Drives out of Sydney

Mark not sure if you have been hearing the news lately but they have been clamping down heavy on speeding here in Sydney in the last few days.An elderly couple were tragically killed by two morons racing each other in Sydneys west.A guy just got arrested this afternoon in his WRX while racing another WRX over the Anzac bridge

 

Putty Rd, use to do it every second weekend, great road for exotics
Bells Line of Road, probably wall to wall blue shirted revenue collectors
Nowra out to Greenwell Point, great scenery and flowing road
Kangaroo Valley, brilliant, use to do this with my dad at least twice a year
Old Pacific hwy, get the FCA boys to run block for you
Royal National park to Stanwell ??? probably too many slow drivers for it to be fun anymore
Katoomba run was great until the blanket 80kph
run up to the Hunter Valley wineries is good
drive from Katoomba to Dubbo is good, use to do this run twice a week in the mid 80s, the first 50 kms after Katoomba I liked

 

To follow on from John's list which is excellent:

Putty Rd, use to do it every second weekend, great road for exotics - YES
Bells Line of Road, probably wall to wall blue shirted revenue collectors - CORRECT UNLESS VERY EARLY
Nowra out to Greenwell Point, great scenery and flowing road - ALSO VERY NICE
Kangaroo Valley, brilliant, use to do this with my dad at least twice a year - EXCELLENT RUN, GREAT FROM BERRY SIDE OVER TO VALLEY & BACK DOWN TOWARDS NOWRA. JUST HAD A WEEK DOWN THERE & DID 3 EARLY MRNING SPIRITED RUNS, MAGNIFICENT
Old Pacific hwy, get the FCA boys to run block for you - SENSATIONAL SECTION JUST BEFORE HAWKESBURY, SYDNEY SIDE THEN LOOK OUT FOR THE BIKES ON THE OTHER SIDE, STILL A GREAT RUN - ALSO A REGULAR OF MINE
Royal National park to Stanwell ??? probably too many slow drivers for it to be fun anymore - REGULAR OF MINE, RIGHT ON WITH SLOW DRIVERS, SOME NEW SEALED SECTIONS FANTASTIC, NEED TO PICK YOUR TIME & DAY
Katoomba run was great until the blanket 80kph
run up to the Hunter Valley wineries is good - ALSO SOME GREAT ROADS
drive from Katoomba to Dubbo is good, use to do this run twice a week in the mid 80s, the first 50 kms after Katoomba I liked - CAN'T REALLY COMMENT ON THIS ONE, IS THIS PART OF THE OLD EAST COAST TARGA ROUTE, IF SO GREAT ROADS.

Mark, A number of the roads John has mentioned above are OK if you start early, some will take at least 30 mins to reach others longer, I don't think you can reach great roads in same time as Adelaide.

If you are thinking of bringing the G up for a stay you can count on a 430 for company, I am always looking for a drive partner with a nice exotic When are you coming up, I am in Centennial Park only 10 minutes or so from CBD.

 

Would we be able to organise a drive day out of this? i just bought myself a BMW, and i'm keen to go for a drive. Obviously wouldn't keep up without some serious thrashing though...

 

All our best shops open Sundays ,send the kids to the inlaws on 'drive' sundays

 

I can vouch for all these drives, they're the best ones closest to Sydney, but definitely leave early (6-7am Sunday). There is also a great drive out via Hornsby/Galston Gorge into the Wisemans Ferry region too, the good bits start about 45 mins from the CBD.

Getting down to Kangaroo Valley or up to Katoomba is about 2 hours drive from the CBD, though if you go South via the Royal National Park, then up Macquarie Pass at Albion Park to Robertson/Fitzroy Falls, you can drive mostly good roads from about 25 mins south of the city all the way to Kangaroo Valley, then over the mountain for a great breakfast in Berry at the Sourdough Bakery.

If you're planning on making a Sunday drive, I'd be keen to bring out my 360.

 

I will keep this in mind even if Mark doesn't make it soon, always nice to share one of those early morning drives with another, I did one recently past Hawkesbury with a mate and his Murci, we should keep this thread bookmarked for later PM's to organise a run.

 

a place which won't be bookmarked by collection officers and undesirables and google is Save Ferris

 

Finally a topic for my neighbourhood!

