Originally Posted by Jordan Y.

Having run the famed Patterson road and leaving disappointed we headed to the next road on our list. As we cruised to our destination we discussed our initial impressions of Patterson. We came to the conclusion that with enough time spent on the road you could learn trouble spots, learn the houses that might have activity late at night, drive it faster than I did and retain some margin of safety. However, in the end I still think that no matter how familiar you are with that road, you're taking too big a chance with it. You shouldn't put others' lives at risk for your entertainment.

We reached our destination- Crenshaw Lake road. This road looked very twisty on the map and seemed to have great promise. It was in an area I'd been through before and found to have very fun and twisty roads. Unfortunately, it also had speed bumps every 500 feet for its entire length. Nasty SOBs with no flat gutter or runoff on either side to allow my favorite trick of keeping speed up and bouncing only one side of the car over the bump. The road would've been mildly entertaining to drive even without exceeding the speed limit as there were many tight curves with good visibility, but the speed bumps killed it. It was lined with houses and other development so I can understand why they did it, but I could never live on a road lined with tank traps like those.

We cut across to Whitaker taking it easy because that is truly a neighborhood road, but having a bit of fun cruising through at the speed limit. We went up a side road and then cut across to Livingston to get to a road I've been down before- Newberger Road. This was the road I was thinking about when I mentioned Crenshaw Lake earlier in the thread. I'd been there once when I drove a DSM and was more interested in roads where I could safely do WOT pulls to 140, so I was curious to see how I felt about it now that I was more interested in roads with curves.

Newberger has to be the windiest, curviest, most enjoyable road to ever be completely ruined by an unbroken string of McMansions built along it. My friend told me that he had heard about the road from his parents, who used to go out to blast it on sport bikes over thirty years ago. I'm sure it was almost dead empty then, but now the whole thing is lined with development.

The road itself is awesome. Even taking it easy because of the houses it was a total blast. Nonstop corners from beginning to end never let you get bored with it. Most of them are pretty safe to drive around with good visibility and nothing too tricky to bite you in the ass. Even trying to keep it civil and quiet as I was cruising between rows of houses the road sucked me in and I started pushing harder with a hint of tire squeal from my absolute rubbish tires around a few corners.

This comfortable pace was interrupted near the 41 side on the last few corners. The constant sweeping pace of the road was interrupted by several corners in a row much tighter and trickier than they seem from before the entrance of the corner. I dove into the first of these corners at a similar pace as before, looking around the corner as far as I could and seeing nothing to worry about. Suddenly as I entered the corner I realized that what I could see from the preceding straight was only the start of a much tighter and bumpier corner than any on the road behind me. I tightened my line and cut off the throttle but my crappy front tires gave way and incurable understeer sucked me toward the grass on the other side of the road. Fortunately, even misjudging the corner completely I had left a large enough safety margin that I recovered before running out of pavement. Still, I ended up in the opposite lane and was reminded that I was on a public street and had no right to push that hard.

I dialed it back for the final few corners and started thinking about executing a U-turn. Coasting into another corner I again had a sudden shock when I realized it was even more deceptive than the last, with a gentle sweeping entry and then a hidden sharp corner. I had slowed enough that this time I ended my understeer with my outside tire barely crossing the yellow line. Still, I was ready to be off of this road after driving faster than I had intended to and squealing the tires more than a few times. I did a quick u-turn and made my way back up the road at low rpm and a slower pace.

Looking at all of the cars parked mere feet from the road, mailboxes, swingsets, houses set barely 30 feet away, I realized that no matter how great the road was- and it was excellent- I couldn't drive the road for fun in good conscience. I might as well go ride wheelies on a dirt bike through a playground and hope that no kids get in my way. The temptation to go back and have more fun with it is still there, but I'll stay away because that road will lead to nothing but trouble.