My favorite twisties,, Add yours !!!

[HeavyMetalAlfa]

I have to say, I thought Maine had nice twisties, but I just drove the finest twistie road so far in 14 years of GTV6 ownership !!! Day before yesterday, I was driving back from Atlanta in a nice 86 GTV6, and was looking at the map figuring my route back. I was in south western Virginia and looking at a couple of days of driving rt 81, so I figured I would do an afternoon of back roads before hitting the big highway.
I saw on the map that there was a road that pretty much paralleled 81, to the west, a rt 42. It goes up what I believe is the Shenandoah Valley[?]. At Marion Va, I took rt 16 west, an amazing road and a real work out for 2nd gear !!, to rt 42. Route 42 in incredible !!. It is a very smooth, extremely twistie road, there was no traffic to speak of and even at the speed limit , was a blast to drive. There are many places where you have to downshift to 2nd for 180 to 280 degree switch backs and hairpins, and they sometimes came at at you suddenly!! I don't think I have ever had so much fun driving ! At one point, I even felt the tires rolling under, just new Goodyears, nothing special, and had to back off. There are places you even have to go to 1st gear. At one point, 42 disappears and you take 730 to 460 which connects back to 42.Then you hit 615, which was amazingly fun, and end up at Eaglerock. Man oh man, if I had enough time, I would have turned around and done it the other way !!
On my last trip [GTV6 across America,, Almost] I got to drive some great roads, near Tahoe, in the Rockies, but this stretch in Virginia was the best !!When I visited Mark and the Alfarm, Mark led me down some great roads there, you southern hill country Alfisti are so lucky!! The roads are so smooth. Here in Maine the roads are very rough from constant freezing and thawing !!
Okay, chip in people, where's your fave twisties ??

[SamW]

I wish I would have known you were coming this way, I could have pointed out many a nice Alfa roads around here, I think you would enjoy the drive from Shadey Valley, TN to Mountain City, TN. I live right off of I-81 just before you get to Virginia, and there is no shortage of fun roads around here, maybe that is whay I own 3 Alfas and a few more motorcycles!! If you ever head back this way, let me know!

[rloewy]

I have only been to TN once - but the roads definitely left an impression, even if I was driving a Subaru Impreza wagon cross-country.

Oregon has some very nice roads as well - some of them right out of Portland around the Skyline area.

[sfalfa]

Waaay too many great roads to mention - drive 20 minutes out of the city in any direction and there are fantastic roads everywhere.

Here's a couple of pics that I have on file from recent drives: pic# 1 East Bay hills somewhere around Mt. Hamilton. Pic#2 North Bay near Tomales. Pic#3 South Bay/Penninsula west of Redwood City/East of Santa Cruz somewhere.

[nizam]

My new favorite. The stretch of HWY 58 between I5 and HWY101 in California. Well paved, cambered corners, blind crests, and whoop-de-doos





and the view from the top was pretty cool too ...

[lowmileage]

Don't have pictures but Custer National Park has gotta be the best. Didn't do it in the Alfa though.

[Tifosi]

If you've got time to enjoy the view, you're not going fast enough

[Alex Csank]

Fortunately, there are some great twisty roads just about everywhere! Some of my favorites are in Europe (Mallorca, the Italian Alps, the Amalfi Coast, the Scottish Highlands, etc.), but we have some truly magnificent drives all across North America too!

Has anyone ever driven around Cape Breton, Nova Scotia? How about the Tail of the Dragon in NC? Just about any paved mountain road in the Cascades in Washington (Gordy, please chime in)? Those California roads are terrific too...and the middle of the country also has some great drives.

Glencoe, you've found some gorgeous roads in Western VA. It's too bad you didn't meet up with either the Capital Chapter ot the Mid-Atlantic Chapter, as both these clubs had a terrific Western VA driving tour this past weekend!

Some of the roads had big elevation changes, coupled with 200 degree turns, complete with tunnels and "bring your belly up into your throat" drops. What a riot!!!

Here are a few shots of the great time we all had:

[SpiderWebb]

Southern California is ‘Spider Webbed’ (apologies ) with great twisty roads. Nearly any mountain road is going to have great sections, and some have spectacular views.

For instance, Highway 18 from San Bernardino to Lake Arrowhead starts out as a wide rambling mountain road and ends up a tight twisty ‘smile-maker’ with a view. One side of the road is near vertical mountain and the other is a 6,000’ drop off with a view all the way to Los Angeles on a clear day.

Pacific Coast Highway 1 (101) from Malibu to San Francisco, and vice versa, can be done in one day, starting out early out at sunrise and ending at sunset. The Pacific Ocean on one side of the road and incredible beauty and culture on the other is sure to please. The problem is going to be your wife. She will want to stop a hundred times along the way for shopping, sight seeing, historic roadside turnouts, and the view. You will be sorely tempted as well. But a real driver will resist this dire temptation and push on. Otherwise, you will need at least 2 or 3 days to make the trip and you’ll have missed out on the incredible fun of blasting along one of the most fun drivers road in the United States. Malibu, Point Dume, Point Mugu NAWS, Port Hueneme, Ventura, Lompoc, Vandenberg AFB, Guadalupe, Pismo Beach, San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay, San Simeon (Hearst Castle), Solvang, Gorda, Big Sur, Carmel, Monterey, Laguna Seca Raceway, Half Moon Bay, San Francisco and environs are just the big names along the way.

Mulholland Dr.. Nothing else need be said other than it’s a local historic hot spot for dangerous quick runs in a winding, busy, road-racers dream road. Lots of cops, cause when they were kids, they used to race there too!

Highway 74 to 371 to 79, or in other words, the back road from Palm Springs to Temecula. From sea level to 7,000’ and back through great backwoods and high plains.

These are just a couple of the myriad roads built for real drivers here in SoCal.

Here are a couple of photos of Highway 74 around Idyllwild. Notice the rear view mirror in the second to last photo. Many fun curves:

[bronco6778]

I'll second the Tail of the Dragon. I ran it in my Z3 on the way home from Nashville on a Tuesday back in July. I'm convinced that's the best day of the week to do so as it apparently gets clogged with other cars and lots of police on the weekends. Four runs back and forth took several hours. I have included a picture of the BMW running through one of the better sections.

Tail of the Dragon

[Alex Csank]

I love the twisties!

[sh0rtlife]

SKYLINE!!!!!

the run to the beach is good too

[Nicola]

In no particular order -
-- The Beartooth Highway out of Red Lodge MT into Yellowstone NP
-- The Mattole Road through Petrolia CA between Garberville and Loleta
-- The road up to Hurricane Ridge in Olympic NP, WA (if not stuck behind a VW van
-- FS road off FS25 up to the Spirit Lake (east) side of (what's left of) Mt. St. Helens

Whoo-hee!!

[Chsmadden]

Highway 88!!!

[jerry Quinlisk]

5 minutes from home, cruise it almost daily