Mountain Road: A Challenge? An Experience? Both?

My GTI had lately been feeling betrayed transporting people over lazy, monotonous freeways. After all, this is not what a thoroughbred German hot-hatch is born to do! To its credit nevertheless, it has been doing an absolutely marvelous job of being a highway cruiser. Not that I wanted to be branded an evil producer who denies that dose of creativity to his director. I simply was lacking in confidence and company.

60 miles of unrelenting tarmac, cutting through the Diablo mountain range overlooking Silicon valley. That to an enthusiast is pure bliss, and to my car, something it had always yearned for! Mt. Hamilton Road - San Antonio Valley Road - Mines Road: this trio of back roads represents the best that California has to offer. The day starts with a tingling appetizer of a tortuous climb to Mt. Hamilton, followed by a sumptuous helping of sharp curves dropping to San Antonio valley in the main course. For dessert, Mines Road lays down a flurry of exquisite sweeping corners! What better can a connoisseur ask for?

The map

Hairpin with mid-corner elevation

Mt. Hamilton Road is the only way to reach the famous Lick Observatory. This popularity unfortunately attracts a good number of tourists. Many of them are lazy drivers who simply come to enjoy the sun. The road is also filled with bicycles and motorbikes which need to be dealt with good care. All these can make your climb much slower than you would want to. However, the sheer climb makes up for all the shortcomings! There are hairpin bends with mid-corner elevation changes. Attack them in 2nd gear and blast out in 3rd leading generally into a sweeping corner. Most of the road can be dealt with staying in 2nd and 3rd gears. However, consider novice drivers in front of you who can suddenly stop out of fear of oncoming traffic. The climb is abundantly studded with breathtaking views, especially on corners which seem to drop into nothingness! Its more than worth making a stop at the lick observatory. However, that is a topic for a different discussion.

Descent starts

Post Mt. Hamilton starts the San Antonio Road which is my favorite among the three. It is a little less winding than Hamilton road and I got a chance to open up the throttle. The turbocharger helps at this height and doles out torque in abundance! As the road opens up, it greets you with a series of esses which can be tackled staying in the 3rd gear. There are those tantalizing short straights which poke you to floor the gas. But as soon as you hit fourth gear, you are about to enter another corner forcing you to shift down. This stretch keeps you busy (read, entertained) all through. After a few miles, begins the sharp descent into San Antonio valley. This takes the form of hairpin bends dropping height like sand flowing out of your tight fist! If you want to take them fast you have to be pretty careful here. I was trying to brake into them and then blast out, but that deprived me of some much needed grunt at corner exit. As I figured out, it is better to enter in 2nd, hold it till the apex and then accelerate out while shifting up. Here, you have to be careful against torque steer, which shows up in oodles in my hot hatch. There is a narrow single lane bridge which allows traffic in only one direction. Needs special attention!

A fast ess (S) curve

As you approach sea level, the road starts opening up considerably. This is Mines Road. Here I suddenly remembered that there were 3 more gears in my kitty! This is the very reason I love this trio of roads. It gives you an wholesome experience of driving pleasure! There are stretches where I could climb upto the 90mph mark in fifth gear. That reminds me that this road along with the San Antonio is hardly used by casual travelers because actually there is no reason to. Coming back to point, it is not only about straights here. There are "zero-brake" sweeping curves and fast esses which are a delight to attack in the 4th gear. Centerline is missing in a lot of places on the road allowing you to be more creative with your line while dealing with the esses.

I for one cannot recollect the number of times I patted the steering wheel after coming out of the those tight corners. It might lack the road feel of the now archaic hydraulic system, but is precise, direct and sweetly weighted with speed. I could place the nose exactly where I wanted to and cut through the tightest corners with confidence! While I was at it, the hugely bolstered sports seats held me in place. The perfectly balanced chassis coupled with the car's limited slip-differential, all worked in tandem to orchestrate 3 hours of symphony. Today, I felt I was more connected to my car. The car came out smiling at the end of it. I could hear it say "I love you too!".

An aerial view

Acknowledgement:

Many thanks to lateralg.org for providing invaluable information about these roads. Hope to be able to hit all the the wonderful roads described in it!