Well I'm a little late in writing this as it happened last weekend but taking pictures is fun, uploading them from the camera.....not so much. I had always heard about what a fun drive highway 6 is. Beautiful views and winding roads, sounds like my kind of place.
So it was settled, myself and a couple friends would go on a trip when I got my new car. This is the route we decided to take:
And for anyone that is curious, here is another shot of the map before I got my hands on it:
As you can see, the trip involves two ferry crossings. The first one being about 5 minutes, and the second, 15 minutes. Both ferries are run by the government and therefore free
(aka, paid for by my taxes 
) We all agreed that since we pay for these ferries, we should get more use out of them from now on. Unfortunately I was busy driving and didn't manage to get any shots of the outside of the ferry, I think my friend did, but he uses a disgusting analog camera, so who knows when I will get to see those pictures. But here are a few shots from the ferry ride:
This was my first extended period of driving since I got the reflash done, and all I can say is that I wish I had gotten it sooner! I used to suffer from powerloss all day, every day. That appears to be a thing of the past. I did not have one issue the entire trip.
The drive was absolutely amazing. The speed limit was 80-100 km/h for almost the entire trip, and of course this was the speed I went........until I got around the person in front of me. We probably averaged more like 140 km/h most of the time. I found that if I added about 50% to the recommended speed for the corners, I could take them with absolute comfort. Didn't feel like I was pushing it at all. If it said 60, I would do 90, if it said 80, 120 was no problem, etc. The corners were an absolute blast, everything felt so right. It was as if the car was specifically designed for this road at this moment.
That takes care of the corners, this trip has some straights too. Some AMAZING straights. We would come over a crest and stare in awe and the strip laid down before us. "Straightaway from god" I began to refer to them as. And some times they were a blessing indeed. It may seem odd to you or I, but some people slow down for the corners :nono: Weird, I agree. Thankfully with these straights, I could pass these people and be on my merry way. Let me say that there MAY have been 3 or 4 sprints to 200 km/h to pass 8 or 10 cars at a time
There were only a couple fuel stops, as Kelowna and Revelstoke were the only cities on the trip that carry the sweet sweet 94 octane that the Speed 6 requires. I worked it out when we got back, I think we averaged about 17 MPG on the way to Revelstoke, and 21 MPG on the way back home. Since this trip was a loop, we of course had no official destination. Obviously we stopped here and there to grab some burgers and get even fatter. I highly recommend the Burger Hut in Nakusp (you can't miss it, it's basically the only thing in Nakusp). Anyways, if you had to consider any place the destination, I guess it would be Mount Revelstoke.
Mount Revelstoke National Park to be precise. If I recall correctly, it was 21 kms of switchbacks to the parking lot at the top, and then a bit of a hike to the peak. Long gentle curves leading into 20km/h hairpins all the way up. Here is the Speed6 at a lookout part way up:
Pretty amazing view from here considering we weren't even near the top. The sky looks hazy because we have been getting a lot of smoke from the forest fire down in Washington:
We parked at the top and hiked about 1km to the Meadows in the Sky trail.
Only allowed 10 pics per post, the story continues....
The main attraction on this trail was a place called "The Icebox" There is a deep crevice at the top of the mountain, and it hardly ever gets any sunlight. We were a little skeptical because it was late August and about 30 degrees out (~90 degrees fahrenheit) but sure enough:
Yes, we ended up having a snowball fight :laugh:
Random artsy shot during the hike down:
My friend Al said we couldn't leave Revelstoke without checking out the Dam.
Going down the road to the bottom:
View from the top of the Dam:
The road up there was nice and new:
After that we stopped someplace for dinner and cruised back home in the dark. The trip home was relatively uneventful except for a PISSED off semi truck trying to pass a SLOW motorhome. We just hung back to let the big truck make his move, once he was safely around, I passed them both and was on my way :yesnod:
When it was all said and done, the trip meter read almost exactly 600 kms, and we returned about 12 hours after we left. Not bad for a sunday drive. Used approximately (don't have the receipts with me) 75 liters of fuel, which worked out to about 19 MPG. Not too bad considering the bulk of the trip was at 140+ km/h with the windows open.
The car performed beautifully in every aspect. Obviously I've talked enough about the handling and the power, but the interior was awesome as well. We made full use of the 6 cupholders, one-touching the windows up for those passing sprints was awesome. With the windows down, there is an astounding amount of windnoise from about 120km/h and up. However, once you put them up, it was whisper quiet. We were absolutely amazed at how quiet it was at 200 km/h; and the car felt perfectly stable at that speed, as if I was cruising around at less than half that. This is an AMAZING GT car, it was made for the highway. Once those windows were up, the climate control was excellent for keeping the temp exactly where we wanted it (I like it at about 25.5 degrees
)
There wasn't a single hiccup during the entire trip. Everything went according to plan. Except of course that there were supposed to be a couple more cars joining us, but they had to drop out at the last minute. Oh well, they were jealous when we got back and told them what an amazing time we had. I got home and for the first time since I got that car, I didn't want to drive any more, I just wanted sleep.
