Better than the dragon?

[Tougefl5]

Anyone interested in planning a trip to hit up these touge roads. I'm for sure going to be making my way to each one.

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[CRX-CTR]

I ran a few of those roads last fall before the hurricane (interestingly, also in a 718 Cayman 4.0 GTS), all mid-week. FWIW I'd rank The Back of the Dragon at the top due to higher posted speed limit (55 and hard to hit in many places), minimal traffic and a good curve-to-straight ratio (to get into a flow/rhythm). The Cherahola Skyway is also a great road, but definitely longer and faster curves. I found the Tail of the Dragon over-rated due to low posted speed limit (35), LEO patrolling, heavy local traffic and tightness of the road. For lack of a better description, The Back of the Dragon would be halfway between the Cherahola and the Tall in terms of curve tightness, frequency and straightaway length. That said, guard rails are very old and low, your clothes will be out of fashion by the time you hit the bottom if you go off. I've not run GA-348, rounding out their top four.

 

[Clark_Kent]

I ran a few of those roads last fall before the hurricane (interestingly, also in a 718 Cayman 4.0 GTS), all mid-week. FWIW I'd rank The Back of the Dragon at the top due to higher posted speed limit (55 and hard to hit in many places), minimal traffic and a good curve-to-straight ratio (to get into a flow/rhythm). The Cherahola Skyway is also a great road, but definitely longer and faster curves. I found the Tail of the Dragon over-rated due to low posted speed limit (35), LEO patrolling, heavy local traffic and tightness of the road. For lack of a better description, The Back of the Dragon would be halfway between the Cherahola and the Tall in terms of curve tightness, frequency and straightaway length. That said, guard rails are very old and low, your clothes will be out of fashion by the time you hit the bottom if you go off. I've not run GA-348, rounding out their top four.

I agree. I did Tail of the Dragon and Cherohala Skyway a few months back in a 718 Cayman GT4 and I prefer Cherohala Skyway. Tail of the Dragon is good to experience, but it's overrated IMO. It's too crowded, short, too technical, and you can't carry any real speed through the turns. A hairpin or switchback here and there is fine but every turn just doesn't do it for me. You can carry a significant amount of speed on the Skyway vis-á-vis Tail of the Dragon. It's also materially longer and just a much more enjoyable drive.

 

[Tougefl5]

In agreement. I'm actually thinking about heading to blood mountain in a few days. Tail of dragon is definitely over rated and getting worse each year.

 

[jpindustrie]

Whenever my friends and I go down to tail we usually follow the ’loop’: https://tailofthedragonmaps.com/tail-of-the-dragon-loop/
That route is good for usually for day 1; gives a good intro especially to people new to the area.
I recommend that site as it has maps of all the best roads there.

For day 2 I’d recommend the ‘west’ loop: https://tailofthedragonmaps.com/smoky-mountain-loop/
My personal favorite is rattler/129 also but really you can just drive all around the roads surrounding whole smoky mountain nat’l park and can’t go wrong: https://tailofthedragonmaps.com/great-roads/

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