Sooner or later, every enthusiast starts to ponder how well the place they live supports a person who’s into cars. Whether you’re looking for good driving roads, cheap insurance, used cars in decent nick, or a place to park them, achieving everything you want is a tricky balance. I’ll start by taking a look at where I live, the city of Toronto, in the province of Ontario, in the country of Canada.
I’ll start by listing the downsides of Toronto because well, they’re numerous when it comes to being a place for car people. The streets are littered with potholes: twisty roads are few and far between: we get enough winter weather to justify brining the roads which absolutely fucks (that’s a repair industry technical term) anything that’s been used as a daily driver; insurance isn’t cheap; premium gas hovers around $5.46 per gallon in freedom bucks; speed cameras are occasionally a thing on main thoroughfares; parking and housing are both at a serious premium that’ll quickly eat into any budget … and oh yeah, we have the worst traffic of ANY CITY IN NORTH AMERICA.
Actually, it’s worse than that. According to the 2023 TomTom Traffic Index, Toronto has the third-worst traffic of any major city in the world, taking drivers an average of 29 minutes to drive ten kilometers (6.2 miles). Sure, other cities have worse rush hours, but only London and Dublin are consistently worse than Toronto when it comes to average travel time. In the downtown core, it can occasionally be faster to simply hoof it, which simply seems insane.
And yet, despite all of these drawbacks, Toronto’s home to a vibrant, diverse car community that covers everything from supercars to JDM imports to trackday builds to classic muscle cars, and everything in between. I’ve seen a Citroën Mehari in regular traffic, and a Jaguar XJ220, and a Toyota Alphard. Canada’s federal 15-year import rule isn’t so bad, rules on vehicle modifications are relatively lax, and we have a selection of tracks within fairly easy driving distance including the legendary Mosport, now known as the Canadian Tire Motorsports Park because of course it is.
Over the past few years, Ontario got rid of license plate renewal fees and emissions testing for passenger cars, and while that last one probably isn’t the best thing for the environment, it’s better than swinging too far in the other direction. We’ve seen how California’s ever-tightening tailpipe sniffer test standards have squeezed ’80s and ’90s enthusiast cars beyond the conceivable emissions limits for when some of those cars were new, so I’ll take Ontario’s imperfect victory any day of the week.
Plus, there’s just an indomitable spirit to car enthusiasm thriving in a locale that seems at least somewhat hostile to driving pleasure. It produces some big-hearted optimists, and heaven knows, the world needs more like them. So, how car person-friendly is the place you live? It could be on as broad a scale as country-wide or as narrow as the rules of your HOA. Let’s chat about the pros and cons, as ever, in the comments below.
(Photo credits: Tupungato/stock.adobe.com, Thomas Hundal)
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I live in SoCal, so the answer sort of varies.
IMO, it’s very welcoming to some cars. Mainly anything classic, bonus points if it’s an American classic. Anything newer than 1975 is a pain and anything modified that’s newer than lets say… 1990… almost always comes with a dash of harassment from the police.
It’s also incredibly welcoming to stock cars. There are a ton of great driving roads around SoCal up through the central valley if that’s your thing.
But again, for fans of imports and modified vehicles, it’s not always welcoming.
Modified often = loud/filthy/unsafe and obnoxious so are you really surprised?
You’re making the same uneducated assumptions that cops make, and two of those aren’t ticketable offenses.
Washington, DC. I live in the District, so I don’t have to deal with the ridiculous commuter traffic like those in the MD and VA suburbs. The District itself is not ideal for driving and speed cameras are now prolific. That being said, mass transit is surprisingly good now that Metrorail has it’s shit together. That means I don’t really need to drive anywhere, but when I do choose to, there are some amazing roads within an hour of the city as you get into the Appalachian foothills and mountains.
Oh, and I appreciate that we’re right in the middle of the Venn diagram that allows us to have some decent winter storms without requiring a constant barrage of salt.. so there is that.
