I went to the Tail of the Dragon this weekend to mess around a little. Following will be some photos and some data recorded with my GTech Pro.

First...the obligatory Fontana Dam shot

 

Fontana Lake overlook on the way up to the dragon

 

Start of the Dragon at Deals Gap

 

shot from on the Dragon itself

 

The overlook on the Dragon...the main "hangout" place on the Dragon

 

another shot from there

 

Now the GTech Data...

This is just part of a screen capture of a 7 min 45 sec section of the Dragon. The top part is Lateral G's. (Up = Right Turn, Down = Left Turn) bottom part is Longitudinal G's (Up = Accelerate, Down = Brake). The scale along the bottom is time in seconds.

As you can see, the turns basically lead one into the other. I was quite impressed with the car's handling numbers.

On this particular run, I wasn't going for speed, so my braking and acceleration numbers are not as high as they could be.

My overall highs for the whole day were:

Braking: 1.12 G
Left Turn: 1.29 G
Right Turn: 1.30 G
Accelerating: 0.55 G

Before you flame, remember the road is banked in many turns, yielding high numbers than possible on flat roads.

 

Really nice pics.

 

Nice pics thankz for sharing!

 

Awesome.......lucky bastage. Hope you had a blast!!!

 

I wish i knew you were coming up I would have loved another run.

 

I don't know a damn thing about those graphs but it looks like your car is in ventricular fibrillation. CLEAR!!!

 

Lightning Guy,

See my thread about 15 down in the Southeast forum.

Bonz,

I don't know if the car was, but I know that I was close after running the Dragon 4 times non-stop. My hands were shaking when I got out.

Sean

 

bigdaddy... very impressive. Nicest thing I see in your photos is the lack of motorcycles! I guess February is just too cold to get out there on a bike.

I got one of those too , but it was not as clear a day for me.

 

andy,

don't let the pictures fool you. there were 5 cars that were there to drive the Dragon (me, a 300zx TT, a corvette, a miata, and a new A6), lots of locals just passing through, and about 25 motorcycles. it was probably due to the fact that is was 62 degrees up there on Saturday, so it was a hell of a nice day for a ride.

most of the bikes that were there were obviously Dragon vets on their Motards. those guys are absolutely crazy.

Sean

 

Thanks for sharing those awesome pics. I didnt realize there was an "obligatory" post card shot. Very nice.

I am looking forward to my first TOTD experience.

 

Sean, you drove right past me to get there, I'm right off of I-40 just east of Asheville. Buzz me next time,please

 

Lightning Guy,

Will do. I actually grew up in Sylva, so I am up there fairly often.

Sean

 

Great pics bigdaddy!

Gets me more and more excited for my first visit to see the Dragon.