What’s there to do near Portland

Hello guys. New to the area. Moved to happy valley in November and looking to get out for a drive or something to explore the area. Sold my F430 last year and jumped into an R8 recently. Always looking to meet up with other enthusiasts

 

Are you wondering about car-related things, or anything?

Once things come back to normal, I highly recommend World of Speed. In fact, they have a Ferrari exhibit going now, but of course they are closed for the moment.

 

Welcome to Portlandia, Jason. Consider changing your location. We don't like them Californians up here I kid. I kid. But some might not

Enjoy a drive to Vista House and Multnomah Falls on a clear day.

Head the other direction to wine country. On weekends, go early and bug out before 2 PM to beat traffic.

The beach / coast is only 1.5 hours away.

 

Cars and Coffee at world of speed...don't know if it's running but a definite hang out for gear heads.
Lots of good driving southeast of Oregon City just take off toward Silverton.. . welcome.

Sent from my moto g(6) using Tapatalk

 

Awesome. Yeah just looking for car stuff in general. Maybe take a drive, grab a beer or what not. I’ve also heard some hate Cali lol. In all fairness (as I’ve told the neighbors) Cali has gone to crap. Came up her for a promotion so thought leave Cali and get a promotion seems like a win win. Loved doing all the super car events in Cali with perfect car weather and driving the coast, so just looking to see what people do up here. I’ve seen a few lambo a, handful of rarri’s and mclaren. Most never take them out so it’s u likely I’ll just run into someone. I sold the 430 the day my daughter was born and ironically got the R8 on her bday a few days ago

 

For car stuff, World of Speed and Cars & Coffee. The Forest Grove Concours is great, although cancelled this year.

Next year (2021), the national Ferrari Club of America meet is going to be in Portland. That should be interesting. Plenty of FCA stuff in general, along with other car clubs.

Lots of great stuff happening at Portland International Raceway-- everything from track days, to racing, to vintage races. The vintage races are always a lot of fun-- don't know if they are happening this year or not.

Finally, some of the best roads in the country!

 

I’ll definitely have to check out the raceway. I drove on one up here during Xmas to see lights with my family and something about just being on a track was awesome. I’ve never tracked any of my cars so if I can fit a helmet I might have to try it, though at my height I’m lucky my hair doesn’t hit the roof.

I’m still learning the roads up here, but I’ll say they are much smoother than SoCal and far less populated. Took the family up to mount hood, shot around the back side and ended up driving back along the River. That was a great drive! Minus the insane amount of bugs I hit right before the river, perfect drive lol.

so far my only complaint being up here is the speed limits and speed traps. OMG the speed traps. I think week 3 I was here got a speeding ticket by an unmarked truck. Called court and they said I was doing 46 on a 35. I went back to the road and there is a huge sign 45 then turn the corner and a little sign saying 35. I even saw the van but never seeing one in SoCal I thought a car broke down so I switched lanes then flash. Almost happened in Beaverton as well: right before freeway on-ramp there a red light/speed camera. If you are about to miss light and speed up to avoid a red light ticket you get hit with a speeding ticket....and the points go against you and a cop doesn’t even have to issue it....

 

Interesting about the speeding tickets. Beaverton has both photo radar for speeding and red light cameras. I would strongly advise against running red lights in Beaverton. Less so in Portland. Waze is generally very good about telling you about the photo radar, and they usually only put it on streets where you probably shouldn't be speeding anyway.

The rest of the state, though, is a different story. Use a radar detector and look at Waze, sure, and the Oregon State Police do drive pickup trucks fairly often. But, the good news is that they pretty much always use radar, there aren't very many of them, and they tend to be creatures of habit. If you drive the same roads frequently, you will get to know the places where they sit.

Washington, on the other hand, is a completely different story. Washington has 3x the number of state troopers covering the same amount of highways as Oregon, so they are everywhere. And they don't always use radar.

Also, FYI, Portland Parking Patrol will give you a ticket if you park in downtown or close-in Portland without a front plate, and they will do it 100% of the time. No one else in the state cares except for them. So if you go downtown without a front plate, park in a private garage or lot. Don't park on the street.

 

when the weather gets better let’s go out for a drive . Since you seem to know your way around. Otherwise I’ll just ride no plates at all to avoid camera till I get busted lol.

 

Donv- interesting about the front plates. NONE of my F-cars has a front plate, and I've NEVER received a ticket yet-knock on wood. BUT I rarely go into Portland with my cars and park them. I don't worry about tickets- I worry about the weird freaks in Portland that think a Ferrari is a TARGET.

Plenty of great roads out here on the west side. Some great twisty roads followed by long straights with NO TRAFFIC. If I don't make my speed alarm come on, I feel I failed.

 

Are you talking about drives to the coast? I’ve only been to Newport/Astoria once. Do you attend any car get togethers?

 

I regularly go to Cars and Coffee, which is a really low key event, unfortunately not happening right now due to the mess. I don't like going on aimless drives with the Ferrari Club. I don't need an excuse to drive my car. When I say WEST SIDE, I'm out south of Forest Grove, Newburg, McMinnville_ wine country. Lots of great roads. Gotta watch out for bicycles however. My drive to Cars and Coffee is a 25 or thirty mile trip, through back roads, from Gaston, Oregon to Wilsonville. Wilsonville Road is a GREAT road, paralleling the river. Only a mile from Ron Tonkin Ferrari, so can't MISS going there too.

 

Nice! Yeah I use to do so many drives with car guys. Just meet up and cruise to the beach to a well known spot called Javiers. I would have gone solo but if I can cruise with friends awesome. I prefer the highway drives over the canyon in mass groups as there is always someone who thinks they are a formula one driver which tends to put pressure on others and ruin the drive. At least on the highway, ehhh I can jump off any time lol. I’ll have to keep a look out for when you guys meet up. Hell I’d even come you way just for cars and wine. Of course not drunk cars and wine, gotta keep it classy and responsible. You get enough attention in an exotic, don’t need wine to mane it worse.

 

Don't forget to go to Bend in the summer. I absolutely love the Oregon high desert...about a 3 hour drive from Portland....

 

I live on the west side of Portland, so I also do most of my driving in that area, and the north Oregon coast (I have a house there). There are some amazing roads, but watch out for log trucks going 30mph!

There used to be a great Ferrari club event in Cannon Beach every summer, but I think that stopped a few years ago? Too bad, because it was a lot of fun and a great show. They would close down one of the downtown streets for the car show.

 

Awesome. Think I might take the car out for the first time today up near Mt hood before the covid is up and the roads are all people going snowboarding.