Official dates: 25-28 October
HQ: Gatlinburg, TN

Based on the great success we had with our first foray into arranging a ?meet? the KOR Trinity of Gbelton (Duke Kewlfish, Lord of Ultimate Driving Machines), Boxboss (Sir Gofish, Duke of Corrugation) and Cobradav (Sir Launchalot, Prince of Electrons ) hereby invite one and all to our 2nd official Dragon Slayers event.

The event ?Officially? runs from check in on 25 October, Thursday, to checkout on 28 October, Sunday.

Headquarters will be in the Gatlinburg, Tennessee area.

Official ToD drive will be on Friday morning ending with a run of the Cherohala Skyway (CS). Friday afternoon is planned to do some group thing to entertain family members who do not wish to partake in our AGGRESSIVE drive of the ToD and CS. Saturday drive is planned to be a scenic drive (not AGGRESSIVE) for some sight seeing with all attendees that wish to partake. Sunday depart for home. I should add here that due to some addiction on my part, and perhaps that of other Knights in our group, I ( or we as the case may be) will slip in a day early (that would be 24 October ? Wednesday) to enjoy another early set of runs on the ToD on Thursday morning. For those of you not experienced with the ToD, it is pretty jammed up on weekday afternoons and all day on weekends. Also the law enforcement becomes more active during those periods. It just is not that much fun under those conditions. ToD is 318 curves in 11 miles ? loads of fun but only if not behind some RED SUV or PICKUP baestard. Generally speaking top speed is about 70 MPH achievable in just a few places. The CS, on the other hand, is longer and can be much faster. Speeds in excess of 120 are easily achievable.

Here is a link to the Tail of the Dragon for those unfamiliar with this fantastic stretch of US Highway. The roadway is well maintained with fresh paving on this past spring.
http://www.tailofthedragon.com/

As always, we want a safe and uneventful (except for fun rides) experience so we will have driving rules and safety briefs for all drives.

We have been working off line on this so we do have tentative list of attendees, approximately 6-9 already. I won?t out them here. We now open this up to all to join in, 6er or not, and let us know if you can join in on the fun.

The main lodging plan is to use Log cabin / Chalets as group housing method. A variety of 2, 3, 4 or even larger cabins is planned. We will not put more people or couples (or entire families as we do have some coming) in a cabin than there are bathrooms. For instance a 3 bedroom 2-bath would house two individuals or two couples. Those that do not wish to use this mode of lodging do not have to and can make their own arrangements. We will provide maps and meeting locations for those that lodge away from the main group OR of those that may live somewhat close and just want to jump in for the drives ? that has worked very successfully as well. Just PLEASE let us know.

PLEASE: do make your commitment known early so we can make the lodging arrangements, if you intend or want to be included in the Cabin/chalet group. If you plan on making your own arrangements for lodging or do not require lodging please include that information as well. We will us PM to obtain email address so we can keep vital information off the public internet waves and keep you informed of progress.

I will also post our event on http://www.tailofthedragon.com/calendar.html

We are all set with cabins in Gatlinburg for this event running from 24 (earlybirds) through 28 October 2007.

Anybody wants to join us let me know by 19 August. Will need good email for contact. We have Chicago, NYC, Malibu CA, Florida, New Jersey, Mississippi, SC and NC attendees. So whereever you are, you're close enough :lol:

Here is some video from event we held in April combining Sharkfest 2007 with a DragonSlayers drive of the ToD and other fun roads. Will be putting more videos up in that folder as the days go by so chack back for more thrills. I can only post about a 4 minute clip so I have to learn how to split some long ones I have to be able to post.

http://video.roadfly.com/action/viewvideo/...s/?ref=cobradav

If you have any problems with this link let me know.

Well, just days away now.

Line up

1 - 550i with SAT
1 - 7501
2 - M3s
1 - 330i
5 - e63/64 including 1 M6

The day before official start a couple of us 6ers will meet up with an e30 M3 for ToD "calibration"

Here is the official trip report

We had 10 cars make it, 4 6ers, 3 M3s, a 330i, a 750Li, and my new 550i and 16 people. As mentioned above we stayed in luxury cabins in Gatlinburg, a great idea! Friday we did 3 runs on the Tail of the Dragon and went over the Cherahola Skyway for a nice lunch and a return drive to Gatlinburg. Saturday we went over the Great Smokies, hit the Blue Ridge Parkway, and passed some water falls on rt 64 before returning up 23 and 441. It was also a great drive except for the torturously slow traffic at times. For the most part, the scenery made up for it.

I had 400 miles on the 550i when I left Charlotte and 1320 when I got back. I progessively broke the car in varying speeds alot and allowed higher rev limits and harder throttles as the weekend went on. The sport automatic was great and behaved flawlessly. Although one time I must have done an incorrect "ignition sequence" and it refused to go out of park. A simple reset cured it and I was off. The handling was as good as expected. The car took to the tight curves of the TOD well and just loved the more open sweepers. I think the '08 550i out handles the E39 M5 (even after some suspension mods).

Some pics are below:

PS: The next TOD event could be associated with the spring '08 South East SharkFest scheduled for late April in Winston Salem, NC. Details will be posted as time grows near.

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