Seattle is not a driver's city

[Transfer]

I love Seattle but there is just no place close to go for a fun drive. There is nothing decent within a hour drive at least. Anyone else feel this way? It's my day off and I want to go for a drive but I don't want to have to drive 90 minutes just to get to good roads. Portland sucks in general but at least they have nice driving roads relatively nearby.

On top of no driver's roads, the road surfaces are terrible, traffic is 4th worst in the nation, and if you have a nice or sporty car, you're weird for not being economical. Blah!

[urBan_dK]

Originally Posted by Transfer

I love Seattle but there is just no place close to go for a fun drive. There is nothing decent within a hour drive at least. Anyone else feel this way? It's my day off and I want to go for a drive but I don't want to have to drive 90 minutes just to get to good roads. Portland sucks in general but at least they have nice driving roads relatively nearby.

On top of no driver's roads, the road surfaces are terrible, traffic is 4th worst in the nation, and if you have a nice or sporty car, you're weird for not being economical. Blah!

Mercer Island loop? High Bridge Road? Ben Howard Road? Snoqualmie/Fall City Road (bunch of back roads around there)?

Those are all less than an hour in fine traffic. I'll admit much closer to me in Mill Creek

[Transfer]

Originally Posted by urBan_dK

Mercer Island loop? High Bridge Road? Ben Howard Road? Snoqualmie/Fall City Road (bunch of back roads around there)?

Those are all less than an hour in fine traffic. I'll admit much closer to me in Mill Creek

I haven't done Mercer, but isn't that a little too neighborhood like? Isn't the speed limit 30-35mph??

High Bridge is good but short for the time it takes to get there and it also has too many houses attached to it. Ben Howard is great but same problems as High Bridge. I will admit this is my default drive if I have the itch, but it's tedious getting there and I never feel comfortable really opening it up out there.

Snoq/Fall City is usually full of traffic and I always seem to end up behind someone driving 45.

[kerrit]

I thought the same thing when doing to dinner in Ballard last Saturday - would be hard to own an M3 on that side! Mercer island loop is too slow on a car, but fun on a motorcycle.

Here's my favorite route on the East Side, done it many times in Car and Motorcycle:

https://maps.google.com/maps?saddr=B...=ls&via=4&z=11

In fact, I will probably setup a cruise for us local e9x guys this spring/summer on this route

[Erhan]

I completely agree with this! I lived 2 years in San Diego, CA, and that was heaven! Hwy 67, 78, 79, spectacular roads...

High Bridge road is good, but it's extremely short. Which is the general problem here. There are couple decent roads, but they're short, and they've too much traffic.

[TTG]

Completely agree. No nice roads, horrible road surfaces and traffic jam / construction everywhere.

Seattle is not a car friendly city at all.

I wish we had something like Pacific Coast Highway

[icyunv]

uh....definitely not mercer island loop.

[faith&firepower]

Take a trip to Levinworth. When I was stationed out there there was a group of guys that we would arrange drives once a month. We also did a trip up hurricane ridge. It was mostly an RX-7/8 group, but a lot of the guys worked for Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon Corp.

[Transfer]

Leavenworth, Hurricane Ridge, Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier... All amazing drives, but at least 6 hours round trip and 1-2 hours each way of super boringness.

[Erhan]

Not only they're far away, they have other issues.

How can you drive fast on Hurricane Ridge? It's in a national park, and there are elks. There are people stop in the middle of the road to take elk pictures. Combine that with blind turns... that fun drive could end up being a disaster.

The road that goes to Leavenworth is okay, but the turns are not sharp enough, so in order to make them fun you have to drive above 80-90mph. Maybe there're other roads around Leavenworth that I don't know.

[FrenchBoy]

There are quite a few nice and fun roads between Issaquah/Fall City and Carnation. Not far and makes for a fun afternoon.

Better yet... Come to the track come Spring :-)

[Transfer]

I do plan on the track this year. I've done ProFormance, IRDC, and Ridge Racing but not in my M. I need brake pads and high temp fluid first though.

[w00tw00t]

Originally Posted by Transfer

I do plan on the track this year. I've done ProFormance, IRDC, and Ridge Racing but not in my M. I need brake pads and high temp fluid first though.

tomorrow should be a wet at at pacific raceways.. wet days are not that hard on the brakes... (though my stock setup did end up crapping out the last time I was there)

[faith&firepower]

Originally Posted by Transfer

Leavenworth, Hurricane Ridge, Mt. Baker, Mt. Rainier... All amazing drives, but at least 6 hours round trip and 1-2 hours each way of super boringness.

They were well worth it for for me...but then again that 1.3L of turbo'd rotary furry has as much power as my M3 does at just over 3000 lbs.

[linuxd00d]

Hurricane Ridge - the tunnel - top down in July - near redline.
Possibly the most fun I've had in one year of M3 ownership :-D

[faith&firepower]

Originally Posted by linuxd00d

Hurricane Ridge - the tunnel - top down in July - near redline.
Possibly the most fun I've had in one year of M3 ownership :-D

[GregW / Oregon]

Originally Posted by Transfer

Portland sucks in general but at least they have nice driving roads relatively nearby.

Glad you threw that wink in there. Aside from less traffic in general than Seattle, there are outstanding driving roads within 15-20 minutes of downtown Portland in many directions.

[1MOREMOD]

road surfaces in general in seattle are terrible. dont even take my m3 in town unless its to the dealership. come on out with me and vivek to PR on saturday. think hes going.