Coker Tire / Classic Motorsports Tour to the Mitty

Since I took so many photos, and since we couldn't stay for the Mitty weekend, I figured I'd start a new thread. This will be pic heavy. If you're on a slow connection, hit the back button now.

Short recap: My lovely wife (Carrie) and I took Thursday and Friday off work to go to Chattanooga and drive our Mustang over to the Mitty at Road Atlanta with the "2016 Classic Motorsports Brings You The Coker Tire Tour Presented By Vredestein." (No kidding, that's what all the literature called it.) We met up with 40+ other cars at the Coker Tire museum Thursday night for a cookout and then headed out the next morning through the backroads of eastern Tennesee and North Georgia. We stopped for lunch at Mercier Orchards and then headed down to the track. Once we reached the Mitty we regrouped in the infield Corral parking, and later we had the option to do some parade laps on the track and then dinner was provided. It was sunny, then it rained, and then it was sunny again. Sadly, we couldn't stay for the Mitty weekend. It was awesome and you should totally do this next year.

Okay, now for the long version.

We live just south of Macon, GA. That puts us about 4 hours driving from Chattanooga IF you can get through Atlanta without a slow down. The last time that happened was 1984. In the spirit of a two-lane weekend, Carrie and I took Thursday and Friday off work and I plotted a route that would take us to Chattanooga via backroads through the western side of Georgia. We spent the first hour running North on I75 but took a left at Forsyth. For the nearly 600 miles over 2 days we wouldn't see the Interstate again.

The weather was gorgeous as we hit the back roads.

Town Square, Forsyth GA:

We rambled up Georgia 41, then 16, and eventually 27, stopping for lunch at the famous Sprayberry's Barbecue (Est. 1926) in Newnan, GA.

I had the Lewis Grizzard Special, a pulled pork sandwich with onion rings and Brunswick stew:

The sandwich was great, the rings were the greasy homemade kind that still taste a little like flour, and the stew was a thicker, more chili-like version than most. In short - fantastic. They also had fried pecan pies as the daily special.

Jiminy Christmas Pete that thing was amazing.

Next stretch-the-legs stop was in Cave Spring. Not much to see here. They're trying to do a little antique-shops-and-knicknacks toursisty downtown but it doesn't seem to be working that well. They did have decent public restrooms right off the square, so that's a plus.

From Cave Springs we headed North up GA100 into the foothills and some mildly twisty roads through Summerville/Trion, then back on GA27 past the Chickamauga Battlefield park into 'Nooga.

Somewhere on GA100 Carrie took her first Dramamine. She has bouts of vertigo when I start throwing a car through switchbacks and generally DOES NOT like riding shotgun during "spirited driving." Knowing the roads we'd be driving through the weekend, though, she still wanted to do the tour and committed to frequent Dramamine dosing to make the trip. She's a keeper.

After nearly 7 1/2 hours roaming through the back roads of west Georgia where every road is under some kind of construction, we finally reached the Staybridge Suites across the street from the Coker Tire headquarters and Museum.

Once checked in I was granted access to their fabulous super-exclusive gated parking lot where there was a British Invasion in progress.

As well as a race-liveried Citreon and a few other of the usual suspects

The hotel was nice, I highly recommend staying here if you're going to do the tour. Mainly that's because the Coker Tire museum id directly across the street from the parking lot, and that's ground zero for some seriously good times, as I'll detail in the next post.

Keep this up and you might actually help me get my wife interested in a road trip!

We kicked off the event with dinner and an open bar set up inside the Coker Tire Museum. People began arriving and cool cars started lining the street.

The Z? Fuel injected LS swap, driven by a recently-retired gent from TN named Herman, co-piloted by his son Lee. Very sweet ride.

And then there was the INSIDE of the museum. If you are ever near this place, you have to stop. The entire collection is kept in turn-key condition because Corky Coker routinely drives everything in the collection, even the pre-WW1 stuff, including the motorcycles.

