Vulture mine road

[azruss]

On my quest to find a decent sports car road close by, I found this road that runs west out of Wickenburg, an hour up the road from me. An interesting but relatively short piece of twisties on the north end of the white tank mountains. (for those in the PNW and the rocky mountain states, these are really hills and not mountains.) The marked speed limit goes from 50 to 35 in the tight sections. I only got out of 5th gear once to give me more throttle control in the tight section. with that, i was still up in the 5000 to 6000 rpm range and not pushing it that hard. The road has lots of character. I mile or so in, you are away from any civilization to create any issues. Several dips that got covered with silt after the last rain. It was cleared but required a precise line to stay on clean roadway. The curves were smooth and predictable, pavement was 2 lane with very wide dirt shoulders and well maintained. Fun to drive and easy on the car. My Yokohama 195/55/15 S-drives with the add-on rear sway bar was a perfect combo for this road. neutral handling and quite predictable on the ragged edge. I had a car infront of me at the start, so used that to learn the road. On the way back it was free and clear so pushed it semi-hard. Appears to be a well known road to the biker crowd. At the end of my trip back, i was met by 20 some odd crotch rockets on their way in with a state trooper poised to follow them in. I suspect they were not going to have a pleasant day. All in all, i give it a 6.5 out of 10. The .5 is for a road i could take the wifey on at the speed limit and she wouldnt be puking on the side of the car.

[AriK]

To drive a well-maintained old car through long and winding country roads away from most civilization is priceless. Cheers!