Miatas At The Gap

"Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)" (rduncan5678) 08/02/2016 at 22:15 • Filed to: None

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This past week has been a crazy amount of driving (2000+ miles) and such a great time. I really bonded with my car on the wild mountain roads of North Carolina while also meeting all sorts of great people. I didn’t take many photos since I was too busy driving. But I just want to briefly describe my experience.

Sure, I saw a ton of Miatas from day one through the end in every corner of the area (the MANY Many corners). But mainly, I ran with a core group of people who just wanted to drive hard all the time. They knew some great roads and really made the experience. Best part was I met these guys totally at random on the dragon and just ran around with them since we had the same idea of just driving. Didn’t go to any of the “official” drives but I did at least do the big group photo.

My picture does the gathering no justice really since this is such a small snapshot of it. There were 550 cars there in total. FIVE HUNDRED AND FIFTY! And the crazy part was that not really one car was alike another. It ran the gamut from totally stock from every generation to extremely modified and even crazy unnecessary things like the title image.

The group photo thing was such a small part of the event for me. It was the waking up at 6am to get ready to drive all day and then continue on well after midnight, just because it was awesome. Finding all of the lesser known roads and just continuing to push the envelope of my car.

Of course, it seemed that some people pushed the envelope too far. I never really felt in danger of something like that but it was a very real concern on my mind. The danger added to the fun a little bit but really just the comradderie of all the like minded miata people around me is what made it special.

Plus, that whole area is just fucking beautiful. I could spend months there and never get bored. I truly feel like a twisty road addict now and cannot wait to get on some good roads again. I don’t think any other place on the East Coast could ever truly compare.

I plan to write a nice piece about the Dragon and my opinion on it and other roads in the area soon. MATG was just super awesome. Even found a fellow Oppo down there (not driving a Miata) by pure chance and it was great to catch up after the mysterious note on my car haha.

Scary__goongala! > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/02/2016 at 22:21

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Did you get some kind of invite for this or had you already heard of it? I’ve never heard of it. And I’d definitely try to make it if at all possible.

daender > Scary__goongala! 08/02/2016 at 22:26

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It’s a public gathering. Usually look for it on Miata forums like Miata.net, which is where a huge number of participants plan ahead for future Miata ‘Dragon gatherings.

Scary__goongala! > daender 08/02/2016 at 22:29

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I forget to check out all the sections of Miata.Net

Sam > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/02/2016 at 22:31

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We accidentally drove the Gap. Like, my parents said “no way, we are not going on that road”. So we set off to the mountains, heading for Clingman’s Dome (most ass-backwards way of getting there from Gatlinburg, but we were adventuring). Then we started seeing a ton of bikers and sports cars. Then we passed some sort of Tail of the Dragon biker bar and we realised where we were.

Honestly, I preferred highway 28, after the Dragon ends and you get to that fork in the road and head east. I like open sweepers more than tight switchbacks. And most of the people turn around and head back up the Dragon, so there was pretty much no one. 441 is a great road too.

daender > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/02/2016 at 22:33

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Damn, I wish I could’ve made it up there in time! That said, it was probably a good thing I didn’t or else I would’ve gotten in trouble for socking an asshole-Miata.net member square in the jaw for unfinished business.

Anyway, you need to come to Boone, try Route 421 “The Snake”.

Flyboy is FAA certified insane > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/02/2016 at 23:26

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Deals gap is one of my all time favorite places. Love those roads, all over that area. Route 28 is fun too. Nicknamed the "moonshine runner’s best friend."

Nauraushaun > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/03/2016 at 01:38

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Do you know anything about that chequered temporary roof? That looks awesome!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Nauraushaun 08/03/2016 at 08:43

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It's a Bikini top. I have seen those a few times and yeah it seems pretty legit and simple.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Scary__goongala! 08/03/2016 at 08:45

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I just found out about it at some point while browsing Miata.net. I think I was actually looking into Miata gatherings since I figured it must be a thing someplace. I was thinking about going last year but scheduling didn’t work out for me. I am so glad I made it down there this time!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Scary__goongala! 08/03/2016 at 08:46

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if you go to the link here, there will be details on this and future ones. People don't post on there a whole lot but it was useful information.

http://www.gapmiatas.com/forum/index.ph…

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Sam 08/03/2016 at 08:48

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Oh yeah, there were SO many roads that were magnitudes better than the Dragon in general. But it was really much more like an amusement park ride. Sure you are going to have to wait in a line and deal with other people, but it really is special in a way. There were more challenging, faster, hillier, and more interesting roads elsewhere, but the Dragon is still the Dragon. I will delve more into it in another article.

MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/03/2016 at 08:49

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I cannot imagine a single-model event that large. I know there’s over a million Miatas sold and whatnot, but at the largest MR2-only event on the east coast there are only a little over 100 cars there, and I thought THAT was a lot.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Flyboy is FAA certified insane 08/03/2016 at 08:51

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I was surprised how much fun 28 was. I really just thought it was a highway (there are some sections where it is) but it is such a good twisty road. Hard to find it without a slow pickup or motorcycle group cruising down it. But certainly glorious to get a nice long run on it. But that is probably true of any road in the area. 28 definitely felt way more dangerous than the Dragon though somehow lol. There was a Miata that went off and flipped end over end somewhere between Fontana and the Dragon on 28. Crazy!

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > daender 08/03/2016 at 08:55

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Oh yeah, my favorite roads were further north in NC. I only had time for 1 run through most of those roads but 80, 226A, and Bear Wallow Road were just great. Then there was 151, 215 and all sorts of others that blew my mind. Way harder than the dragon and not another soul out there! I right now am planning on heading to Boone. I just will have to drive through the night to make it there (I have no vacation time left really) but I am planning to make it happen! Should be another fun camping trip.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 08/03/2016 at 08:59

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Haha yeah I thought it would be like 50 to 60 cars. That sounded like a lot to me and would be way more than I had ever seen already. Once someone said there were 350 cars at the picture (they counted) and over 550 that had checked in at the booth in Fontana throughout the weekend, my mind was blown. No wonder literally every car I saw was a Miata of some sort. So much waving!

Scary__goongala! > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/03/2016 at 09:03

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Cool, thanks man.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > MR2_FTW - Group J's resident Stig 08/03/2016 at 09:03

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Oh, and the cool part about the event too was that there were more than just Miatas that knew about it and showed up. There were quite a few S2K and FRS/BRZ there that owned a Miata but didn’t have it ready or something. They fit right in the whole time! Of course there were other cars down there on a July weekend but these guys were just as much part of MATG as the Miatas were. They even waved too lol.

Flyboy is FAA certified insane > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/03/2016 at 11:22

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How does one flip a miata?

Anyway, how far south on 28 did you go? There’s one section near Asheville NC that has more tight switchbacks than the Dragon does, my Crossfire was in its element there.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Flyboy is FAA certified insane 08/03/2016 at 13:22

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Asheville? I thought 28 went towards Franklin? I know I came from NC215 and eventually ended up in Franklin. Then got on 28 to head towards Fontana.

And I presume the guy went into a ditch in order to flip the car. I don’t really know the details but I did see ambulances. Hoping that guy was alright!

Edit, I have the story:

http://forum.miata.net/vb/showthread.…

Flyboy is FAA certified insane > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/03/2016 at 13:45

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Ah yes, my mistake. Our Car club at my school in Florida makes a trip there every spring break and I got the two years and where we stayed mixed up. Down near Bryson City is where 28 gets real technical.

Last time we went we had two guys in e36's both go off. One guy in an M3 got lucky and spun to the inside of the first 180 left hander on the dragon and got stuck in the grass a little.

The other guy wasn’t as lucky and went off the inside and hit the cliff. Bent a control arm and had to limp it back to the bottom to get a tow.

The flatbed driver was running the bottom of 129 faster than we were. Dude was insane but really cool.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Flyboy is FAA certified insane 08/03/2016 at 13:58

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Oh boy those are some unfortunate incidents. Haha there was a big lifted pickup that was running the dragon with some wicked speed. Didn’t cross the lines ever either. I know which part of 28 you are talking about. It was great on Thursday and was one of my favorite roads (Wayah road is my #1 though). Sucked on Friday when I tried it again though because we got stuck behind a pickup who would not move. I got 18mpg that day though so it was overall awesome lol.

Flyboy is FAA certified insane > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) 08/03/2016 at 14:21

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Haha our miata guys were reporting about 15 mpg no matter how fast we went because they had to work so hard to keep up on the highway stuff. The crossfire went down to about 10 mpg at the dragon but got about 25 on the cruise back to the cabin.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Flyboy is FAA certified insane 08/03/2016 at 14:23

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Yeah my mileage is only ever this low at autocross. Highway drive on the way home saw 33 MPG! It was just funny getting 200 miles on one tank and then 350 out of the next and putting in less gas to fill it!