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What’s your limit for spirited driving on an open road? What lines—metaphorical and literal—do you refuse to cross? Every enthusiast asks themself these questions when they go out for a high-speed jaunt, whether they’re aware of it or not. There’s no single code for canyon carvers, leaving each of us to define our own balance of aggression and safety. The result, too often, is a costly or, far worse, fatal mistake.
That’s exactly what the latest video on The Drive’s YouTube channel is about. Some drivers believe that roads like Angeles Crest, Tail of the Dragon, or whatever local ribbon of asphalt they frequent is their playground, because they’ve repeatedly demonstrated the skill to navigate it swiftly without incident. But just because you’ve never had a spill before doesn’t mean you never will. That’s called survivorship bias, and it’s one of the problems with the belief that the open road belongs only to those who believe they’re best equipped to tame it.
At the start of the video, The Drive Editor-in-Chief Kyle Cheromcha recaps the beef between Evan Sawyer, a self-professed canyon carver, and Cort Wagner, a pro-am racing driver. Sawyer posted a video of himself standing inside a hairpin and flipping the bird at drivers for apexing and crossing the double yellows, who returned the kindness. One such driver was Wagner, who, let’s just say, aligns less with Sawyer’s mentality and more with the one described in the previous paragraph.
The Drive Editor-in-Chief Kyle Cheromcha looks on as sports cars pass by on Angeles Crest. The Drive via YouTube
This debate has made the rounds in recent months, but it’s, of course, much bigger than these two individuals. In this video, we ask some enthusiasts in the canyons about their limits—what they will and won’t do, and why. The fact of the matter is that there’s far more ordinary traffic in the world than there are wannabe (or legitimate) racers, and even on remote, disused highways, like Angeles Crest, you can never, ever be sure that such traffic isn’t lurking around a bend, where you can’t see it. The only place you can drive without such concern is, of course, the racetrack.
And even if you took the potential harm to your fellow motorists out of the equation (you can’t, but let’s try for the sake of argument), the laissez-faire attitude of the freedom to die doing what you love doesn’t count for much when the dying’s done. Late last year, Vince Zampella, the creator of Call of Duty, killed himself and passenger Zachary Marks when the Ferrari 296 GTS he was driving struck the sharp edge of a concrete barrier on Angeles Crest exiting a tunnel. Zampella was no novice, but he still made a mistake anyone could make.
The Drive via YouTube
My favorite part of this video is hearing some of the enthusiasts we spoke to share their own rules of the road. Frankly, it’s all smart advice to live by. “I never drive anywhere near the limit of the vehicle,” one person said. “I drive, like, maybe 70% of my personal limit, because I know I’m going to be well under what the car can do, and I always leave room for gravel, unexpected things, corners, so I’m never really pushing the car.”
“You know, if you drive 10/10ths up here, then there’s actually no room for error,” was another driver’s warning. But the last one really sums this all up the best: “If I get to live another day, come back here another day, that’s a win.”
Have any thoughts on safe, spirited driving? Watch the video, and let us know in the comments here or on YouTube.
Backed by a decade of covering cars and consumer tech, Adam Ismail is a Senior Editor at The Drive, focused on curating and producing the site’s slate of daily stories.
