[DeTomaso] NPC: Ride a Lambo through the Alps

[michael@michaelshortt.com]

Here is the Tail of the Dragon elevation

http://www.tailofthedragonmaps.com/maps_dragonelevation.html

Lots more info on my website at www.michaelspantera.com, scroll to the
bottom of the main page.

The 2013 Summer Summit will be later in the summer this year, with any luck
I will be shooting a movie in May, June and July, news to follow.

Michael Shortt
On Mar 20, 2013 10:14 PM, <MikeLDrew at aol.com> wrote:

>
> In a message dated 3/20/13 18 27 21, mbefthomas at comcast.net writes:
>
>
> > This is a pretty cool video.  It's about 15 minutes, and the first 4-5
> > minutes are a little slow, but once he gains altitude, the scenery is
> > spectacular.  The roads remind me of those used in Goldfinger waaaay back
> > in
> > the 60's, or the opening scenes of the original Italian Job.  10 pts for
> > any
> > of our Euro dudes who know the road, and a free drink at the Fun Rally if
> > you've driven it!
> >
> >>>I'm not a Eurodude, but I know it!
>
> That's the Grimsel Pass, in southern Switzerland.   It's not far from the
> Furka Pass, which was the road used in Goldfinger.
>
> A couple of years ago I went with a friend to Switzerland and we rented
> motorcycles and spent 10 days tearing up the Alps, and the Italian Dolomite
> mountains, and crossed and crisscrossed all those passes, including the
> Stelvio.   We stopped for lunch at the red restaurant you see on the right
> at 7:09.
>
> Claude Dubois rode over from France and joined us for four days, along with
> Thierry Monney, a Pantera owner from Geneva.
>
> It was absolutely epic.   One of the greatest things I've ever done in my
> life.
>
> As you can see, the surface of the pavement is flawless, but crash
> protection is minimal.   While some corners are blessed with an actual
> guardrail,
> most of the road is protected only by widely spaced stone markers, which
> would
> do precious little to prevent you from hurtling off the side, and there is
> simply no such thing as runoff room.   You either run smack into a vertical
> rock face, or plunge into an abyss.   That makes for a bit of
> circumspection
> when riding a motorcycle (and you can see in the video that the roads are
> thick with motorcycles).
>
> Claude took us on one pass that was truly terrifying.   The road was less
> than two lanes wide in many places, but had traffic in both directions.
> You
> would tiptoe around a blind corner and find a car coming the other way,
> with barely enough room for a car and motorcycle to pass.
>
> Oh, did I mention that there was no guardrail at all, and that there was a
> sheer drop of 1500-2000 feet on our side of the road?   The slightest
> miscalculation would have been doom.   I actually had a car nudge my
> saddlebag and
> pitch me off-balance, but I was only going about 5 mph and I was able to
> save it.
>
> After surviving that, we had lunch at a little cafe at the bottom of the
> hill, and he told us a tale of one of the greatest races he ever drove, in
> a
> Ferrari 250 GTO, racing up that same pass, except the road wasn't paved at
> the time.   Hell-bent for leather, nose to tail with another 250 GTO, on a
> closed rally stage, at night.
>
> Wow.
>
> Everybody owes it to themselves to go and see that part of the world, at
> least once.   You wouldn't even need to have a special car (or motorcycle)
> to
> make it special.   The lowest rental beater would still provide some of the
> best driving you've ever had in your life....
>
> Mike (now wants to go back there!)
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