Idaho: Desert climate, but not crazy hot either, so old cars not only don’t rust a lot but the interiors don’t turn to dust either. As a result, there are a lot of them around which makes car spotting fun for like 9 months out of the year. Despite the desert climate, Idaho is mostly forest, 70% national forest to be exact, and it’s quite mountainous as well. This means there are a lot of pretty winding mountain roads if you get out of the actual desert part of the state, which I consider pretty fun to drive. There’s no screwery with imports, so there’s a local import company and a huge thriving JDM scene. Plenty of GTRs and Kei trucks all over the place, with the Kei trucks actually being quite common. Should you desire to buy a car with no title, obtaining a title is relatively easy compared to other states – you just need to get a police officer to come inspect your VIN to make sure it corresponds with what you claim to want a new title for and isn’t stolen. Also as of last year there are no emissions tests or inspections for anything ever. And needless to say, when you’re surrounded on all sides by mountains and forest, there’s a massive 4×4 scene as well. So much to explore. Plus the whole “takeover” thing hasn’t really spread here yet, so law enforcement doesn’t automatically assume you’re a criminal if you drive something flashy.
The only catch is that you need a front plate, it’s not optional. But otherwise Idaho is an overlooked car enthusiast paradise.
I live in the country, I can do whatever I want basically. Its awesome.
So far, the eastern shore of Maryland is a mixed bag. Safety inspections are a pain in the ass; I’m currently rebuilding the steering on my wife’s Yukon because it failed with a slightly leaky steering box and a marginal idler arm. I’m replacing everything so they have nothing else to bitch about. And apparently we arrived just in time for the registration fees to double.
The whole area is also essentially devoid of hills and curves; if you like 50 mph speed limits and arrow-straight country roads, it’s paradise, I guess. The nice thing is there isn’t much traffic, at least when you’re out of town and stay off US 50. Much more relaxing to drive my MG without a bunch of bro-dozers and mommy-mobiles breathing down my neck. It’s just a little monotonous.
I also found a small but friendly Cars & Coffee event just a few miles from home, which is encouraging. Not a lot of automotive diversity there, but a good vibe.
I miss the fun roads of the Pacific Northwest, and the sheer number of weird cars on the road in Portland, but I don’t miss the potholes, or the traffic, or the concerted efforts of city planners to actively make driving more difficult in a misguided attempt to force people onto the marginal transit system.
Basically, Portland had more opportunities for fun stuff with cars, but I get the feeling doing fun stuff with cars is going to be easier and more relaxing here.
Upstate NY:
Bad: SALT, cold weather, if it’s not cold it’s often raining, again SALT, also consider the SALT, there’s too much SALT, tourists, a shockingly high concentration of the elderly
Good: Lots of great roads up here, road conditions are about as good as it gets for such a terrible climate for such things, registration fees aren’t really that bad in my opinion
Really, if you want to enjoy something older and fun, you have to have a place to store it for half the year. Which makes owning such a thing sort of difficult. Anyway, I guess it’s a mixed bag up here.
Hamburg/Germany. Expensive fuel, expensive garage, expensive insurance, expensive taxes (annually), horrifying car test (MOT) every 2 years. The car, especially ICE, is becoming more and more of a hated object. Driving in urban areas is becoming more complicated because cyclists and buses are given more priority. 10 years ago I used to go cruising on the weekend – that’s all over. And no, on the Autobahn speed is not unlimited everywhere (going 220km/h or more can get nerve-wrecking with all the idiots in slow cars).
Auckland, New Zealand.
Travelling into the city from the ‘burbs is the same as in any reasonably sized city. Most roads aren’t exactly in amazing condition, however there’s an FIA Level 2 circuit and a decent drag strip less than an hour from home and if you know where to look, there’s some great open road drives to be had.
New Zealanders absolutely love their cars and there is always a gathering or a show on somewhere that caters to your taste.
