Burrough Valley Rd > Watts Valley Rd > Fresno

Started by BigMike, August 12, 2010, 01:04:25 AM

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BigMike

WOW What a drive this is!

When you turn off of Tollhouse Rd onto Burrough Valley Rd, Get ready for a great ride! The road immediately starts off with some really tight corners and continues all the way until you get about half way to Watts Valley Rd. The road is okay, I'd give it a 7 out of 10, there are some choppy sections here and there. Soon the corners begin to open up as you pass through valley after valley. The cool thing about this section of road is that you'll have a long wide 50-60 MPH corner followed immediately by a series of 30 MPH corners, then then again another long wide 50-60 MPH corner, and this repeats 3 or 4 times. It's AWESOME.

Before reaching the T at Watts Valley Rd, there is a looooooooong downhill straight that I got up to 90 MPH in the dark on before letting up. The straight levels out and has a couple rises with blind straights beyond them. If you knew this road and had suspension to soak those up, you could easily do 130 MPH or so flat-out with enough power.

Once you get to Watts Valley Rd, say bye-bye to the yellow & white paint: it's undivided. Trimmer springs is a mere 5 miles to the left, or turn right to head back to Fresno, which is what I did.

Well let me tell you what, if you have watched any Best Motoring International Touge battles on YouTube, such as this one, man this road is a PERFECT place for them to come over here and do some Touge battles on! Because this road is undivided, I recommend doing it after sunset so you can see oncoming headlights. Also Bill tells me there are sometimes wild bore on the road, so watch out!

Wow I'd say this is the BEST road I've EVER driven in my life. It is WAAY better than Mammoth Pools road. The pavement is MUCH better here, VERY smooth everywhere. There are SO MANY TECHNICAL corners I was SUPER AMAZED. I know I've driven this road once while chasing Kevin in his AE86, but that was uphill and I was following someone. WOW what a difference going downhill while leading. Traffic was non-existent, however there are some houses along the road so I'd expect there to be some traffic the next time I drive this road (hopefully very soon!)

There a so many spots where the corners go right, left, right, left, even a couple times they are very close and without any braking needed, full on slalom style! Since it's going downhill, my brakes got right up to their operating temperature and worked AMAZINGLY well. I can't believe how great my brakes are. I never felt any fade and I worked them HARD. This road is just so great, wow, I just want to drive it again.

This road is so technical that it will take me at least 10 times to get it down. There are so many blind uphill rises followed by hard & tight corners. One such uphill rise is followed by a sharp left hander right as you crest over one valley and into the mouth of another. If you were to go straight off the road, it would be very, very bad. My skill was tested a couple times as I did not know the road + driving it hard in the dark. Coming over a crest dropping into a hairpin corner that cuts in unexpectedly very sharp while hitting the brakes is certainly a no-no in a mid engine car.

The road is like a wet-dream come to life until you pass the Pittman Hill turnoff, then it suddenly turns into a highway 41 foothill road. They just laid down fresh pavement on the road past this point and it's still not divided except for the temporary flappy markers.

BUT WOW, WHAT A RUSH! There was NO WAY I was stopping for any pictures. I will have to take a bunch of them after I run that road a couple more times. There is even a windy road sign up there; I don't see many of those around. MAN I was so happy when I passed that, I was like, "LET THE GAMES BEGIN!"

Highly recommended for an extremely technical road that should only be driven after sunset for safety purposes.
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     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2

BigMike

Grabbed some pics from Google Street View. Watts Valley road is far better to show off, but Google only has pictures of about 1/2 of Burrough Valley Rd, so here goes

1st pic: Downhill right turn entering Burrough Valley Road

2nd pic: Let the fun begin!

3rd pic: Lots of these uphill blind corners

4th pic: Plenty of high speed right-lefts

5th pic: Lots of these tight corners
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     My 1987 Supercharged 4A-powered 6-speed MR2

Sirdeuce

Welcome to my playpen! Oh yeah, 'He likes it! Hey Mikey!' Up and down this hill for 6 years. Forced to commute a couple hundred times a year. Must be getting tired of it, huh?  HEYELL NOO!!! It's why I go to work!
"I slept with faith and found a corpse in my arms on wakening; I drank and danced all night with doubt and found her a virgin in the morning."