[2011 SE]

So I'm taking my first trip up the Mt. Washington Auto Road tomorrow morning (leaving around 4:00 AM). Anyone have any tips? I have a manual transmission, so I'm guessing 1st gear the entire way up and down?

I have 20k on the odometer, and just switched over to full synthetic oil. I'll admit I'm kind of nervous about that dirt portion, where it's CRAZY narrow, but I'm sure I'll be fine.

 

[hypnoticracing]

this is the perfect instructional driving video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BZh-7hkNe4&feature=relmfu

 

[2011 SE]

Haha, yes, if I can just get the road to myself...

 

[Dgc333]

You won't need first on the way up until you break above the tree line. Bring a jacket, in June when I went to the top (Cog Rail this time) it was 85 at the bottom and 34 at the top.

On the way down the brakes will get a real work out (I have driven up twice), take advantages of the pull outs to stop and let them cool. Keep tabs on your revs, the engine will over rev in first gear without the use of the brakes.

Also, don't be surprised if you need a brake job in a fairly short period after this drive.

 

[2011 SE]

Well everything was a great success! I went first thing in the morning, so I was the third person to reach the summit (other than employees/rangers, etc). Going up was a breeze. I averaged 15-25 mph, since there was no one coming down.

Heading down, however, I got stuck behind 4 motorcycles that were on their brakes the entire time. They were maxing out at 10 mph, so I could barely engine brake. After about 3 miles of that, I got sick of actually using my brakes and pulled over to let them get a commanding lead. I noticed that engine braking didn't really kick in until I was at about 3800-4000 RPM. In fact as soon as first gear got up to the power band (starting at 3k RPM), it accelerated REALLY FAST until I hit 4k RPM. Kind of strange. It was only steep enough at a few places to bring me up to 5k RPM, at which point I actually used my brakes to slow her down a little bit.

Great experience, and I'd definitely do it again. That dirt portion wasn't as bad as I thought, either. Here's just a sample from when I was at the summit:

I'll post more in the 2008-2011 picture thread once I've made the final versions!