Of course as soon as I woke up, I couldn't wait to drive it again
So it was settled, myself and a couple friends would go on a trip when I got my new car. This is the route we decided to take:
And for anyone that is curious, here is another shot of the map before I got my hands on it:
As you can see, the trip involves two ferry crossings. The first one being about 5 minutes, and the second, 15 minutes. Both ferries are run by the government and therefore free
(aka, paid for by my taxes ) We all agreed that since we pay for these ferries, we should get more use out of them from now on. Unfortunately I was busy driving and didn't manage to get any shots of the outside of the ferry, I think my friend did, but he uses a disgusting analog camera, so who knows when I will get to see those pictures. But here are a few shots from the ferry ride:
This was my first extended period of driving since I got the reflash done, and all I can say is that I wish I had gotten it sooner! I used to suffer from powerloss all day, every day. That appears to be a thing of the past. I did not have one issue the entire trip.
The drive was absolutely amazing. The speed limit was 80-100 km/h for almost the entire trip, and of course this was the speed I went........until I got around the person in front of me. We probably averaged more like 140 km/h most of the time. I found that if I added about 50% to the recommended speed for the corners, I could take them with absolute comfort. Didn't feel like I was pushing it at all. If it said 60, I would do 90, if it said 80, 120 was no problem, etc. The corners were an absolute blast, everything felt so right. It was as if the car was specifically designed for this road at this moment.
That takes care of the corners, this trip has some straights too. Some AMAZING straights. We would come over a crest and stare in awe and the strip laid down before us. "Straightaway from god" I began to refer to them as. And some times they were a blessing indeed. It may seem odd to you or I, but some people slow down for the corners :nono: Weird, I agree. Thankfully with these straights, I could pass these people and be on my merry way. Let me say that there MAY have been 3 or 4 sprints to 200 km/h to pass 8 or 10 cars at a time
There were only a couple fuel stops, as Kelowna and Revelstoke were the only cities on the trip that carry the sweet sweet 94 octane that the Speed 6 requires. I worked it out when we got back, I think we averaged about 17 MPG on the way to Revelstoke, and 21 MPG on the way back home. Since this trip was a loop, we of course had no official destination. Obviously we stopped here and there to grab some burgers and get even fatter. I highly recommend the Burger Hut in Nakusp (you can't miss it, it's basically the only thing in Nakusp). Anyways, if you had to consider any place the destination, I guess it would be Mount Revelstoke.
Mount Revelstoke National Park to be precise. If I recall correctly, it was 21 kms of switchbacks to the parking lot at the top, and then a bit of a hike to the peak. Long gentle curves leading into 20km/h hairpins all the way up. Here is the Speed6 at a lookout part way up:
Pretty amazing view from here considering we weren't even near the top. The sky looks hazy because we have been getting a lot of smoke from the forest fire down in Washington:
We parked at the top and hiked about 1km to the Meadows in the Sky trail.
Only allowed 10 pics per post, the story continues....
The main attraction on this trail was a place called "The Icebox" There is a deep crevice at the top of the mountain, and it hardly ever gets any sunlight. We were a little skeptical because it was late August and about 30 degrees out (~90 degrees fahrenheit) but sure enough:
Yes, we ended up having a snowball fight :laugh:
Random artsy shot during the hike down:
My friend Al said we couldn't leave Revelstoke without checking out the Dam.
Going down the road to the bottom:
View from the top of the Dam:
The road up there was nice and new:
After that we stopped someplace for dinner and cruised back home in the dark. The trip home was relatively uneventful except for a PISSED off semi truck trying to pass a SLOW motorhome. We just hung back to let the big truck make his move, once he was safely around, I passed them both and was on my way :yesnod:
When it was all said and done, the trip meter read almost exactly 600 kms, and we returned about 12 hours after we left. Not bad for a sunday drive. Used approximately (don't have the receipts with me) 75 liters of fuel, which worked out to about 19 MPG. Not too bad considering the bulk of the trip was at 140+ km/h with the windows open.
The car performed beautifully in every aspect. Obviously I've talked enough about the handling and the power, but the interior was awesome as well. We made full use of the 6 cupholders, one-touching the windows up for those passing sprints was awesome. With the windows down, there is an astounding amount of windnoise from about 120km/h and up. However, once you put them up, it was whisper quiet. We were absolutely amazed at how quiet it was at 200 km/h; and the car felt perfectly stable at that speed, as if I was cruising around at less than half that. This is an AMAZING GT car, it was made for the highway. Once those windows were up, the climate control was excellent for keeping the temp exactly where we wanted it (I like it at about 25.5 degrees
)There wasn't a single hiccup during the entire trip. Everything went according to plan. Except of course that there were supposed to be a couple more cars joining us, but they had to drop out at the last minute. Oh well, they were jealous when we got back and told them what an amazing time we had. I got home and for the first time since I got that car, I didn't want to drive any more, I just wanted sleep.
Of course as soon as I woke up, I couldn't wait to drive it again
