I Found a New Road and it Nearly Killed Me (code brown content)

"Nauraushaun" (nauraushaun12) 03/23/2016 at 17:20 • Filed to: MR2

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I found a new road Oppo.

The approach: the road twists and undulates down hill

I live in a nice semi-rural area about an hour from the city of Melbourne. It has its share of good roads - Arthurs Seat, a steep mountain climb full of tight hairpins. The Esplanade, a winding coastal road so much like the famed Great Ocean Road that it’s only worth driving at night (hint: traffic). Boneo Road (?) a gloriously tight and hilly road that’s home to literally every kangaroo in the country.

That’s pretty much it. They’re all fairly close by, it’s enough to satisfy the urges. I know these roads. I love these roads. I’ve lived around here my whole life. The other night my friend decided we should go for a cruise, so we did. He in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , we were hitting all the good spots and having a great time. Except for Boneo Road which we took at 40km/hr in a bid to avoid the thousands of kangaroos just waiting to hop out on the road like so many suicidal bags of meat (seriously, they’re dumb and it’s harrowing).

Then, magic happened. Somewhere near Flinders my friend takes a turn, somewhere I’ve never turned before. The road heads sharply down hill. Looking ahead I can see it kink left and right over and over and over, rising and falling. It’s clearly some sort of hidden driving nirvana. My friend guns it with a pace that’s scarcely believable from an old Ecotec sedan ( you’re never late in a 3.8 he likes to remind me). I use him as a rough guide of how I can take the mystery road. My first mistake.

At this point the road is just getting started

Somewhere in the sea of corners my confidence falters. I get on the brakes. But the road isn’t straight, none of it is and I’ve braked too hard. The tires squeal. The car starts to rotate. The barrier closes in. Time slows, hours pass. The extent of my folly hits me square in the face. I’m on an unknown road, at night, in a mid-engined car. You don’t brake mid-corner in a mid-engined car . It’s an early SW20 MR2 no less, a car so known for being twitchy, Toyota softened it up in later years so it would stop killing their customers. It’s not a turbo, but it’s all the same when you’ve piled on too much speed and braked too late and too hard. I’m using my friend in his lump of a Commodore as a guide, but I’ve seen the speed he carries on roads he knows well, it borders disbelief. He’s done 200,000km in that car, he knows it, they’re old friends. Even so he clipped the dirt on one corner, I saw the cloud of dust he kicked up. I shouldn’t be following him so intently. I shouldn’t be going so fast. What am I doing? What happened to my judgement? I’ve fucked up. It’s all over.

But it wasn’t. I’m not sure what I did with the steering - probably a dab of oppo (lol) - but that combined with easing from the brakes was enough to bring it back into line. I smiled - holy shit - and continued down the road at a tamer pace.

It only got better. The decline ends in a slow narrow bridge, before climbing all the way back up in a mirror of the first half. The whole thing is tight enough for second gear if you like, the engine screaming on the faster corners.

The bridge at the bottom, looking in the direction we came from. The bridge surface is a travesty - every bit as bad as it looks in these photos.

From here the road heads back up towards the civilized world

I later found out it was Shands Road, recently converted from a horrid dirt road I’ve been avoiding all my life to perfect, smooth tarmac. The excellent surface condition is probably one of the things that kept me out of the barrier. I spent much of the drive home reflecting on my Code Brown moment. How stupid I was for not properly considering how I should handle the road. But at the same time, taking solace in the fact that I wasn’t going so far beyond my limits that my misjudgement was unrecoverable. Still, lady luck certainly played her part and I’m taking it as a learning experience.

Be careful out there. No amount of experience makes you invincible.

Ham-fisted drivers and haggard bridges aren’t the only dangers around here. Looks like a tree fell on the road recently.

Further up the road on the second half

I returned to the road later to take these photos. It was a sunny Sunday afternoon, I was alone with the MR2, everything was perfect. In the daytime it looks even better, carving its path through heavy bush and past tall trees. On the way home I got lost and it didn’t even matter.

ly2v8-Brian > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 17:27

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Ecotec 3.8? That's a funny name for the old Buick 3.8L.

Tohru > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 17:28

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I know your pain with the 'roos. We have whitetail deer - 50kg of industrial-strength stupidity running at 70kph.

