Unfortunately, that's a low bar for many people, including every day driving.
Just a few days ago, three people in a G8x M3 were killed were after going off the road on State Route 9, near your old stomping grounds. 21-year old kid driving a 500bhp car, probably lacking the temperament, skills, judgement, and experience for such a vehicle, and caught out by a mishap that no safety nanny could have prevented.
Anyone who has been through that area in NorCal knows there are some very nice drives, but it, and 35, the road that runs along the ridge, are notorious for being saturated with idiots who think it is their public raceway.
Way too many people think that a fast car will imbue them with fast car skills, even a rich, and renown middle-aged game developer.
Anyone with the money can buy a fancy car. I admire not the car, but more the skill of the nut behind the wheel.
I hear you and I agree. I saw an article about the Hwy 9 crash. Weird how family members were there before law enforcement got there. Makes me think there was some kind of family caravan going on.
Hwy 35, known as Skyline, is also a great driving road but it's much higher speed than Hwy 9. Motorcycles are the ones that seem to like Skyline the most.
The section of Hwy 9 between The Gap and Saratoga is one of the world's greatest driving roads. The section on the southwest side of The Gap, the section that goes to Boulder Creek, is nice but less enjoyable.
Back in "my day" (late '60s, throughout the '70s and into the '80s) the character of Hwy 9 was much different. First, it had a 55 mph speed limit. It's 35 mph now. And second, past 10 or 11PM the road was dead. People weren't commuting "over the hill" like they do now. You had the road to yourselves late at night.
People have been dying on Hwy 9 for decades. One of the more notable crashes back in my day was when an E-type Jag went off at "Dead Man's Curve" - a sweeping, medium speed left hander (when going downhill towards Saratoga). The driver shot off the road, flying off the very steep embankment, getting airborne and landing hundreds of feet down the mountainside. The car caught on fire and started a small forest fire that was contained quickly. The driver was killed.
Fact is, Hwy 9 has mythical powers. If that 9 mile long section from The Gap to Saratoga could somehow be duplicated and made into a lap at a race track, it would be one of the world's greatest racing circuits. It has everything from tight, 35 mph second gear corners, to short-ish straights (that aren't even truly straight) where speeds can easily exceed 100 mph plus - only to lead to a hard on the brakes medium speed 50 mph corner.
I have driven the Saratoga side of Hwy 9 at least three or four thousand times in my lifetime, probably more. When I'd leave the house I'd say "I'm going to make a run down 9". Sometimes I'd drive up and down it more than once.
Scott
