Anyone who is interested, pick up the April 2008 edition of "Sport Compact Car" and inside they'll find a 5 page article on Deal's Gap.
I'm not sure how to take the press 129 has received in the last few years. All it will mean is more traffic and more policing. Neither of which is a plus.

 

Now every ricer is gonna be a dragon slayer. All we need is a Super Street article.

 

there were two articles on it in the last Zoom Zoom magazine Mazda put out. One article featuring the MazdaSpeed3 and another featuring the Miata meet they have out there.... bastards.

 

The Sport Compact Car community tends to be a step above the superficial automotive enthusiast that reads Super Street. Let's hope the Dragon doesn't become full of people wearing flat billed gawdy baseball caps and wife-beater t-shirts. There should be a "purest" code at Deal's Gap.

 

... God I hope not ... Rollin' on 24 inch spinners in their "Donks"

 

Sport Compact Car is more enthused with a well-rounded car where as Super Street and Import Tuner are more about the "lifestyle" and pandering to pre-teens with their incessant toilet humor. Can't forget about the gaudy wide-bodied hondas usually featured.

 

At this point I don't think it really matters. I've been going up there since 99 on bikes and at one time all you saw were packs of 8 to 10 guys on sportbikes and then a year later you saw packs of 20 to 30 on sportbikes, harleys, goldwings, street and trail bikes....the motorcycle community exploded on the Dragon.

It's already happened with the cars. There use to only be a small, small group of RX7s on the Dragon. It use to be that to see a Porsche or a Ferrari was NOT are rare thing up there, now you've got Supras, RX7s, Miatas, BMWs and Audis. I don't know why we shouldn't assume that the Civics, Preludes, Integras, 240s and so on won't flood the area as well.

It's a great place but there a ton of great places in the area like Suches, GA, which connects to Twisty HWY 60 that will take you all the way to the loop around the Dragon. The great thing that the RX7 Community has going on is the annual organized event the Phil puts on because normally organized event weekends keeps a lot of the nonwanteds out because word spreads quickly in the area about what traffic is going to be like on the Dragon when the RX7s, Audis and BMWs are all there at the same time. Other vehicles tend to tour the surrounding area instead of crowding up the Gap. Anyway, I believe it's a place that's going to continue to grow.

 

I hear ya.. there are many great roads around that area and not just US129.

But now US129 is so popular just because of the name and you could say you drove it
I say its like going to empire state building vs. going to the building next door that has 30 floors less.. You pretty much get the similar view and experience, but one just has that name associated with it and just the bit higher... And also one you have to wait 2-3 hours to go to the top because of all the tourists

 

Well, if you go on the Dragon at sunrise you will see maybe 5 vehicles max, and most of them are going somewhere.

Don't worry Phil, I won't treat your car like a rental.

 

LOL! I think for your safety, I wouldn't drive like a mad man

RX-2 is weird to drive.. Old school design and it shows! I'm getting the 3rd gen seats mounted.. hope its going to be bit more comfortable.

 

Why does HE get to drive your car???!!!

 

He's flying to Bham and driving the RX-2..
Hopefully it will be ready to be driven by then... Its now back at the shop getting few things done... as of now, you can't drive it at night as somethings draining the battery when headlights are on... Also, new seats need to be installed (i'm going with extra 3rd gen seats).

 

Okay....PHEW! I thought we were referencing the Black FD.

 

I read that article. Not long enough and not enough pictures. Fortunatly SCC is more of a purists magazine than for all the little kids out there trying to be cool in momma's Camry. You can tell that because of all the features that are just regular guys building their cars in the garage, and only a few really well done shop cars. I've been reading it for about 5 or 6 years now and that's where most of my general knowledge of cars came from. Hopefully I'll have the energy to drive the Gap at night a few times. I'm going to try to film as much of the drive and the event itself as I can, then maybe throw together a short video. I just have to get a mount for my camera and some video editing software. It will be a first time thing so it may or may not happen. Reading that article is what got the idea going in my mind.

 

FYI... There is a good chance a BIG import magazine might come out to DGRR.. I'll let you know once its locked in

 

Just read the article last night too ... it was short , but succinct ... really looking forward to April ...