Features
Pull up to the bumper
Welcome to a new sport on the hills just outside LA: tailgating. And it's out of your league, Mr Rep
Top Gear's US editor Pat Devereux announced the presence of the canyon racers by simply uttering the word 'headlights'. As we rounded a hairpin and travelled across the face of the valley, a gaggle of headlights was clearly visible behind, about a thousand feet below us, tracking left to right across the far side.
As the light beams danced off the valley walls, even from this distance you could make out a few details - the lead car had xenon lights, there were about eight cars in two tight gaggles, and viewed from a moving vehicle even at long range, it was quite obvious that they were travelling extremely quickly, around the corners and along the straights.
"They won't catch me," I said, stomping on the throttle of our manly V6 VW Eos. Howling round the corners as fast as the tyres would take us, being mindful of tightening-radius bends (there were many, with straight black lines and impact marks on the barriers to prove their difficulty), there was still a sizeable reduction in the gap when I glanced back a minute later.
"They're catching us," said Devereux, a master of the obvious.
'A brand-new, bright-white Porsche Cayman S came burbling into the car park first...'
The gap had halved a minute later, despite the protestations of the Eos, to which I was applying considerable pressure. Just how fast were these boys going?
In the end, I did beat them to the top, but only just - we barely had time to step out of the ticking, reeking Eos before the canyon racers arrived. I expected some monstrous, tuned Japanese import-to-be leading the way, a 350Z or Supra or Mitsubishi Evo. But no, it was a brand-new, bright-white Porsche Cayman S that came burbling into the car park first.
How supremely cool - a perfect car for a run like that. What a great road too, one of the best I've ever sampled - empty, dry, fairly well surfaced and incredibly challenging with a good variety of tight to medium-tight corners.
And, perhaps most importantly, it leads to nowhere, merely a wonderful view of the LA suburbs, so any cars going in and out can be spotted. Especially black and white ones with blue lights on the roof.
Bookmark with:
What are these?