Road Trip: Tail of the Dragon in a 2015 BMW M6 - Autos.ca
Tens of thousands of riders and drivers come down here every year to take it on – to prove themselves against the most legendary road in the Smoky Mountains. If the weather’s good – hell, even if it’s not good – somebody’s going to crash. So I climbed into a BMW M6 with my friend Peter, a weekend Porsche racer visiting from the U. K. , and made the 1,300-kilometre drive south from Toronto to find out the appeal. I drove the Dragon a few years ago and remember it as really tight and twisting – 318 curves in 18 kilometres, apparently – so my first choice was a Porsche 911 GTS. Then at the last minute, I remembered to mention Peter was coming along, and he wouldn’t let Peter drive it. He didn’t know Peter, and the 911 is worth more than a hundred grand after all. Two days before coming over here, Peter set fire to his 968 at Brands Hatch, leaving a trail of fiery smoke all the way from Druids down the Cooper Straight. With just a few days before leaving, I called BMW and asked for “something appropriate. Sure, the Dragon is best with a small car for its tight turns, but there’s a very long day on the interstate to get there first. A Mini Cooper S or JCW would be perfect, but Peter and I didn’t want to sit that close to each other for hour after hour, all poor coffee, bad breath and flatulence. BMW offered the $125,000 M6 and we grabbed it. Another flavour of M6: Test Drive: 2014 BMW M6 Gran Coupe. Source: www.autos.ca
