As per my usual schedule, I went to PDX C&C this morning, which had a pretty good turn out with a nice variety of cars (pictures will be posted later), and decided to go out on a drive with my friends Molly, Joel and his cousin. Molly had her 2009 Audi S5 in Meteor Gray, six-speed and an AWE Touring exhaust with non-resonated downpipes. Joel had his black BMW E34 M5 and his cousin had a red BMW 135i, both of which also had manual gearboxes. For most of the drive, Joel was leading the pack, his cousin was second, Molly third and I was last. You’ll find out why in a bit.
We rolled out of PDX C&C and headed southbound on I-5, then took the Wilsonville exit and turned right on Wilsonville Rd. Things didn’t quite start out as smooth as we had to wait for a train to passby at a crossing. Once we got passed that and the road opened up, we started our spirited drive through the twists, turns and straight-aways.
The run continued on to 99W heading into downtown Newberg and headed north on OR HWY 219; which, is another route with great curves, switchbacks, decent straight stretches and a beautiful view. There were a couple of frustrating points up to this point in the run caused by slower drivers, some bicyclists and spots of traffic. We transitioned from OR HWY 219 to OR HWY 210 towards Beaverton. After turning on Murray heading north, we continued up to the Nike campus and turned left on Jenkins.
Up to that point, I was right behind Molly soaking in the beautiful sounds of the exhaust, the throttle blips and downshifts. A couple of times, Molly and Joel’s cousin traded places to give him a chance to hear the symphony of sounds coming out of her S5’s exhaust.
The next stop would be Sonic for lunch. We transitioned from Jenkins to Baseline and decided to go up Cornelius Pass; but, a portion was blocked off for road construction. So, we were forced to cut over to Quatama and on to 206th. Since I knew a more direct way to Sonic, by turning left on Aloclek, I made that decision and trying to signal the gang. Well, they didn’t quite get that message and went the long way around. So, I got to Sonic a couple of minutes before everyone else.
Molly took a picture of our cars while we stopped for food at Sonic. After eating, I decided to call it a day and the rest went on their own mission. All in all, it was a great and exciting drive; plus, it gave me a chance to stretch the legs of my S5 and to test my driving skills even more.