I live in one of the central city suburbs, where part of the uniform is a dark coloured Euro SUV or wagon (usually a Range Rover, Cayenne or Audi S4/S6 etc). Gas isn’t cheap, but fortunately I walk to work, so I bought a 2001, Japanese Import, Z28 Camaro to blast around in. It certainly stands out and left hand drive isn’t an issue except in a parking building or drive through.
My apartment is relatively rare in that it has a two car garage with internal access, so that’s a real bonus, as I also have a small block Chevy Monza with minimal exhaust. I’m pretty sure the 19 other neighbours in my complex don’t appreciate the 8am car show starts on a Sunday morning…
There’s no emission testing (other than visible smoke) and 6 monthly or 12 monthly safety inspections depending on the age of the car. Very light modifications are fine, but anything more than that requires engineering certification. I was even able to cert my old 502ci, 8/71 supercharged ’68 Camaro for road use without any difficulty.
They’re really pushing bicycles, e-scooters and public transport at the moment, but the private car still reigns supreme.
San Francisco says, “Fuck you and your car, but also fuck you people who try to take public transit anywhere.”
It’s great.
Los Angeles says teh same, but also we’ll make public transit only possible via bus. Want to take a train or subway? HA!
This is way too true.
Just to follow up: I’m currently sitting on the Caltrain that’s running 20 minutes late. I think they read my post today and decided, well, “Fuck you, too!”
How much time do you think you’d have gained driving in SFBA traffic?
I live in Central Oregon, while peak motorcycle season is short and we’re 200 miles from anything else it’s still a good place to be a gearhead. There are good mountain roads, several OHV trail systems, snowmobile trails in season and lakes for aquatic motor sport. Two road race circuits a few hours away, plus dirt tracks and a Gambler 500 every summer.
On the downside, the roads in Bend are clogged with 4×4 Sprinter vans that blot out the sun and traffic can be bad in spots. On the positive side, no road salt and low humidity mean no rust, no sales tax,and Oregon registers any JDM car other than Kei trucks. Bend even has a JDM Toyota specialist for your 70 series Landcruiser or HiAce and they probably service Delicas.
That top photograph looks like it’s taken in Brooklyn, but I’m trying to think of a eastbound one-way street that intersects a northbound one-way street, maybe Carol Gardens or the Heights?
Anyway, I can’t imagine any place worse than Boston. For a couple of years I had a job where I had to commute to Lotus/IBM Cambridge from New York City a couple times a week. My team would fly into Boston get picked up by a couple of limos and get driven to Cambridge. I swear every time they were being guided by somebody over the radio. They’d be driving on sidewalks going through gas stations and Dunkin’ Donuts parking lots (seem to be a lot of Dunkin’ Donuts in Boston or maybe we just went through all their parking lots) it was like being in a heist movie. Apparently the lot of us were costing IBM about $25,000 a day so they spent a lot on expedited travel. I heard that one of the drivers was an off duty cop. It was really crazy.
I lived there for 25 years. Most of the folks I knew hated going anywhere by car. If you had to go more than 20 minutes, people just couldn’t fathom why you’d do that and never ventured far from home.
A weird place to be a car fan, that’s for sure. It’s an even weirder place to be a motorcyclist. Over the winter, it’s a fair bet that the car pilots have completely forgotten that motorcycles share the road.
Wine country in NorCal checking in. Car culture here is rich and amazing. Cars and coffee can bring 400 cars. Car shows bring things you never thought you’d see.
The biggest difference I see here vs. just about any other state in the union is that “recreational motoring” is a thing that Californians love and support. If I’m out on one of my motorcycles or my Boxster, it’s not unusual to catch someone on a back road and have them yield to let me by.
As a motorcyclist, everywhere else I’ve lived meant that I was generally assessed as a lovable nut case with a death wish. Here? Tell anyone you ride and they’ll talk about their mom/dad/aunt/uncle/sister/brother/friend that rides and how much they love it.
