Everything you read here is fiction, OK?

Let's just say that two guys went to Texas to pick an SRT. One is driving a roadster with a stick and the other is about to be introduced, for the first time, to the OMG button in a Supercharged SRT6 "not really a performance sports car" coupe.

Let us imagine what their temptations and trials might be in bringing this car back to Missouri.

Now there are several ways to get out of Arkansas once you have entred it thru Texarkana. I-30 to I-40 to I-55 north seems like a good safe route, where one could be bored stiff, but make good time. But if between you and St Louis was 600 miles or more of the twistiest, nasty, barely populated, goat trails in the midwest, how would you utilize your time?

Uh huh! With you right foot pressing hard the whole way. Doing your best to keep the road in front of the windscreen, keeping your butthole puckered and keeping a smile the whole way. And do it on the twistiest back roads you could find between you and your final destination.

71 north was a decent flat road with sweeping turns. 40 Miles of "gee this is cool", Shark pushing the OMG button and me peddaling hard to catch up. We turned east on route 70 and headed for the Lake Quachita region.

Route 70 is a two lane road, smooth, with lots of turns and twists but mostly long sweeping runs uphill into the mountains. The air was at a cool 45 F. Top stayed up but the cool dense air made the engine run very nicely. Shark0 had the advantage with the SC of course but we had just enough turns and traffic to make it an interesting and fairly even match.

We turned north at Cado on Route 27. Things got serious. Now, our goal was to hit triple digits once in a while where we could. But not to bend the SRT 'cause we were just delivery boys. It wasn't ours to wreck. Still the temptation was there so of course common sense lost the argument. Twenty twisty miles up the Quachita Blue Mountains we had exceed both sensible and legal limts as a matter of routine.

I looked down several times to see the needle at 130. This went on at times for 5 miles or so. We finally stopped looking at the speed, primarily because we couldn't divert our attention that long. It frankly wasn't (don't you laugh now) safe to do so. Having given up all sense by this time, we just drove together at whatever speeds the cars could handle.

While the SRT could pull away on the straights, the little NA roadster that could kept right there in the turns and when the roles reversed, the SRT could not do any better following thru the twisties than the NA. Partly due to low tire pressure, partly to caution, partly to the manual shift giving some help in the turns.

I don't believe I have ever driven a car this hard, this long, and at these speeds, that handled 6 to 5 to 4 downshifts just like 4 to 3 to 2. Say what you want about sprintboosters but the ability to double clutch is a must in these manuvoers. It is a perfomance mod.

We got thru some heavy population around I-40, caught our breath and then shot north on Route 7. After watching a school bus unload 700 kids for 45 minutes, we had a clear shot up thru the Boston Mtns and we took advantage. No one seems to live here and the road is just one turn after another. The only straights are down the mountain and up the other side making for some fun speed runs. And then the twists and turns.

I don't know how he found the moment but the SRT driver checked his GPS and it told him to turn onto Route 123. Apparently it was a "shorter" route but only as the crow flies. I would suggest we found another "DRAGON" cause it has about fifty miles knotted up into about 13 miles of land.

First set of turns had a sign, "5 miles of hills and turns"
"Sure," we said and took it on. A few hundred yards of straight away and another sign, "5 miles of hills and sharp turns." Again we took them fast and furious and while it was tougher, we beat the mountain again.
About a mile of straight road later another sign loomed in view. "5 miles of YADA YADA" and again we took the................. OH MY GOD!!!

WHERE'S THE LAND FOR CRYING OUT LOUD?

HOW THE HELL CAN PAVEMENT DO THAT?

I have never powered out of turns in first gear. Until this mountain road.

I have never grinned this much or puckered this much. Until this mountain road.

I never thought one could be tougher than the Dragon. Until this mountain road.

I actually used my brakes!

We stopped to catch our breath in a little burg called Mount Judea. A general store with tractor gas and a pleasant proprietor. We needed bathrooms and were told " No, but the Cafe had excellent Pies and coffee." So we went there and enjoyed the local color, people, pies and coffee.

"So," I said, "Y'all got a tricky bit of realestate up the road there."
"Yes." replied the Cafe owner.
"You ever get car clubs and such up here?"
"We get bikers all summer but not many cars."

So I promised to rectify that situation with a boat load of friends terrorizing his town this summer.

"Glad to have 'em" he said with a grin.

