A couple months ago I went to a Cars and Coffee in downtown Chattanooga. It was my first time there and it was quite nice. Tucked in one of the corners was a nice booth with the name “Dragon Rally” with only a few stacks of unassuming cards and people standing around. I made my rounds and saw everything that I wanted to see but stopped by the booth to chat about the M4 sitting next to it. I owned 3 different 335i before so I’m a bit of a sucker for modern BMW’s. During a conversation I mentioned I had taken my last 335i to the Tail and had a blast and I was pointed to the Dragon Rally booth and given a card that said Dragon Rally XIII, October 16. I quickly researched and saw a post with an amazing list of cars: M cars, RS cars, Lotus, Corvettes, Camaros, Lamborghinis, SRT, Porsche, GT350, etc. All very serious players! I was intrigued and took a flyer and went home.
Over the next few days I looked into the history of this company and found them to be legit. The price for a day of fun was a measly $100 and I could make some new friends. I had a month to get the car ready and I wanted to finish getting the black optics done as well as some suspension work to make it even slightly more capable and picture ready.
Over the next month work happened slowly and I swear I slept less and less each night. I got my Alu Kreuz in and flushed the brake fluid for Motul RBF 600, and finished wrapping what I could. My carbon fiber mirrors were delivered less than an hour after I left for the mountains unfortunately.
The interstate was backed up due to accidents on the wet morning so the detours put me behind schedule. I arrived at the 129 Hub with 10 minutes to spare. I parked in the back and walked past the lines of prepped sports cars: Porsche 911 4S, Hellcat Redeye, Lotus Evora, GT350, Corvettes, fat wheel Civics, STI…34 cars! I got my radio and vinyl and made it to the drivers meeting. About half had never been to the Tail before and were urged to be careful and stay in the back for a little while. Before I knew it we set off and the first stop was the Tail of the Dragon. In front of me was a yellow Evora, behind was a Camaro SS. Each curve came quickly and I was worried about past issues I’ve had in a considerably lighter car with more power and better tires: brake fade and front end push. The next ten minutes absolutely blew me away. The car had so much grip I thought I was dreaming. The all season Nitto Motivo tires never winced, buckled, squealed, or lost traction. In the first 10 months I had never pushed the car this hard in a corner. I didn’t think it could be pushed this hard! All this talk of Quattro understeer and nose heavy V8’s was just a lie because in just a few short corners I gained the ultimate confidence. I trusted the car to turn in, whether trail braking or simply off throttle, and it never told me to back off. I probably couldn’t stay with The King on the Dragon but the Lotus in front of me couldn’t pull away an extra foot further than I wanted him. I would consider myself a good driver and I found that the way the car responded best was to truly take the racing line and ease into the apex and powering out. The Tail isn’t just for Honda’s of two and four wheels folks…
Through the rest of the day we toured about 250 miles of mountain roads, most of it at full throttle. The singular time the car slid was around a corner full of leaves that I took wide in order to stay in my lane. It caught itself immediately and I powered through. I trust this car incredibly and I drove it to the edge on this day.