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > Tohru 03/23/2016 at 17:32

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Where I live it is moose, and bears you have to watch for. Moose go over you car, and bears roll under them due to their short legs. Both to write off a car.

Nauraushaun > Tohru 03/23/2016 at 17:32

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It’s insanity! I’ve seen some of the deer videos. Or moose. Where they just launch out of nowhere.

The ‘roos tend to sit in one spot or hop in a line, then just turn and hop directly in front of you with no rhyme nor reason. It’s actually like they want to die.

Nauraushaun > ly2v8-Brian 03/23/2016 at 17:33

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I’m not going to pretend to understand it. But that’s what we called it.

Tohru > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 17:39

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The problem with deer is since they live by out running anything that wants to eat them, they think they can outrun cars. Even when the cars are doing 120 kph.

thebigbossyboss > Tohru 03/23/2016 at 17:56

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The problem with the moose is they are extremely tempermental and mean spirited. Piss it off? Oh good now it's charging at you. Forget 70 kg try 300 kg (that's not even particularly large for a moose) charging at you.

thebigbossyboss > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 17:58

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If I never see another moose, that's fine. I encountered one late at night on a desolate road last weekend. She was just standing in the ditch waiting to no doubt ruin my life.

interstate366, now In The Industry > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 18:05

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That road looks fantastic. I’ve been scoping out twisty roads in my area recently.

I’ve had a couple of code brown moments on back roads in my project car. There’s one near my brother’s place that nearly bit me, coming out of a curve and oversteering into an embankment. I discovered one last week that has a bunch of minor hills and curves, with one sudden S-curve down to a one-lane bridge. They’re both fun roads, but not for the faint of heart.

DutchieDC2R > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 18:26

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Amazing write-up. Had my fair-share of brown code’s, too many to name. Very happy to read you got out of it unscathered. Again, awesome read, thank you!!

TheRealBicycleBuck > Tohru 03/23/2016 at 18:26

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I had a near-miss with one last summer. He was running down the ditch. Five trucks in our entourage passed him. He jumped in front of me.

Nauraushaun > DutchieDC2R 03/23/2016 at 18:35

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No, thank you!

Same. It happens. Each one is sobering. Once I was up the top of Arthurs Seat and I saw a Nissan Stagea. I took off down the mountain in my Z egging him on, he came roaring up behind with all his turbos. But a couple of corners in I had a big moment and had to back right off.

Very dumb.

Nauraushaun > interstate366, now In The Industry 03/23/2016 at 18:40

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What is your project car?

There’s one near me that has this long corner at the end. You’re encouraged to accelerate through it to drive out of it, but the end of the corner tightens viciously. A few times it’s caught me and I’ve ended up running much wider than I wanted to.

Not for the faint of heart

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 18:45

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That road looks amazing. A distinct lack of good paved roads is the biggest reason i bought an AWD car. All the good driving roads around me are old dirt logging roads.

DutchieDC2R > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 18:54

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meh, not dumb. I think with us, gearheads in particular, if the situation allows it, we just cant help ourselves. I’m the same way. If the roads allow it and it’s a safe situation, I just push it. The only way to learn and know where and what the limit is, is to not only reach it, but go over it from time to time. At least, thats the way I see it.

Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 18:54

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Oppo saves the day!

I lost the rear end in my Cayman on an icy mountain road, very modest speeds (hence my surprise at the fact that the tail came out) and something similar happened. That was the most code-brown driving moment in my life.

I never drive that road in the wet anymore, even if it’s way too warm for ice.

Hope you get back to that road and take it at your own pace! Safe motoring.

Nauraushaun > Tohru 03/23/2016 at 18:54

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God damn.

Nauraushaun > thebigbossyboss 03/23/2016 at 18:55

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I once drove up the coast of Australia in one night/day. Around 3am we see this ‘roo on the Hume. We slow right down, and he’s just hopping along in front of us, blocking each time we try to pass.

Ridiculous.

Eventually I exercised some boost and made it

Chasaboo > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 19:08

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Always wanted to go to Australia. But you guys have like a crap ton of venomous snakes. I don’t want to go to Australia.

Nauraushaun > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles 03/23/2016 at 19:19

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This Shands has been dirt for too long, but most of our roads are paved thank god. Part is still dirt, they paved the only really twisty part! No idea why, it goes nowhere important and has very few houses.

