Road Atlanta... ahhhh how I miss that place....
Where's an M3 happiest? The race track—especially Road Atlanta—would be a correct answer.
The M3 was working during the Mitty, though, serving as the chase car during our parade laps.
Occasionally, though, we'd get some pavement to ourselves.
The M3 excels on the road, too. We took the scenic way up and back.
Getting off the interstates provided a more relaxed journey.
Although the Interstate system may have made travel a bit quicker, driving down these forgotten paths of the past make for a much more memorable ride.
Although our E36-chassis BMW M3 sees regular use as a daily driver and occasional track car, the recent Mitty weekend kept our trusted mount quite busy.
Our adventure started by driving the 15-year-old BMW from the GRM headquarters in Central Florida up to Road Atlanta. While the slog up interstates I-95 and I-75 may have been a bit quicker, we decided to head North on US-1 through the heart of rural Georgia.
Once we reached Interstate 16, we headed west to Dublin and then continued on Route 441 up through the beautiful Southern countryside. We weren’t able to sustain highway speeds on these roads, but the undulating hills and serpentine twists more than made up for the higher rate of travel found while droning down the interstate.
Once at Road Atlanta, the car was used as the chase vehicle during the weekend’s parade and touring laps. While these laps were hardly at racing speeds, it was still fun to toss the car around a bit, and get a much better appreciation of what a wonderful track Road Atlanta really is.
In total the car logged about 30 laps around Road Atlanta’s circuit, which was a real treat! Now we are especially eager to attend a track day there, as we have a much more solid idea of the track’s layout.
After the weekend’s festivities were over, we jumped back into our nearly 150,000-mile Bimmer and drove the seven or so hours back home. Once again we took the road less traveled.
The reward for our route was an incredible sunset which cast golden light over the rolling hills and through the tall pines of central Georgia. These roads were the main highways before the interstates took the traffic away, and remnants of closed service stations and defunct hotels still dot the countryside. Although the Interstate system may have made travel a bit quicker, driving down these forgotten paths of the past make for a much more memorable ride.
On-track photos courtesy of Double Vision Photography.
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Road Atlanta... ahhhh how I miss that place....
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