Central Coast and North Shore Twisty Drive day - Meetup Smooth Drivers Club

A car enthusiast would always love to share his passion for cars , driving experiences along with a set of like minded people.

Well if you love cars and drives are you are based in Sydney , here is the perfect place to meet like minded people on cars.

http://www.meetup.com/Drivers-Club/

So now obviously like minded people meet and they go on a drive. One such drive was held on Feb 15th 2015 .

Note - Although the group welcomes anyone to come along their drive days , it would be preferable you do not bring the average your average city runabout car especially if its stock.The reason being your most likely to be left behind due to

1. You cannot keep up with the pace of other cars which are quite on the souped end or higher end.
2. You do not like spirited driving and prefer the gentle way of driving. 
3. Your car is very important to you and you do not want to push it

We certainly respect each person individual decisions and while the driving is spirited , we do not break the rules and are responsible drivers.

The following is the route we took beginning from McDonald's Hornsby .

Here is the Google Map Link of the Complete Route

https://goo.gl/maps/TlyDv

The route is as follows

Begins from Mcdonalds Thornleigh -->Berowra->Old Pacific Highway->Gosford->Central Coast Highway ->The Entrance->Old Pacific Highway->Kangy Angy->Dog trap Road->Peats Ridge Rd->Wisemans Ferry Road at Cenral Coast end and running all long the river upto Wisemans Ferry Road->Wisemans Ferry Road ,Dural end towards Sydney->Turn of at Galston->Galston Gorge->Hornsby Heights-> Hornsby

Overall the drive gives a good workout for your hands if you one of them is on the gears and the other is on the steering. If your driving an automatic i definitely suggest using the sport mode for an enhanced driving experience.

Things to watch out for .

1 Bikers - Because the roads are twisty , they are a haven for bikers and cyclists, Remember to give them way and ensure you stick to the left on the curves else you might end knocking yourself with a biker from the opposite side using the center divider. Worst case a hit and side mirrors gone.

2. Cops - These roads are also famous for cars being driven fast beyond safe speeds and hence there is considerable cop presence. Do not get fooled by the fact that 98 percent of the traffic uses the motorway. The fine revenue earned by the cops is quite nice by the remaining 2 percent who drive these roads. 

3. Speed and Concentration - Fast sweeping corners and side barriers can often be  tricky with protrusions , so are plants and rock faces. Know your cars limitations , your car may turn at about 10 -20 kmph more than the prescribed but overdoing it can be costly. The roads just about fit 2 cars and a slight veer off onto the opposite side will cost you dear. 

Short Drives around Sydney

One thing about Sydney is the vastness of the city which can catch you by surprise. Sydney has grown leaps and bounds in all directions and it now takes hours to get out of Sydney in any direction.
And this can sometimes can lead to bit of a irritant especially for people who love driving yet are constrained by time and other things to do in life . 

My recent challenge has been to find good drives in and around Sydney where the drive time does not exceed 3 hours . So here we go

1. North Sydney ->Berowra Waters->Galston->Hornsby->North Sydney

Here is the Maps of the Entire Route 

https://goo.gl/maps/tSiz2

Highlights 

1. Berowra Waters - The spot is quite good just to have a picnic or a day outing. People with boats are sure to enjoy as they have a public wharf where you can take your car and get your boat out , do some fishing and return back home

2. Drive from Berowra to Galston is Scenic and does encourage a bit of spirited driving. Drivers with a bit of passion to enhance driving pleasure with their cars can do so for about 20- 25 minutes of sprited fast country driving , speed limits are around  70 for most of the sections but windows down and manual gears and sweep of the steering wheels will ensure you will enjoy for a fair bit.

3. Galston to Hornsby - The road is scenic and spirited but watch out there a few cameras around. Interesting feature of this section is tight hair pin bends where speed is restricted to 5Km. But a few right turning hair pin bends you can be a bit adventurous by doing it at around 25-30 kms . The left turning hair pin bends are tricky and you do need to slow down to the said speed of 5kms as the car does need a fair bit of space to veer well on to the other side of the road

Overall for a 2 hour time frame of driving this road gives you decent driving pleasure and fun.