Technically this is an ad for a Cannondale mountain bike, but we can’t stop looking at the Porsche 911, sliding, jumping and splashing its way through the woods.
Does your classic stick to paved roads, or do you also like to drive it through the dirt sometimes?
By David S. Wallens
1/23/24 11:27 a.m.
Our '69 MGB GT was our snow car for years in Albuquerque. Narrow tires, low power and un-salted roads made it great. Unfortunately, moving to Wisconsin (and heavily salted roads) has brought that to a halt. Still happy to slide it around on dirt roads, though.
Jake
1/23/24 11:50 a.m.
In reply to spritedriver28 :
That does sound like an awful lot of fun. Glad to hear you still enjoy slinging it through the dirt.
1/23/24 1:28 p.m.
No I would not drive my morgans on muddy roads.I have an Austin Healey/Sunbeam friend that says,"When spring comes in NYS, I kneel down and taste the road. It it tastes like salt, the car goes no where."
1/23/24 2:22 p.m.
bring it on ! water,mud, ruts, washboard roads anything but salt , can't lose any more cars to rust
1/24/24 9:10 a.m.
As someone who has lived in Western New York, that's not bad advice (although, I'd taste the road sparingly, if at all
). The winters are rough and the salt is rougher.
1/24/24 12:58 p.m.
Not a classic, but one time driving my cayman back from the tail of the dragon, my gps took me down an out of the way gravel road. I definitely took advantage to live out my rally driver fantasies. As far as i can tell I didn't pick up any new rock chips, and if i did, it would have been worth it for all the fun I had
1/25/24 8:13 a.m.
Most of the damage I've gotten from 'enjoying' dirt roads has been to the wheels. The rocks will chip the clearcoat. A lot. DAMHIK.
1/26/24 9:55 a.m.
TBF, that was not a garage-queen, lowered, race-slicked 911 - it was clearly properly set up for rally/offroad. Nobody is going to take their 356B racer offroad like that.
That being said, while not a classic, I welcome any chance to get my Macan S into offroad mode, and have washed plenty of red clay off it between Arkansas and Georgia, climbed some steep gravel drives, and forded rocky riverbottoms.
I think what people tend to forget is that many older cars (pre-1960s) were engineered to handle dirt and gravel roads as at that time in many parts of the world there was still not a lot of pavement, unlike today where folks think they're "offroad" driving across a perfectly groomed area of cut grass or a gravel parking lot...
1/26/24 11:11 a.m.
Good point. Also, bravo to you for being one of the few people to take a Macan off-road. Sounds like it's more capable than most would think.
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