I'm obsessed with L.A. Canyons...as are, I suspect, many of you. I've always been a fan of long-form venues: the Mille Miglia, the Carrera Panamericana, the Targa Florio, South America's Gran Premio, Australia's Redex Rallye, the East African Safari, Paris-Dakar, Paris-to-Peking, Rome-to-Berlin (cancelled on account of WW2) and, for that matter, Around the World in 80 Days. Most were gone by the time I got my driver's license, but growing up in L.A., me and my car-crazy buddies were always looking for the perfect 'sports car road.' There were no lack of candidates--the infamous Mulholland Drive, the Pacific Coast Highway up near Monterey, Route 78 down by Julian--but nothing could rival the Angeles Crest Highway out near Mt. Wilson.
And now developer Phoenix77 has delivered a perfect simulacrum of a 42-kilometer (26 miles; the same length as an Olympic marathon) loop of the canyonland roads that twist, swoop, curl and sweep through the Angeles National Forest. He has captured not only every detail of the route (vegetation, rock formations, road signs, buildings, intersections, etc.), but also the soaring spirit of the run (well known to motorcyclists who revere the old Ridge Route as hallowed ground). Like the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (of which I was a co-founder; it's right there in Brock Yates' book), the only question remaining is: which car is the best for the drive?
There might be two categories. One, What vehicle of any type can set the fastest absolute time? And Two, What vehicle of the type you might actually encounter on the route (i.e., in real life) is the fastest? In the first category, I almost set my absolute best time in the Peugeot 208T16, an 875-horsepower, 4WD 'Formula Libre' machine (run whatcha brung) kitted out with a front aero appendage the size of a commercial snow plow and a wing on the back the size of a Marine attack carrier. The 208T16 was purpose-built to smash all the old records at the Pike's Peak hillclimb in 2013 and driven by rally champ Sebastien Loeb it did just that with a time of 8:13.9.
As released for AC, the 208T16 had one serious shortcoming: it was geared for a top speed of only 150 mph. So I re-geared it for a theoretical 200+ mph (with the wings laid flat) and an actual 190 mph top end for L.A. Canyons. I made no other changes, but later, megolito, over at GT Planet, re-released it with some additional tweaks. That's the car I used for my LAC run. I believe it's capable of a sub-10-minute run, but the next problem is the fuel capacity: 60 liters. I twice ran out of fuel whilst attempting PBs, both times within sight of the finish line, so I had to coast home, dead stick, without breaking my record. I tried again, with more luck, in the Red Bull 2010X fantasy F1 car, but I decided a more realistic approach would have more resonance with old car guys like me.
Using the Cannonball Run as a paradigm, the idea should be to determine what's the fastest street legal car for one lap of L.A. Canyons (now up to version 1.2). That is, no pavement-scraping spoilers, no high-rise wings, no grasping diffusers, no chrome-moly roll cages, no gumball slicks, no 120-db straight pipes, just...well...street legal. There are no lack of contenders, from precisely-accurate hypercars to 're-worked' showroom-stock supercars. I tried 'em all. Following are my setups (one lap each) for the ten fastest street cars I've driven in L.A. Canyons. (Your results may vary.)
And now developer Phoenix77 has delivered a perfect simulacrum of a 42-kilometer (26 miles; the same length as an Olympic marathon) loop of the canyonland roads that twist, swoop, curl and sweep through the Angeles National Forest. He has captured not only every detail of the route (vegetation, rock formations, road signs, buildings, intersections, etc.), but also the soaring spirit of the run (well known to motorcyclists who revere the old Ridge Route as hallowed ground). Like the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash (of which I was a co-founder; it's right there in Brock Yates' book), the only question remaining is: which car is the best for the drive?
There might be two categories. One, What vehicle of any type can set the fastest absolute time? And Two, What vehicle of the type you might actually encounter on the route (i.e., in real life) is the fastest? In the first category, I almost set my absolute best time in the Peugeot 208T16, an 875-horsepower, 4WD 'Formula Libre' machine (run whatcha brung) kitted out with a front aero appendage the size of a commercial snow plow and a wing on the back the size of a Marine attack carrier. The 208T16 was purpose-built to smash all the old records at the Pike's Peak hillclimb in 2013 and driven by rally champ Sebastien Loeb it did just that with a time of 8:13.9.
As released for AC, the 208T16 had one serious shortcoming: it was geared for a top speed of only 150 mph. So I re-geared it for a theoretical 200+ mph (with the wings laid flat) and an actual 190 mph top end for L.A. Canyons. I made no other changes, but later, megolito, over at GT Planet, re-released it with some additional tweaks. That's the car I used for my LAC run. I believe it's capable of a sub-10-minute run, but the next problem is the fuel capacity: 60 liters. I twice ran out of fuel whilst attempting PBs, both times within sight of the finish line, so I had to coast home, dead stick, without breaking my record. I tried again, with more luck, in the Red Bull 2010X fantasy F1 car, but I decided a more realistic approach would have more resonance with old car guys like me.
Using the Cannonball Run as a paradigm, the idea should be to determine what's the fastest street legal car for one lap of L.A. Canyons (now up to version 1.2). That is, no pavement-scraping spoilers, no high-rise wings, no grasping diffusers, no chrome-moly roll cages, no gumball slicks, no 120-db straight pipes, just...well...street legal. There are no lack of contenders, from precisely-accurate hypercars to 're-worked' showroom-stock supercars. I tried 'em all. Following are my setups (one lap each) for the ten fastest street cars I've driven in L.A. Canyons. (Your results may vary.)
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