My 2 cents worth: I whizzed thru Royal National Park last Saturday in a V8 Vantage and managed to scrape the nose lightly due to a bumpy section. So watch out for that one.

(some of you have already seen me as Zed over at aussieexotics, but that username is already taken here :-( )

And just to be clear, I'm a member of QuarterMile so don't own my own, so I won't always have a car available. But I'm keen to meet up when anyone is cruising in my neighbourhood. That's Sydney upper north shore - you go past my door if you're hitting the Old Pacific Hwy.

 

Same thing happened to me on my first run I had in the 430 down there, there are definitely some bumpy sections but also a new sealed section which was great, as you say, you need to go a little easy in places, will keep you in mind for a next run north.

Glad you started this thread Mark it has brought out a couple of lurkers like me and now I/we have a few more fellow enthusiasts here in Sydney looking for company to share morning runs.

Any more Sydney folk out there keen to join in on any early Sunday morning spirited runs? Maybe Sunday 12th or 19th for a few hours back by 10am or so, then spend the rest of the day with the family.

 

Sounds pretty good! Finally some action in NSW.

I'll bring out my little track weapon for a drive too if we can get this happening!

 

Through the 80's as a biker my favourite roads for day run out of Sydney were:
(1) Old Pacific Hwy from Hornsby to Peats Ridge and back (typically just for milk shake and then burn back in time for 9am uni lectures)
(2) Bells line of Rd west of Windsor over the mountains
(3) Macquarie Pass up and down between Albion Park on coast and Robertson in highlands (near where I live now)
(4) Kangaroo Valley & surrounds, eg Berry also closeby to (3) and can join together

These days I'd give (1) a miss as they've dumbed the limit wayyy down so far so you could break it on a pushie and too easy to nab "speeders" by the gazillion.

Not sure about (2) these days as not used for years but still an alternative.

(3) yes definitely, I use it regularly but low limit set so take your chances but very smooth and windy but if get stuck behind truck you'lll be there for a fortnight before overtaking opportunity. An bike fatality just last week might mean patrol focus for a while too.

Given you'd have varying depths of "running the gauntlet" licence wise on most of these roads on a weekend in particular I'd recommend using the roads between Lithgow and Oberon if you have (should MAKE) the time.

The place is criss crossed with them going to-from nowhere in particular and unlikely to have anywhere near the chance of running into licence problems on that "little zap" and have a very satisfactory long runs over the undulating countryside. (hint take good map & nav system).

Ideal would be go Bells Line from Syd, down into Lithgow and branch out from there. There are hundreds of kms of choice roads between there and Goulburn/Yass area for days/months/years of exploration.

fyi: That area was used by East Coast Targa organisers so chosen for a reason!

 

Count me in, esp in couple months when should have some new recreational wheels.

If you're going to do Macquarie Pass you're right in my neck of the woods.. if someone wants to make full expedition of targa road network west of mountains count me in too!

 

If i'm welcome, i'd love to join in on the 19th

 

Galston Gorge would be fun Their always seems to be slow people but, its about 6km though, and all windy! Very windy, the surface isn't great but.

 

Lower speed twisty stuff would be safer for our licenses ;-)

But wouldn't we beach our toys on those hairpins down to Galston?

And another possibility: down to Bobbin Head from Pacific Hwy, and back out to the north west. I know they were doing some resurfacing recently, so hopefully its cleaned up nicely.

 

Welcome

While (slightly) OT care to tell us about your experiences with "QuarterMile" club?

I see it's join/annual fees are somewhat lower than P1 for example but adds a per km rate. How have you found their version of membership system work for you? (just curious).

Of course would be *ideal* thing to have a stable to select from for these weekend road runs if they were to get up and some "regulars" created.

 

I agree the low speed twisty is preferred, I always start my run north from entry to Kur Nat Pk at Nth Turramurra, head down to Bobbin Head then up to Pac Hwy, then continue old road to Hawksebury & beyond, nice photo opp on boat ramp under/next to Hawkesbury Bridge.

This is all sounding great, the idea seems to be building steam & interest.

 

I won't break the momentum of the get together I can see happening here, but yeah sure I'll start a fresh topic and let everyone know more about it.

 

Excellent!

Have you been back through there since they did the road work in the week of 25-29 June?

I went to head back home thru there when I had the 360 but the guy told me one of the machines had broken down in the middle of the road, so it was all blocked still. :-(