I'n not going to post all the photos, there's too many. But you should be able to look through the folder of them here.

I will point out a few highlights.

This 51 Ford was built by the guys that maintain the collection, even the paint was done in house:

It's running an Ecoboost V6.

The cleanest Scout II in existence:

Some kind of powered bicycle? I dunno, ask the Sprockets guys.

This highboy makes over 500hp and was built for one of the many distance tours that Corky does every year. I specifically took this photo for Toyman as a Sanford color reference.

The drab seafoam green and very antigue white (light beige? whatever) looks really, really killer while being kind of low-key and sophisticated

This is a Lozier. Correction, it is THE Lozier in the world today. Only one. This car may have one the first Indy 500, even though it's not the winner of record. There was some controversy about who crossed the line first. It was parked by the door because it's one of Corky's favorites to drive around town. He actually did The Great Race in it as well.

We were treated to a guided tour by one of the guys who runs the maintenance crew (Mike?) who told us some great history and stories about all the cars and bike. There was an open bar and snacks while we milled around and gawked at the cars. Dinner was burgers and dogs grilled outside and served in the Museum. Very cool.

Once the party broke up, we had a little time to kill before hitting the rack. What to do...

Wine run? Wine run.

That night I found out my phone decided to stop charging. It seems like a port problem on the phone, only the car charger will work and that's slower than crap. Which means there are far fewer pictures of the actual drive, but I'll come back tonight and post them. If you have time you can page through the folder linked above and see them. Heck, you can probably even link them here from that folder, but you'll have to wait till later for my sparkling narrative.

SVreX wrote: Keep this up and you might actually help me get my wife interested in a road trip!

Excellent. We ought to organize a late-summer Georgia run somewhere.

BTW, got your stuff. And now it's done 5 laps at Road Atlanta in the trunk, so it should be well broken in.

In reply to ultraclyde:

Thanks. Connect with me when you get back, and I will figure it out.

My wife is the most un-car gal on the planet. She REALLY has no interest, but I still can hope. I read her your first post, and she didn't squirm too much!

In reply to SVreX:

In that case we should road trip to a destination she likes. Vineyards seem to be a favorite in our household. A good wine tasting significantly helps a co-pilot's outlook on life.

In reply to ultraclyde:

I like your attitude, and love the idea of a vineyard, but she gets migraines from wine. She could watch, but she won't drink. Micro brewery?

"Destination" to her means "beach". Nice, but no good driving roads near the beach.

Carry on- didn't mean to derail.

How do you guys feel about hard cider? Stay tuned to the later story and you'll see why I ask...

And now the rest of the story.

Friday dawned warm and sprinkling rain. We atarted the day with coffee and donuts at 8 AM in the museum, driver's meeting at 8:45 and roll out at 9:00. We were given beautiful full color guide books with maps and turn-by-turn, mileage-marked directions. I assume this is similar to other road rally events, but we've never done on. Carrie usually plays navigator to my piloting but we'd never attempted something like this before. The route took us east through Tennesee along the Ocoee and then turned south for a lunch stop at Mercier Apple Orchards in Blue Ridge GA for lunch. After lunch we'd continue down GA19 to Dahlonega - roads that I road bike on a regular basis and some of the best driving roads in the state. The forcast was calling for rain with occaisional thunderstorms, gusty winds, and small hail, so we knew going in that we'd be keeping speeds down on the twisties for safety's sake. Carrie started with a Dramamine at breakfast, just for insurance.

Here's some shots of the amazing route book. Note the info on points of interest. Great job Marjorie!

Along the river in TN there were several places to pull over for scenic overlooks. We ducked into one because we got stuck in a slow traffic bunch behind a concrete truck. We stretched our legs and waited for them to get a ways ahead.

Then not much further up the road we stopped at the '96 Olympic Whitewater Kayak venue. The water was down and you could really see all the rocks. Yo could plainly see where they added fake rocks to make the course more entertaining.

