area .
The road is like something out of a commercial for a Ferrari or something
with the way that it has 90 and even 180 degree switchbacks and it runs up
and down a series of mountains , all with absolutely perfect shoulders .
Guard rails are all but absent on most of this road , and since you are
going up and down mountains , the dropoffs are sometimes around 250' from
the pavement to the bottom .
The absolute best time to attack this road is late in the night so that you
can see approaching car's headlights before you meet them at the turns and
because there is usually no-one on the road at that time of night . The
speed limit is anywhere from almost zero around the 180 turns which you
would see while going down the mountain as well as up , to a maximum of
around 25 MPH .
Since I left for VA after work Friday evening , I started down this road at
2AM of Saturday morning......PERFECT !
I was ASTOUNDED at the capabilities of the R/T Club Cab !
The truck has about 1700 miles on it at the time and it was like Super Glue
on the road !
Of course I had the OD off , but in most places I was able to take most of
the road at around 3 times the posted limit accept for some obvious places
. I swear I was pitchin' a tent from the rumble of the exhaust as I was on
and off the gas !
I know that it's hard to picture anything that I am talking about , but in
all truthfulness , this is the most curvy and demanding road that I have
ever seen , much less driven , BAR NONE .
If I can find any pictures of the road that show what I'm talking about ,
I'll post em , but I just had to tell you guys about that drive !
I have never driven a vehicle that has handled like the R/T has !
My nephew was with me and he was getting all excited about it to and even
said that he wouldn't even be able to go thru some of those turns as well
on his Ninja .
I made the 13 mile trek in about 10 minutes , about half of what it usually
takes !
Anyway , I'll quit rambling , but for those of you that either have an R/T
, or have one on order , you WILL be rewarded for all that money you
spent........in power AND performance !!!!!
PEACE
W . Jack Hilton III
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Jun 20 2003 - 12:08:59 EDT