So while the Golden State is very car friendly, it tends to be friendly to just about any wheeled, motorized thing you want to ride.
And chances are that you’re welcomed at any cars and coffee event and you might even find someone that shares your particular form of enthusiasm.
The Californa foothills seems to be really vehicle-friendly. We have an active Saturday morning gathering and at least 3 separate car shows per year. Driving around can be seen vintage open-wheel racers, Model Ts, supercars, rare vintage American, cool or odd foreign cars, hot rods, custom-bodied vehicles built on who-knows-what, heaps, junkers, working vehicles, campers of all sorts, and everything in-between. A great place for cars. No salted roads here, though the sun will degrade the soft bits before rust gets the hard stuff.
I live in San Salvador, El Salvador. There’s one thing worse than a car non-friendly place: a car-mandatory one. Public transport is abysmal and walking is dangerous. Many streets and roads are Ok but they are congested, and locals are normally distracted and self-centered. Thus, traffic is slow, tiresome, dangerous and stressing, because you never know what the hell that moron is about to do. They seem to believe that signaling is taxed, but stopping on the left lane to turn left wherever they please, is free.
They park on sidewalks, which they love to block, and they absolutely consider than wheelchair ramps are a fine place to park when they go to church (everybody goes to a church, everybody gives plenty unfucks about wheelchair users while they do). They give 0 fucks if you are crossing the street on the zebra, they normally don’t break. They ceased using their brains and became addicted to apps to drive from one place to the other, so they pay attention to whatever screen they have rather than the street or road ahead.
So, driving is annoying, but walking is annoying and dangerous.
Hamilton, Ontario. Our potholes put Toronto’s to shame, but I prefer everything else about driving here. Traffic here is made up of older (therefore smaller) cars, so I feel a bit safer driving around in my old beaters than I do in the GTA. We also have the Niagara Escarpment running through the city, which makes things a bit more interesting. It’s not very high but in Southern Ontario it’s basically like Mount Everest. You also don’t need to drive very far to hit countryside, even from downtown, which is nice.
I split my time between Maine and Florida and keep cars in both states.
Maine – cheap insurance, bloody expensive annual excise tax if you like nice cars, new or used. Salt on the roads nearly half the year, with associated shit-tastic winter weather. Annual safety inspection (which I am fine with, but it’s still a pain to get done). GREAT roads to drive on, albeit they can be a tad rough. Native drivers are fine, “people from away” tend to suck in the summer.
Florida – CHEAP registration, expensive insurance. No inspections. No salt! No fun roads either in the southern half of the state, but some OK ones up north and in the “Redneck Rivera”, aka panhandle. Roads are mostly smooth as a baby’s butt. Driving skill of everyone in the place is brain-dead at best.
For perspective on the difference in annual registration and taxes, my 10yo Mercedes wagon is <$100 to register for TWO years in FL. In Maine it would be nearly $500 PER YEAR. About makes up for the difference in insurance, so it’s kind of a wash.
Miami takes the top prize for absolute worst driving I have ever seen, by probably a solid order of magnitude.
I get places that have bad drivers just because of sheer numbers, both in terms of “more drivers means more bad drivers” and “there are way too many drivers on poorly designed roads, encouraging bad habits” (*cough* Dallas *cough* LA *cough*), but you can’t drive 10 minutes in Miami without seeing some moron try and fail to pull off the most bone-headed move you’ve ever seen.
Like last week, when I saw a guy try to do a left-hand turn from a median turn lane into a gas station, through three lanes of gridlocked traffic, resulting in him getting stuck perpendicular to the flow of traffic and blocking off all three lanes.
Oh yeah! I live on the Gulf Coast – in the “God’s Waiting Room” portion of Florida. Add the Miami crazy to legions of Cryptkeepers who should have hung up the keys a couple decades ago. It’s terrifying.