Perfect for me though.

Nauraushaun > DutchieDC2R 03/23/2016 at 19:22

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Yeah that makes sense. That’s why companies are building these sports cars really. That’s right - you can’t learn the limit without exceeding it a little at least.

It may have been dumb, but it’s not like there were other cars around, or children or anything. Isolated mountain road :)

interstate366, now In The Industry > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 19:24

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Project is a 2001 Prelude with an H23A from an Accord SiR wagon. Torquier, more user-friendly powerband than the H22. It’s far from complete but it handles decently for being FF. Still not exactly sure how I managed to oversteer that one corner given the car’s tendency to understeer, though.

There’s another road in my area that I almost wrecked on last year in the car. It has an implied speed limit of 55 MPH* and no curve advisory signs, but is extremely narrow with lot of blind curves. I went into one going about 60, and there was a truck heading right towards me. I slammed on brakes, narrowly missing falling into the ditch. I’m still surprised I made it unscathed.

*in my state, if a road in an unincorporated area has no posted speed limit, the speed limit is implied by law to be 55.

Nauraushaun > Chan - Mid-engine with cabin fever 03/23/2016 at 19:24

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Oppo always saves the day :D

It is surprising isn’t it, how fast things can go from regular happy enthusiasting to loss of traction and a serious situation.

I did some driving up and down it on my own when taking these photos, it was delightful.

Nauraushaun > Chasaboo 03/23/2016 at 19:25

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Bah! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a snake, and I live in the countryside! The ‘roos are a bigger menace than the snakes I tell you. Just do it :)

Nauraushaun > interstate366, now In The Industry 03/23/2016 at 19:32

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Geez, that’s certainly not your usual candidate for oversteer. The MR2 doesn’t oversteer too much in the dry, so I thought you were going to say it was some big old ‘Murican thing.

Maybe the 4WS did it ;)

That’s amazing, what a trap! We have a lot of advisory signs around here, I can’t think of a road that doesn’t have one that should. I suppose in that case they’d default to 100km/hr, so similar.

Usually you can add 20km/hr to the advisory relatively safely.

interstate366, now In The Industry > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 20:10

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No 4WS 5th gens in America, unfortunately. The 4th gen’s 4WS system was so unreliable that Honda pulled its availability from the US market in 1994. Japan and Europe for sure got 4WS 5th gens, but I don’t know if it was any better than the 4th gen. If it’s any better I may import one from Japan once they’re legal in ~5 years. (I know for sure that I want to import a car from Japan at some point.)

Usually the roads around here have advisory signs all over the place. That one is definitely an anomaly.

Nauraushaun > interstate366, now In The Industry 03/23/2016 at 20:24

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Oh damn. Those things are cool as. My friend loves 3rd gens, watching the rear wheels while he parked was a life-changing experience.

Strange. Maybe one day someone will die, the family will sue, and it will get both advisory and a lower speed limit.

interstate366, now In The Industry > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 22:27

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Yeah, the 4WS on the 3rd gen is the stuff of legend.

realikesea > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 22:58

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I am thoroughly shocked to find that I enjoyed a road before you. It’s been paved for about a year.

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Nauraushaun 03/23/2016 at 23:50

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maybe they just figure pavement is safer.

pip bip - choose Corrour > Nauraushaun 03/24/2016 at 09:17

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awesome looking road!

thebigbossyboss > Nauraushaun 03/24/2016 at 13:39

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Lol. I want to see a roo in real life. What kind of animal evolves to the point where “hopping” is the best form of transport.

Woodpeckers also amuse me. Why would an animal develop so that it’s best feeding mechanism is to whack it’s head really hard into other hard objects.

Nauraushaun > thebigbossyboss 03/24/2016 at 19:15

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And where the hell did Platypus’ come from?

ateamfan42 > thebigbossyboss 03/25/2016 at 10:35

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The rest of the time, when the moose aren’t grumpy, they are completely indifferent. They have no natural predators, so they don’t think there is any reason to step out of the way of the 2 ton steel machine hurtling toward them.

JR1 > Nauraushaun 03/26/2016 at 09:14

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Now that is a road I would want to go on. Nice write up

Nauraushaun > JR1 03/26/2016 at 17:31

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Thanks :)