We were having some light rain, but not enough to really hamper visibility. In fact, the rain was turning up the green in all the foliage to technicolor levels and filling the valleys with mist, making for a gorgeous drive.

We made it to Mercier Orchard by about 11:30. Their apple trees were in bloom, but as flowering trees go, ehh...I wasn't all that impressed.

Mercier Orchards has a gigantic building - restaurant, bakery, vegetable market, local foods market, and fermenting/brewing operation. Our box lunches included sandwiches on homemade bread and a fried apple pie that may seriously be one of the best things I've ever eaten. If the serpent offered Eve one of those..well, I might be a little more understanding about her choices.

We browsed the shop for a bit and then discovered the wine / cider tasting. I had a sip or two but left the main tasting to my copilot.

If you get through Blue Ridge - make this a stop. http://mercier-orchards.com/

As we headed back to the cars everyone took a few minutes milling around to look under hoods and talk about the toys

The guy parked beside me was driving a brand new Roush Ecoboost Mustang. He was putting down 100 more HP than mine, getting 8mpg better mileage, and has half the cylinders.

Back onto the road and the rain started to pick up a little. Carrie downed another Dramamine as we headed into some of the best switchbacks in Georgia. It went well with the wine buzz. Headed into the mountains:

I dropped in behind a Mazda, several triumphs and a pretty orange TVR.

After passing through Suches on GA19 you cross over Woody Gap and descend some of the biggest switchbacks on the route. This is a great run on a road bike because it's an 11 mile downhill run. As we topped the lookout we ran into a solid wall of heavy cloud and mist. The descent was pea-soup thick. I had much time to reflect on how bad Triumph tail lights are, and what wise inventions ABS and traction control probably are. No pictures because white knuckle, but still hella fun.

In the final miles before Road Atlanta the sun broke through and it became a glorious day to drive a car. Once at RA we were ushered into the infield parking corral.

Here's a combo for you

After walking the vendor stalls and stopping by FM we had just enough time to grab a cold lemonade and a chicken on a stick before getting gridded for the parade laps.

We sat in grid forever, so everyone got out and enjoyed the view:

While we were waiting to go out a Porsche 911 painted with the pink cuts o' meat livery spun coming onto the straight and backed into the wall. Did some damage, but the driver looked alright.

We got 5 laps in on the parade. We were near the back and although the couple in front of us in a red Shelby GT350 were protecting their investment, I managed to back off and have a little fun running up to them. Holy crap that's a fun and terrifying track! The bridge! THE BRIDGE! I kept checking on my Co-pilot who wanted to go on the laps but knew they were going to be bad for her. She hung in there. As we dropped into the pre-bridge chicane on the fourth lap I heard her mumble "Sweet Jesus, when will this be over??!!" but she made it through without yakking, and even admitted the first couple laps were kinds fun. I have to admit that comment made me laugh so hard I almost missed the chicane.

Afterward we pigged out on some Sonny's BBQ at the CM/GRM hospitality tent. We then reluctantly set out on our 3 hour drive home, staying off the interstates until only about 50 miles from home After nearly 9 hours of actual seat time in a 17 hour day covering some of the best roads in SE TN and N GA, plus 5 laps at Road Atlanta, I was as tired as I've been in a long, long time.

We had a great time. Despite Marjorie's warning to married driving teams, we never once yelled at each other over directions even though it was the first time we've ever attempted directed touring. By the end we were really getting our rhythm down, and it was so much fun it sure won't be our last. Tim, Marjorie, and all the CM/GRM folks did an outstanding job with the tour. Much thanks to Coker Tire for the hospitality, and to Vredestein for helping make it happen.

Two parting shots - The best tow rig of the event:

And one pretty fiberglass snake:

Thank you for the great pics and writeup. You guys were a pleasure--hope to see you again next year!

Margie