I travel all over the country for work, and Florida really does have the worst drivers. Then add all the lost tourists to the mix just to add to the fun.
Lincoln, Nebraska here. No inspections or emissions testing. Decent rates for insurance and plates. But, no good roads to drive; they are all straight as an arrow. However, we do have Speedway Motors and their Museum of American Speed, which is an insanely cool place. https://www.museumofamericanspeed.org/
I like Thomas like in the Autopia that is Ontario. I live further north near Ottawa. The roads around my home are a driver or riders paradise, when not rendered unsafe for use due to ice, snow or marauding heavy farm equipment. The Calabogie motorsports park is a 30 minute drive from here. There is a surpringly active community of motorized and human powered device enthusiasts in the area, and Ottawa and nearby Montreal are ready sources of exotica and classic alike. 4 acre lot provides ample space for parking and a planned future wrenching workshop post retirement. It’s not perfect, but it’s home, it’s mine and I like it.
Chicago is, in that sense….eh. But I love Chicago for what it is, and a lot of things that would make it more car-person friendly would also make it more car-friendly, which would be bad for the city.
And every now and then in Chicago, you catch a glimpse of something that reminds you that “car people” actually do live here … like the occasional Hiace, or a RHD Landie, or the 2CV I saw in commuter traffic on DuSable Lake Shore Drive.
Yes, every so often I do, too. Of course there’s plenty of American stuff. There’s a beautiful yellow and green ~52 Chevy on the north side, and a black ’53 210 in Lakeview. Every once in a while I’ll see another air-cooled 911 (mine, like all my cars, lives in the city but I almost never drive it in the city other than between garages and home or the freeway) or Fiat Spider. Most memorably, many years ago I saw a LWB Ferrari 250GT driving down Kedzie in Albany Park.
I know that ’52 well! I’ve posted it on Insta, and I’ve seen it at my local garage (shout-out to Ashland Tire).
Where I am it is pretty car friendly, tax money and all. Vehicle registration low, insurance rates competitive, roads in good shape and worked on when not. Plenty of parking, and a nice policy allowing one unregistered car on your property.
We also have a rest area it that is fuel, food, liquor store all in one.
If you are into RV-ing, then we can handle the Class A’s, Fifth Wheel, and larger ones along those line. The smaller RVs are also easy to move around.
MA is not enthusiast-friendly.
Annual safety and emissions inspections (emissions are to CA standards). Annual local excise taxes on the value of the car. Registration every 2 years (flat fee not based on value).
The roads in cities and major suburbs are terrible, and are covered in salt for half the year.
Since most areas were built up before automobiles, garages are rare. In most of the post-war suburban developments, attached garages that did exist have been converted to living space.
If you move far enough from a city to get space and / or a garage for your vehicles, it’s going to cost you. To be within a commute of Boston with a 2 car garage and a move-in 3br home is at least $700k, and your property taxes will probably be another $7k annually. As a benefit, there are not many HOAs so you won’t have to deal with those hassles.
There are cops EVERYWHERE. Every city / town has its own police, every county has its sheriff’s department with jurisdiction in any city or town in the county. If transit runs through your town, then MBTA police have jurisdiction there too. Then you also have state police. The speed limits are stupidly low – with many towns issuing blanket 25mph speed limits in the past ten years or so. The speed limit on interstates maxes out at 65mph although traffic flows at 80mph – so even just keeping up with traffic means you could be cited for speeding.
In spite of this, there is a good car scene. Since it’s a pretty affluent area there are a lot of interesting machines that roll into cars and coffee or even local cruise nights. Since the fun season is condensed by the weather, popular meets and events get very large.
There are a lot of great roads in the area. Plenty of opportunities for driving through hills or right along the coast. If you want to drive enthusiastically, you need to head to NH or ME (or wait for the off-season), but this is New England and the states are small and close together. You can get from Boston to Maine in the time it may take you to get to WalMart in some parts of the US.
