Dino Saga 060723___Some of Santa Barbara

Dino Saga 060723___Some of Santa Barbara

My Dino is only half of the fun. The road is where it, and I, play. Santa Barbara has more than its share of interesting playgrounds. I’d like to share a few.

Locals figure that Santa Barbara goes from Winchester Canyon to Summerland, from the Pacific to the Santa Inez river. That’s a lot of territory and the first range of mountains work with their foothills to make most all roads twisty. The few straight lines are in the cities of Goleta, Santa Barbara and Montecito, on the flatlands.

Old San Marcos Pass, Camino Cielo, Mountain Drive, Gibralter Road, are all good for wringing out a nimble car. No reason to go fast. Posted speed limit gives you a work out and it’s fun to pull off and just look. Views are spectacular.

I learned them all in the late 50s with my beautiful red ’72 MG TD. All of the special roads were narrower, many parts unpaved and the MG was in its Heaven. Skinny tires, dirt roads, limber chassis, lousy shocks, little brakes and all of 70 HP went together nicely. All the roads are now paved, some wider, some potholed, and most still largely untraveled. A modern car can’t rush, even though it could go faster than the MG. I could drift at 30 MPH then, and if I lost it, not much happened. I could drift now at 50 MPH and kill myself if I lost it. Take it easy and enjoy the fantastic views. I did just that last week going up Gibralter road, across Camino Cielo and down New San Marcos Pass. Took a few pictures and then came home and downloaded the latest Beta version of Google Earth. Wanted to see if I could get an overview shot. I could!

Wow! Google Earth has a whole new look, better interaction and higher resolution. Just think what the next year might bring. Take a look at the Vegas Strip to get blown away. Then come back to Santa Barbara, at 4000 ft., above Camino Cielo, looking South at Gibralter Rd. Tilt back until you see S.B. and the Islands. You can get a good idea of the terrain. Roads are narrow and you have to share them. Lots of bicycles. Gibralter Rd was fine except where edges had slid away. No potholes. Camino Cielo was 9 miles of potholes. No traffic so I had all the road to play with and only hit one hole dead on. Left front tire touched inside top of fender but no sweat. A car with a front spoiler would never make it. New San Marcos Pass is a high speed cruiser with lots of traffic. Temp in the city was 80, temp on Camino Cielo was 107. Talk about an inversion! The Dino peaked at 220 F and did fine. Fans stayed on until I left Camino Cielo. Sure felt good to cruise down into cooler air at 65 after running a bouncy 25 mph zigzag on top.

I’ll run the other roads and give you an idea of current conditions. One of these days. In the meantime, cruise vicariously with Google Earth. Tilt till you can see the horizon and fly. Santa Barbara is famous as a vacation destination and FChatters should have a little adventure to go with the food, wine and beaches. Come play!

John
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You are right. In the Dino, your butt is 8" off the ground and everytime you punch the throttle, a half cup of gas goes to down a rat hole. But the car responds NOW. And your butt feels it, and life is good. Other folks can have seats at a reasonable height, and lose the view of ladies trying to sit gracefully, and have fuel injection, and a computer bringing things up with a perfect mixture, and saving gas all the way, and being 100 miliseconds late.

Life is too short!

John