Yahoo Autos The Perfect Road for Revealing a Sports Car’s Strengths and Weaknesses
“I have lived in Los Angeles for 35 years and had no idea any of this was here.” I’ve heard variations on this theme from many car enthusiasts I have led to the northern Angeles National Forest. This particular route offers something for everybody: fast straights, high-speed bends, tight and cambered hairpins, massive elevation change, and equal measures of smooth and challenging sections of aging asphalt. Plus, absolutely stunning views appear over every blind crest. Some of the route is used for commuting, but when it’s not rush hour, the roads are a fanatic’s dream.
The north route is perfect for sorting out a sports car’s strengths and weaknesses. Highly focused “race cars for the street” are suboptimal here. I recently drove the new Porsche GT3 RS on these roads and found it deeply unpleasant.
The perfect car for this route would be powerful, agile, and light, with a suspension that suspends enough to glide effortlessly over uneven road surfaces. That’s exactly the McLaren 750S Spider. Its engine is a weapon: four liters and two turbos generating 740 hp and turning only the rear tires. Its rigid and light carbon-tub construction means it weighs only 3200 pounds—a hundred of that is glass and the convertible-actuating motors that drop the top under the rear bonnet in seconds at up to 31 mph. The dual-clutch gearbox is smart on its own, but when manually operated, it is so responsive that only a fool would let it act alone. And McLaren’s best-in-class chassis control means that poorly maintained sections of road can be taken at massively antisocial speeds.
Not that R&T would endorse such behavior, but it is theoretically possible to crack 180 mph on this route’s wide-open introductory section. Shooting northeast out of Castaic at the foot of the I-5 “Grapevine” is Lake Hughes Road, which runs along an open ridge with undulating sweepers and long straights with plenty of visibility. Though iffy pavement quality would hold back many track-day specials, the McLaren is unbothered by old concrete, its now-standard titanium exhaust afterburners thundering around the rim of the lake.
A.
Once Lake Hughes Road exits the town of Castaic and climbs up to the ridge of the mountains, there is a series of very fast sweepers and straightaways. Supercars could, if one were to guess, hit nearly 180 mph here and continue in the triple digits for this entire section. The tarmac is aging and cracked in places.
B.
After the fast bends, Lake Hughes Road dives down into a stunning canyon and runs along a winding river for several miles. The turns are tighter and on-camber. There are great turnouts for photo stops. The pavement is a patchwork of new and old sections.
C.
The appropriately named Spunky Canyon Road is a tight, technical, and very fun ride over a small mountain, with big sweeping views of Bouquet Reservoir on the way down. You have to have quick hands for this road, and the gearbox stays in second nearly the whole way.
D.
Don’t panic! There’s a surprise section of dirt road here. It’s only about 100 yards long, and there is no good reason it isn’t paved. But there it is.
The road dives down into a slot canyon running alongside a river, zigging and zagging—second gear in the McLaren, with deep trail-braking to optimize weight transfer and stick the front tires.
The river doesn’t exist during drought years, but with recent rains, it’s worth parking in one of the many turnouts to take in the sound of the water and the smells of the verdant life it brings. Lake Hughes Road follows the river northward for another 10 miles of savory driving, ending in the town of Elizabeth Lake.
In town, stop at the Rock Inn for a burger, then continue on at a reasonable cruise—people live here. Rolling eastbound out of town, I dial both power and handling toggles to Comfort and take in the sights and the fresh mountain air.
I respect a good name, whether it’s of a band, a car, or a road, and Spunky Canyon is one of the best-named SoCal roads. It’s not long, but it’s tight and technical, with huge camber changes, zero-g yumps, and a big up-and-over that explodes into a view of Bouquet Reservoir on the fast downhill. One might think a 206-mph monster of a supercar seems like too much. But the Macca’s versatility shines bright, showing composure in the tight bends as much as in the sweepers, and its monster ceramic stoppers and rear airbrake wing are powerful enough for the hottest track days. Brake late with confidence.
As Spunky runs along the reservoir, turn right onto Bouquet Canyon Road, a beautifully wooded strip with great tarmac, a variety of tight and open corners, and interesting cabins on either side. It’s cooler, with mature tree cover, and it will be gooey wet in sections after rain. Drive it quickly but cautiously, and don’t cut the double yellows, as the odds of an oncoming truck—local or toy hauler—are higher here than in other places along the north route. Even at a medium pace, I appreciate the 750’s precise hydraulic steering and uncluttered, round steering wheel.
When Bouquet Canyon opens up to horse pastures and high-end stud farms, cut over to San Francisquito Canyon Road and turn back north. Commuters use San Francisquito to bounce between Santa Clarita and Lancaster, so be courteous and share the space. The quality of the pavement is excellent, so the traffic moves along quickly. There’s also a history lesson to learn: Stop after the turn and read a posted plaque about the catastrophic St. Francis Dam collapse that killed more than 450 people in 1928.
McLaren’s new faster and easier-to-access nose-lift feature comes in handy as I turn left onto what seems like a dirt turnout but is really the entrance to Dry Gulch Road—a secret connector. Somehow, traffic can flow both ways here (and does during rush hours). It’s barely wider than a single car, so I keep to the right, just in case. This road is more Mini than McLaren, but I take it slow and enjoy the stunning foliage as the 750S glides back to Lake Hughes Road. Then I turn left, drop the nose, put the 750 in MurderDeathKill, and smash the pedal as I head back toward Castaic, spinning the tires through four gears and unleashing the full power of the best supercar on sale to run the fast section one more time. Not that I would ever officially endorse doing such a thing.
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