There are also a lot of tourists. They do not drive like us. They are terrible and should stay home. The revolution is over, the witches have been buried for centuries, Cape Cod is the same trafficy mess you can find by your local shore line and why the hell do you need to come here to look at leaves changing color? Stay home. Please.
I find MA drivers and Tourists equally bad. Tourist as the I need to go slow as I have turn in 15 miles per the GPS. MA for the ride your bumper, cut your off to slow down just be ahead. 🙂 Try to pass and the “not on my watch” switch is flipped.
I moved a little further from Boston about ten years ago and driving around here is different. The roads are well maintained, local drivers are generally courteous. The traffic isn’t bad so there’s no reason to get worked up (unless there’s a damned leaf-peeping tourist involved).
When I have to drive into the city, the aggression comes back almost immediately.
Leaf peepers annoy me too. Good for the money, bad for trying to do your normal stuff around that time.
I don’t think I’m that far south of you. My usual Market Basket is in Seabrook.
I have to concur. I live an hour west of Boston and even then you have to be on guard for “Staties” and the wildlife (deer,brown bears and maybe the occasional mountain lion or moose).
Definitely different from when I used to live in Chicagoland-they both have their pros and cons.
I’m in Atlanta. Having moved from London I don’t find the traffic levels that bad. However driving standards are poor (only New Dehli in India is worse for places I’ve been too) Drivers are very aggressive and I’m guaranteed to be cut up at least once a day. The roads in the city are poor with big crack and sometimes impassable potholes everywhere. My view on the last part is clouded by the recent wheel rim repair my Jaguar needed.
On the plus side north of the city there are some excellent driving roads in the mountains and gas prices (especially as someone who has moved from London) are low.
“We’ve seen how California’s ever-tightening tailpipe sniffer test standards have squeezed ’80s and ’90s enthusiast cars beyond the conceivable emissions limits for when some of those cars were new.”
Have we? It’s my understanding cars only need to meet the CA emissions metrics for the year they were manufactured or the year of the transplanted engine. If a LS1 met CA emissions in a 00’s Trailblazer it should do the same in a ’88 Miata.
The ’88 Miata is zero emissions, regardless of engine choice.
Surprisingly, this is NOT true. I once had the chance to see up close an OEM emissions engineering team freak out when they found out the lightest-weight variant of their program, which was always ignored as it’s considered the easiest case to pass with, was failing emissions. Turns out it was so light that the engine was running so cold the catalysts weren’t lighting in time to clean up the emissions.
Everything in the last 20 years or so is so carefully calibrated to meet the razor thin allowable emissions margins that the slightest change from test protocol can cause the entire strategy to fall apart.
That’s not the same thing though. California isn’t saying that such a modded Miata has to pass arbitrarily stricter new emissions standards, just the standards of the newer chassis or the engine. Can’t get a 20 yo LS to pass? Well the junkyards have plenty of 90s LS engines. Ford 302s and Hemis too. If the mod is a turbo kit then (AFAIK) your goals are the exact same 1988 standards as before.
Those mods are common enough that I expect there is a healthy community of like minded folks who have already solved such compatibility issues or at the minimum can say don’t bother with THAT one but THIS one worked.
For something like an ’88, you’re probably right, just because standards were much looser than in the last 10-20 years. For newer standards, the difference between a brand new catalyst and a “failed” catalyst that turns on your check engine light and prevents you from registering the car is the difference between 99.999% and 99.7% ellimination of pollutants – including the 0% conversion that happens during the first few seconds of operation. Under the light load conditions tested, once up to temp, ALL modern cars are close enough to 100% efficient at converting pollutants as to not matter. For the last couple decades the work in making cars pass emissions has mostly centered around speeding up the light off and warm up process, and it’s careful enough work that we look at individual combustion events during the crank, run-up, and idle to do it. Everything must work in perfect harmony, and a change as major as putting the engine into an unfamiliar environment with a slightly different intake temperature or pressure drop or load during the first acceleration is almost sure to blow it.
