THE TRANSFAGARASAN
ROMANIA
Contributed by: Jim C.
STARTING FROM WHERE?
Curtea de Arges – take road number DN7C
FINAL DESTINATION
Cartisoara
WHAT CAR?
Nissan GT-R
WHICH OPINARI PRODUCT(S)?
Men's driving gloves
VELOCITY COLLECTION ROSSO ACCESO
THE TOTAL AMOUNT OF KM’S?
90 km’s
AMOUNT OF TIME?
We did it in about 4 hours including a short stop
WHY DID YOU WANT TO DO IT?
After the promising words of Jeremy Clarkson, “world’s best driving road”, we couldn’t ignore this and needed to find out if Jeremey was right. And ooh – yesss, he was.
BEST FOR? (ROOF-LESS CAR, SPORTSCAR, ADRENALINE JUNKIES, RACE FANATICS ETC.)
Sportscars and adrenaline junkies
THE ROUTE HIGHLIGHTS?
We took the challenge with a group of car, since the statement of Jeremy was promising. The landscape really defines herself by a typical mountain landscape with pines and alpine meadows and during the 90km’s one can see many highlights such as the Poenari Castel. Now, if you are on a trip with your partner, you may stop, but together with a couple of roadkillers sightseeing is not on the schedule. Another highlight which needs to be mentioned is the Vidraru Lake, which you cross while driving over this dam! It more or less felt like being in a 007 movie. With regards to the roads, up so far the roads were not as good as per wished, so please pay attention to the potholes and road damages.
After the lake the roads splits up and one can choice which side of the lake to drive, since we did some investigation it seemed the right road was the better one. The scenery is just amazing, green, silent (until we drove in a convoy of five cars) and idyllic. When you attending the top of the road, you hit a tunnel which is always fun with a sportscar. And mainly with my Nissan GTR, we woke up nature.
The environment changed to a more grey and less green scenery, meaning; we seriously climbed some meters. We took a short break to enjoy the beautiful and crystal clear Balea Lake at the highest point of 2042 meters. Oké, to be honest we were preparing us for what was next coming; “the downhill northern side of the road” (please imagine Jeremy Clarkson saying this with a touch of sarcasm). Because oh my, the sharp descent and the hairpin turns are a challenge for every driver. Glade fully it was a clear day and we had good visibility to absorb the road and prepare what probably would come. I bravely stepped back in the Japanse Machine and had a short team talk. “Please little Nissan, get me down this road with speed and safely.”
The engines started and off we took. What a spectacular, scary road it was, especially the parts with any rails on the edges missing. The hairpins were magnificent and easy to see through. Please do pay attention to other road users, not all of them do handle them corners right. The roads are wide and the GTR was sticking to the tarmac. This is what this car is made to do, it’s not a comfortable car and it doesn’t shift as smooth as a Porsche, but boy the real nature of this car showed his face. Pops from the Akrapovic exhaust made me realise that this is going fast, real fast. Unfortunately, all good comes to an end and when the road started to level we met another group of sports cars who we joined. Meaning ever since TopGear mentioned this road to be the “world’s best driving road”- all of us car fanatics do want to give it a try, and we couldn’t wish for more.
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