Re: *mountain*and*canyon*driving*touge* did you get busted??
Hmm, perhaps not quite you think of as "canyon driving", but its the most intense 8 miles I know of in the British Isles....Slieve Gullion Forest in Co. Armagh, Northern Ireland.
Some background; the forest drive was built for logging trucks. Its 1-way, with switchbacks, rises and falls, jumps, straights. Your own private rally stage. Plus its good quality tarmac.
The road is about 1.5 of a car width:
The "start" is marked by the cattle grid; after that, you won't get any walkers:
http://images2.fotopic.net/?iid=ygqyk9&noresize=1&nostamp=1&quality=70
After, that, its a white knuckle ride. At one point, you can see the remains of a Nova rally car nestling comedic like inside a ruined farmhouse below the road; apparently the result of a late night activity. The finish is marked by a second cattle grid, marking when you are back on public roads. The finish is also conveniently close to the start.
Anyhow, back to the story. On a particularly spirited club run; we were banging along. I noticed an Army helicoptor in the area; they resupply army bases in the area, and it was quite dramatic to see this Army Puma sweep very low over the convoy with the side doors open. We had just come off the run, turned a corner, and almost ran a policeman over, standing in the road with an outstretched arm....surrounded by platoon of Paras, all skulking in the greenery, pointing guns at us (in South Armagh, the police only move by air, hence the low helo, and this was a routine vehicle checkpoint). Upon seeing we were all of the same kind of car, the copper burst out laughing, waved us through, pointing out the start of the drive..... Half the population of NI are petrolheads.
Slightly more legitimate; Ramsey to Bungalow of the IOM TT course. Another MX5OC club event way back in 2000. The Manx government had specially closed a section of the course for the club. Unbelieveable experience; no oncoming trafic, no speed limits, and smiling police waving at you at the start. I have some in car video of this in a MX5, on VHS, but the guys wife is mostly yelling at him and waving her fist at other MX5s. But I found this quite superb footage from Mad Sunday, in a Caterham:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99_BlDNHkjY
Bungalow is marked by where the Caterham catches up with an E30, and passes under the footbridge. Note the police at the Ramsey hairpin start, and ambulance crews in attendance along the road.:shock:
(Mad Sunday is when the circuit is open to one way traffic only. The IOM has no speed restrictions outside the towns. But the police do have very fast pursuit cars (back in 2000, it was a fleet of Accord Type Rs)).
Enjoy the video, and start saving. 8) Who needs to go to Germany....