Planet 9

Hey all,
Last week my wife and I took the CS from AZ to the California Central Coast and Wine Country (Paso Robles, Templeton). We also drove out to PCH for a lovely drive from Cambria to about 25 miles North of San Simeon, from which farther north, CA 1 was closed for repairs. This was actually a good thing, because this incredibly scenic coastal hi-way had very little traffic since it was posted you couldn't go all the way through up to Carmel and Monterey, so very little traffic which allowed for quite spirited driving!!

But the real news I wanted to post for the Western US Cayman and Porsche owners is the great driving road known as the Blue Star Memorial Highway (CA 58), westbound from Buttonwillow and Mc Kittrick, CA (off I-5) over to Santa Margarita (101). This is about 90 miles of awesome highway, very well maintained but extremely sparsely traveled, especially on a weekday afternoon around 4:00 PM (Note, no gas or services between Mc Kittrick and Santa Margarita!).
It starts with a 25 mile stretch of hair pins and switch backs that climb up the Temblor mid-valley range (2nd and 3rd gear), providing titanic views of the central valley, then over and down in easy turns (3rd and 4th) to open up to about 30 miles of straight line and slow esses that cross with roller coaster undulations along the floor of the Carrizo plain (5th and 6th) which is starkly beautiful. This gives way on the west side of the valley into oak, willow, and eucalyptus tree filled arroyos, and stream bed valleys, which has a very Southern Germany, European autobahn feel; i.e. long left and right sweepers, with slight elevation changes. Very scenic and incredibly beautiful. Saw maybe 3 cars in the whole 90 + miles to Santa Margarita.
If youré out that way, it's a great drive, especially for high performance sports cars and sedans. Really gave the CS a great workout, driving the kind of road it was designed for!! I heard from the locals that it is very popular on Sat and Sun mornings with the So. Cal Ferrari, Lamborghini, BMW and Porsche crowd. But even then, traffic is minimal.
Just wanted to share. Would have posted earlier and with some pics, but when I returned to AZ, had a quick turn for business trip to Seoul, Korea. That's where I'm posting this from.
Best,
Pssk=1.0

Having lived in SoCal for a few years I can say without a doubt that it has some of the best driving roads in this country. More importantly many of the drivers on the incredible roads know enough to pull off the road and let faster cars pass which rarely happens here on the East Coast.

I miss driving out there. Next time stop and take some pictures of the car and scenery.

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Afshin

2011 Spyder - Basalt Black, Black Full Leather, 6MT, Sport Buckets, PSE

+2 on all counts. Man I miss SoCal. Driving my CS in MI is like wearing the proverbial raincoat if you know what I mean.

Got ém, just not with me in S. Korea. Will post some when I return to AZ.

Excellent, at least I can look at the pictures and pretend I was there!

Where in S. Korea are you? I was Seoul and Ulsan back in December. I didn't realize just how cold it gets over there! Safe travels.

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Afshin

2011 Spyder - Basalt Black, Black Full Leather, 6MT, Sport Buckets, PSE

I keep telling my wife that we need to move back. Yesterday when she called me on her drive home she said "I'm done, when are we moving?". I laughed at first and realized she was serious. If the job market wasn't so poor for my line of work I would go back.

If it makes you feel any better, at least there is a strong car culture in MI. Here in NE it's spotty at best.

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Afshin

2011 Spyder - Basalt Black, Black Full Leather, 6MT, Sport Buckets, PSE