That said, I think the sniffer tests performed on consumer cars must have way looser thresholds, or a lot more cars would fail.
If I’m not mistaken, Aaron said “The ’88 Miata is zero emissions, regardless of engine choice” because the Miata wasn’t on sale until the spring of 1989 for the 1990 model year.
But otherwise, and relevant to the discussion, yeah. That was always my understanding of California emission requirements as well. If it’s a 1975 or later model, it has to meet the stricter of the emissions standards for the year of production or the year of the powetrain’s production.
“If I’m not mistaken, Aaron said “The ’88 Miata is zero emissions, regardless of engine choice” because the Miata wasn’t on sale until the spring of 1989 for the 1990 model year.”
Ugh. Thanks for the correction.
Wilmington NC
Not bad. Pretty decent variety and see a decent mix of most types of vehicles. The car scene here can be a bit toxic on social media but outside of that I don’t have many complaints. The regulations and inspections are fairly lenient with my only real complaint being the 35% minimum on tint. The local police do occasionally do crackdowns on tint and loud exhausts but I have never been bothered so I suspect they primarily focus on the really obnoxious exhausts/drivers or really obviously illegal tints.
As far as car shows/meets go Cars and Coffee is pretty good(plus you may run in to SWG) and there are pretty regular meets that are decent(sometimes). We also have Raleigh and Charlotte not too far away which have a ton of car stuff going on plus the Tail of the Dragon for Pilgrimage and all the Nascar history. Overall, not bad.
Rural Eastern Ohio/Western West Virginia
I’d venture to say its the most car-friendly place around, because cars aren’t a luxury out here: they’re an absolute necessity. Just look up my town, Bergholz Ohio. Closest college? I mean other than Franciscan university in steubenville, theyre all at least an hour away. The closest Public transport of any kind Is probably Canton, about an hour away. There’s no Uber, no Grubhub, hell the closest McDonalds is a half hour drive.
Hell, as a kid, my bus ride was about an hour and 10 minutes.
So cars aren’t just a nice thing to have: Even at age 16, you HAVE to have a car to do anything.
It’s a wierd little section of the beginning of the Appalachian Foothills, kind of the land that time passed up. Its mostly old coal mine towns, farms, and steel mills, so all the roads and towns were more or less set up with transportation in mind. It’s also a damned good place to own a fun car to drive.
2 lane highways draped along rolling hills and valleys
4 lane State route running along the banks of the Ohio River
Long sections of straightaways nestled in between cornfields
Scenic backroads cutting through the foothills, rising and falling, from hilltop woodlands to snaking down around creeks and lakes
Jeep Trails everywhere
And you are NEVER more than a mile or two away from some gravel road shennanigans.
Very few township police officers, Sherrifs that never seem to bother anyone for doing a few MPH over, and the few Troopers you see are mostly just concerned with the highway.
No state vehicle inspections, and you can usually own whatever car you see in someones yard for about 80 percent of the value. Just show up with a trailer and cash, nobody around here has money but by God do we have old shitboxes by the dozen.
I’ll never leave lol
Your roads are fantastic, and underrated. I was there a few weeks ago in my 911 and it was terrific.
Waaaaaaait a minute. You weren’t at any point Coming down County Road 60 (Going into Bergholz) behind a Yellow wrangler, were you?
It’s pretty damn few and far between I see a Porsche around my parts, and there was one behind me a couple weeks ago lol!
I don’t know if I was ever behind a Wrangler and I don’t recall if I was on CR60, but I was in a gold SC Targa. First weekend of June.
I’d be willing to bet it was you! Either way, if you’re ever in the area again, Route 164 running from Leesville Ohio To Lisbon Ohio is 45 miles of pure joy to drive.
If you saw a gold SC Targa, it was definitely me. You may have also seen a silver 930, a rose-colored Carrera coupe and an eclectic bunch of other old cars.