The rest of the trip home was great, lots of twisty Ozark roads in Missouri but I kept wanting to go back to Mt. Judea.
Good Pie, good coffee, good people and a great road.

Disclaimer.
Not sayin' this all actually happened but ....what if it did?

Anyway, the SRT for the benefit raffle got home safe and sound. Road tested and worthy. Trust me guys, I buying a ticket or two. The car is sweet. Ask Shark067. He had it under his butt for over 800 miles of pure adrennaline charged joy.

For those who ask....We drove legal all the way on the interstate. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Make a note,
Arkansas Route 123, Boston Mtns. Bring attitude, courage and octane booster.

roadster with a stick.

 

Man that would be really cool to do! Too bad it didn't happen, sure would have been a lot of fun if it did.

 

So um, Shark bought this one?

Chrysler : Crossfire : eBay Motors (item 200438139234 end time Feb-17-10 09:48:27 PST)

 

Well, not exactly. He bought Chuck 466's for the CAA raffle event. You can have a chance at it for $100.00 per raffle ticket.

Details and Rules to be announced in the CAA website,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
March 22, 2010

roadster with a stick
Dan, if we were in Dallas, I would have insisted on buying you a beer.

 

Very cool!

 

Fiction for Charity.

I nice tale indeed.

 

Dan, I modified my answer to be more clear.

I can tell you this, after driving an SRT for that long on that many back roads, Shark now wants an SRT bad.

See, I let him drive it the whole time.

A rather cruel trick, don't you think?

roadster with a stick

 

A cruel trick indeed.

Those poor guys/gals with a stick don't know what their missing by never experiencing the OMG button.

 

I can safely suggest that had Jeremy Clarkson been in the car with Kell, he would have overworked his spincster muscles and offered an apology for the dog cr@pping thing.

If he didn't, I would have made him do it again with me.

roadster with a stick

 

I'm not surprised in the least, that this didn't happen. What I am surprised is you the srt and Kell survived the trip . Sounded like a blast. You think 130 is scary try 175... I finally got talked into topping her out 2 weeks ago. Altho I didn't take her till the end of the gear, common sense kicked in at 175 and i decided that was fast enough .

 

Franc-

I give you an
A

for composition, but just a
B
on punctuation and grammar.

Great write-up!

What I Did On My Weekend-nice...

 

Spelling?

SPELLING?

Excuse me, but your ability to absorb content seems to be impaired.

I WERE IN ARKANSAS


roadster with a stick

 

Damn you Franc! You're gonna cost me a lot of money. First there's the trip to Arkansas (even further than the Dragon for me) several nights in a hotel, and then all the raffle tickets in June!!

Great story, Franc. After having my SRT-6 in storage for the last 3 months, I am ready to drive the Arkansas Snake? (AK Dragon?) whatever it's called.

 

The temptation was fierce. We had the common sense not to drive like that. What we we lacking was the ability.

Oh well. It was all for charity, right?

roadster with a stick

 

Great story, every sports car should be treated to this type of journey once in a while to blow off the cob webs.

I hope to be able to write a similar story about the Swiss Alps in the future followed by a few laps of the Nurburgring.

 

A run thru the Swiss Alps in a 6 spd Crossie! You are making my lips water.

A great way to clear the carbon off the cylinders.

I hope you can (not) do this kind of trip as well. Please be sure to relate what you obviously have enough common sense and know better than to do.

This was a once in a lifetime suspension of responsibility for me. I doubt that I will ever not do this again. I hope you enjoy your fantasy as much as we didn't ours.


roadster with a stick

 

Franc,
I think I enjoyed the story as much as you enjoyed the ride !!!
Thanks for painting the picture for the rest of us

Gary

 

The one thing we are not sure of, are the police there anything like the rather lax police at the Dragon??

If not, Tom, you might be out a lot more money than you thought, and the way we drive, maybe a night in jail with some guy named TINY

 

I also never drive my car like this, on mountain roads that don't actually exist here in SoCal.



Seriously though, you know those YouTube videos where some **** has stuffed his car (a new GTR with bogus insurance claims rings a bell) into the side of the mountain on some canyon road? Yeah, I've seen a bunch of those and actually recognize the spot where said stuffing happened.

Not that I actually spend time on tight twisty mountain roads in my little non-sports car. The images and video on THIS page are all made up.

 

I thought it was cool to watch the spokes of the wheel. At certain speeds it looks like it isn;t even turning