Tail of the Dragon
 

Awesome!

Just one stop along the way in our 4500 mile trip over 14 days. Car ran great. Oil consumption was less than half a quart. Averaged 26 mpg (US).

I would love to see more of this often talked about course. Congratulations on making it there and on a 4500 trip in the Z. :driving:

I live about 40 minutes away :)

I looooooooove that road.

:tup:

http://www.the370z.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1317573189

If they have a sign showing tight motorcycle cornering -- does that mean they don't care about speeding? are there police, etc.?

they do care about speeding and from what I've read they are out there quite a bit. I spent two days out there in the last month and have seen 3 cops total. You really need to be careful due to all the bikes. When I'm out there I try to stay closer to the white line so i don't get clipped by any bikes leaned way over.

yes there are cops, and quite a bit of traffic especially on the weekends/holidays. if you like the curves but want less traffic/cops check out shady valley, aka the snake. us421 between nc and tn. 489 curves My Homepage thats the country store in the middle where you can rest/eat. been there more on my bike, but been to the dragon twice in my cars.

There are usually bount county sheriffs and Tennessee Highway Patrol up there from about 10 am til around 6 or 7 pm. Pay attention to drivers that are passing you going the other direction, if they motion you to slow down that means there is either a wreck or a cop ahead, and ive never come up upon either that i wasnt signaled for by another driver. Everyone pretty much sticks together up there.

Attached a pic of my Z up there.

since we are all posting dragon pictures....

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e3.../dragonhot.png


Love that road. There are police, but enforcement is relatively light, and it seems like there are really only two spots they enforce in. There are two longer straightaways, and if you resist the temptation to kill it on then, you will generally be OK.

jealous...that is what i am..lol.

time for a road trip:icon17:

it's gotta be on the bucket list...

i heard the popo are tolerant of speed, but not at all if you cross the lines...

*goes to find picture of truck sideways on the dragon killboy took 3 years ago*.......... damn, i lost it during my transition to my new hard drive :shakes head:

It won't hurt your car if they end up in your bumper....:driving:

planning on it. When i get back from afghanistan, im going to finish the work on my bike and head down there.

how far is the tail from nashville?

I think Nashville is on the west side of TN. The Dragon is on the eastern border with NC

I would guess 3 hours. I know from Chattanooga, it is roughly 2 hours. And I imagine from knoxville it would be about an hour.

3.5 Hours according to google maps, this puts you at the pull off right before the start of the Dragon:
<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&amp;source=s_d&amp;saddr=Claiborne+St&amp ;daddr=35.523984,-83.992707&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=FdqmJwIdzCPU-g%3BFZANHgIdfV_--g&amp;sll=35.524193,-83.990913&amp;sspn=0.004654,0.009415&amp;vpsrc=0&a mp;mra=ls&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=m&amp;ll=35.858995,-85.366365&amp;spn=0.67023,2.78827&amp;output=embed "></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&amp;source=embed&amp;saddr=Claiborne+St&a mp;daddr=35.523984,-83.992707&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=FdqmJwIdzCPU-g%3BFZANHgIdfV_--g&amp;sll=35.524193,-83.990913&amp;sspn=0.004654,0.009415&amp;vpsrc=0&a mp;mra=ls&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=m&amp;ll=35.858995,-85.366365&amp;spn=0.67023,2.78827" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>

The Dragon is awesome. I've run it in the 370 and the 5.0. There aren't any bad roads in that part of NC/TN!

Here would be a great loop to do, once at the start of the dragon total driving time is about 1.5 hours. You also have the Cherohala Highway which is a fun road as well and is the way I normally come to the Dragon

<iframe width="425" height="350" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&amp;source=embed&amp;saddr=I-40+E&amp;daddr=US-129+S%2FState+Hwy+115+to:N+Carolina+28+S+to:N+Caro ++lina+28+S%2FFontana+Rd+to:N+Carolina+143+W%2FSwe et++water+Rd+to:N+Carolina+143+W%2FCherohala+Skywa y+to++:US-129+N+to:US-129+N%2FState+Hwy+115+to:I-40+W&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=FUd4JwIdkZjV-g%3BFWiHHgIdpkz--g%3BFaUpHQIdDn3_-g%3BFfTUGwIdDq8C-w%3BFdMAGwIdJUcB-w%3BFdY-GwIdtBgB-w%3BFU4pHQIdh3v_-g%3BFd6HHgIdq0v--g&amp;sll=36.141254,-86.6658&amp;sspn=0.009877,0.019269&amp;vpsrc=6&amp ;mra=mi&amp;sz=16&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=m&amp;ll=36.14 1254,-86.6658&amp;spn=0.009877,0.019269&amp;output=embed "></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&amp;source=embed&amp;saddr=I-40+E&amp;daddr=US-129+S%2FState+Hwy+115+to:N+Carolina+28+S+to:N+Caro ++lina+28+S%2FFontana+Rd+to:N+Carolina+143+W%2FSwe et++water+Rd+to:N+Carolina+143+W%2FCherohala+Skywa y+to++:US-129+N+to:US-129+N%2FState+Hwy+115+to:I-40+W&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=FUd4JwIdkZjV-g%3BFWiHHgIdpkz--g%3BFaUpHQIdDn3_-g%3BFfTUGwIdDq8C-w%3BFdMAGwIdJUcB-w%3BFdY-GwIdtBgB-w%3BFU4pHQIdh3v_-g%3BFd6HHgIdq0v--g&amp;sll=36.141254,-86.6658&amp;sspn=0.009877,0.019269&amp;vpsrc=6&amp ;mra=mi&amp;sz=16&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=m&amp;ll=36.14 1254,-86.6658&amp;spn=0.009877,0.019269" style="color:#0000FF;text-align:left">View Larger Map</a></small>

One of the best loops down that way is to combine The Dragon and the Cherohala Skyway. If you haven't driven the Skyway yet that is another must-drive. High-speed, long (30 miles), with great scenery. I think you start at around 1800ft elevation and work your way up to 5,300. Lots of sweeping bends with picturesque vistas on a clear day.

:iagree::tup:

The day I was there I saw one cop parked and another cop on a motorcycle. There was a pickup truck that had just been recovered from a steep ravine and on another section we came upon an unfortunate Harley rider who just minutes before had wiped out. He apparently had a concussion, broken leg and a very broken dresser. All this in an 11 mile stretch of the Dragon.

Rumor has it that if you make that drive as a passenger in a mustang, you'll be in a mustang within a few months:icon17:

You definitely have to be careful, they have incidents there all the time. Our group was stopped earlier this year right at the Fugitive Bridge (another place you need to check out) because a Harley rider wiped out on a really tight bend that had a pretty bad bump in it at the bridge joint.

We got to watch the Life Flight helicopter come in and land on the bridge and everything... it was pretty wild.

Making it awfully easy to prove my point.

This isnt the other cars section, this is 370Z general discussion.

:wtf2: