tasmania roads - tyre/brakes business booming?

[jphanna]

guys we just came back from a weeks holiday in tassie. launceston to strahan then hobart. i recon the longest stretch of straight road was 150-200 metres for the whole week. it was hairpins, switchback corners and long flowing sweepers the whole way. hour after hour. to get roads like that in SA the closest is from the 20 kms from meadows to strathalbyn or the cape jervois drive. this was endless. im sure there has been tassie drives mentioned before but i underestimated how good it was.

i was thinking that it would have been a lot more fun to do than the nissan micra we took.....but some of those roads only just fit the little bugga.

getting back to my thread title...i have no doubt that the brakes and tyre business there are booming.

[Jack91]

Those roads you speak of are pretty out of the way though for the daily drive for nearly everyone. And sometimes stuff like that gets pretty boring and annoying, SOMETIMES I just wanna sit down and flick the cruise control on.

[TUF_302]

When you live here that many corners can just become a pain sometimes, but if you have the right car im pretty sure tassie has the best roads in the country!

[Polyal]

Not to mention Hobart is pretty hilly, I lived in Lonnie for a bit and Hobart would drive me insane.

Although if I moved back I reckon Hobart is nicer /start flame war

[makattkd]

Great for a weekend drive, would hate to have to commute daily on them though...

Plus there isn't much down the west coast, if you were to have a bit of mis-fortune mobile coverage is also a bit sketchy and your a fair way from anywhere.

I got a puncture about 25 km's out of Strahan on Anzac day last year, to my surprise when we opened the boot (had borrowed the car for the weekend and was assured spare wheel and jack/lever were in place) no wheel/jack/lever. Lets just say no help in Queenstown and I ended up having to fit a tyre myself in Strahan, it wasn't the right size but it got us back to Launceston. Thank god I was driving in a convoy and not alone!

[LethalLeigh]

I've heard good things about the Tassie roads like that. Kinda keen to head down there for a week with the XR4 after my successful jaunt along both the Great Ocean Rd and Alpine Way earlier this month.

Although someone once told me rental cars are much quicker than their regular counterparts :

[TUF_302]

With most people living in either Hobart/Launy or the NW are of Devonport/Burnie the daily commute wouldn't be so bad as most of the highways ain't that winding, nothing like the mainand though i bet, most trips dont take long even in peak hour traffic lol

[ltd]

Tassie roads are unreal.
My parents live in Ulverstone which is in between Devonport and Burnie, and I love driving down there.
People down there are really nice too, and seemingly very friendly.
The only thing that stops me living there is the work situation.
I was down there for a week at Christmas and found the road conditions better than anywhere else in NSW.
Watch out though for police (they actually have them), and be careful when you get to an overtaking lane, as most cars that were doing 75 in the 100kph zone speed up to over 100 once the overtaking lane comes. It does get really annoying.

[svo supporter]

Originally Posted by jphanna

. to get roads like that in SA the closest is from the 20 kms from meadows to strathalbyn or the cape jervois drive.

.

You obviously haven't been from Lobethal through Birdwood to Modbury then, if you think the meadows to Strath road is is similar to those Tassie roads.

[LethalLeigh]

Originally Posted by svo supporter

You obviously haven't been from Lobethal through Birdwood to Modbury then, if you think the meadows to Strath road is is similar to those Tassie roads.

Indeed, there's a few nice runs in the part of the hills. Norton Summit to Lobethal via Basket Range is one of my favourites.

[GTP owner]

Live here and love it. Most locals wait until the tyres are completely bald, then blame black ice when they spear off into the scenery at the first hint of winter. As for brakes - they don't travel fast enough to use them, except at the end of an overtaking lane when they return to 75km/h!

[ToCo]

I live on the North West of Tassie and I have to travel 10kms out of Windy hilly roads everyday to work towing a trailer, and believe me, it is a pain in the @ss and definitely not good for the fuel economy! But.......
On the days that I just head up to town with no trailer, there is no better feeling that winding down the window and sticking the boot in and listen to the V8 howl all the way up, Fantastic!!
So, yes the roads are great, but when you do them everyday they do become a bit boring.

Todd.

[The G6ET Spot]

Originally Posted by TUF_302

but if you have the right car im pretty sure tassie has the best roads in the country!

To right it does, I enjoyed it that much when over there last year that we are going again in June.

[lamborghinifan]

loved tassie, loved the roads, great fun for my honeymoon! just couldn't take the drivers. had an unlicensed driver run into my steel tray, and write off his xf panel van, no damage to me though.I Stopped on a very yellow light. A week later someone in an unreg vehicle sideswiped me whilst merging. then try get a police report from tassie to qld, (after calling someone out on a mid saturday to write it out as the station was closed) impossible. and i'm still in "talks" with insurance to fix 3k worth of damage to my ute. but yeah great roads nonetheless!

[jphanna]

ive had a few days now to get used to straight roads again. coming from a rental nissan micra to a falcon and commodore, im not sure both of these big cars would fit on some patches of road from strahan to hobart.

the simplest description to anyone who hasnt driven it, is a 4 hour drive on 'slot car track', with lots of green scenery, rolling hills and good road surfaces. there is very little straight bits. you always working the wheel...ALWAYS.

my memory of great ocean road is fading, but i suspect for the driving purest, tassie roads is as good as it gets.

[Polyal]

Originally Posted by GTP owner

Live here and love it. Most locals wait until the tyres are completely bald, then blame black ice when they spear off into the scenery at the first hint of winter. As for brakes - they don't travel fast enough to use them, except at the end of an overtaking lane when they return to 75km/h!

Never a truer word spoken, I ****ed myself reading that. I couldn't believe it, that state really needs a decent freeway from LAU - HOB big time; they complain about deaths and you dont need to be a rocket scientist to see why its happening.

Theres a section on thr west coast called 99 corners or something, awesome.

[ronwest]

Originally Posted by jphanna

ive had a few days now to get used to straight roads again. coming from a rental nissan micra to a falcon and commodore, im not sure both of these big cars would fit on some patches of road from strahan to hobart.

the simplest description to anyone who hasnt driven it, is a 4 hour drive on 'slot car track', with lots of green scenery, rolling hills and good road surfaces. there is very little straight bits. you always working the wheel...ALWAYS.

I took my Ghia down 3 years ago. Left Strahan at 4.30pm and arrived at my nephew's place in Hobart at 7.50pm.

Wonderful drive. Ran out of road on a couple of corners lol, but the biggest problem was the possums. Never have I seen so many possums. Literally dozens at a time.

Great place. We liked it so much we're planning to go back next year.

[makattkd]

Originally Posted by Polyal

Never a truer word spoken, I ****ed myself reading that. I couldn't believe it, that state really needs a decent freeway from LAU - HOB big time; they complain about deaths and you dont need to be a rocket scientist to see why its happening.

Theres a section on thr west coast called 99 corners or something, awesome.

Yep 99 corners out of Queenstown. Here is a vid of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADegYML6pw0

Bear in mind this is wet and slippy as!

[HSE2]

Originally Posted by GTP owner

Live here and love it. Most locals wait until the tyres are completely bald, then blame black ice when they spear off into the scenery at the first hint of winter. As for brakes - they don't travel fast enough to use them, except at the end of an overtaking lane when they return to 75km/h!

. Awesome post

[jphanna]

Originally Posted by makattkd

Yep 99 corners out of Queenstown. Here is a vid of it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADegYML6pw0

Bear in mind this is wet and slippy as!

great video mate, and bear in mind that road continues like that to Hobart.

(footnote: we only used half the road in the micra, and the low down grunt of the micra, compared to the car in the video, made it even more twitchy. ours may have been the limited edition twin sequential turbo model......)

[PDIDDY]

After living the first 20 years of my life in George Town and Luanceston, I reckon the best driving is between Scottsdale & St Helens on the East Coast. Some good twisty's (made the Mrs crook when we went back 3 years ago), see the "Pub in the Paddock", have a look at the Ringarooma River Rubber Raft Race, and end up in beautiful St Helens.
Then, if you want to continue, head on down to Bicheno on the new St Mary's bypass. Great views and even better road. :

[jaydee]

I just got back yesterday myself from doing the same trip basically. For the first hour on the way to strachan it was fun but that soon wore off. My daughter got a headache and the Mrs was hanging onto the Jesus bar most of the time.
And I was trying to take it easy because I do like to throw a car around a bit given a chance.
The brakes in our renta bomb were really good so that wasn't an issue but yes yo're right, I'd say the workshops would do well out of it.

[TUF_302]

Originally Posted by GTP owner

Live here and love it. Most locals wait until the tyres are completely bald, then blame black ice when they spear off into the scenery at the first hint of winter. As for brakes - they don't travel fast enough to use them, except at the end of an overtaking lane when they return to 75km/h!

Yeah of course, its never the owners fault!, just the roads lol!

[tex]

Originally Posted by jphanna

my memory of great ocean road is fading, but i suspect for the driving purest, tassie roads is as good as it gets.

:

I don't grow bored of driving around Tasmania, and I do lots of it, for work and for fun. Like GTP says, it's the other drivers that a become really tired of.

I consdier myself lucky to be able to drive these roads whever I want. :evil3:

[nipper575]

Comment about people driving under the limit and then speeding up as approaching overtaking lanes is so true and such an annoying thing. There are also a lot of Tasmanians that can not grasp the road rule that you should stay in the far left lane if you are travelling over 80km/h and not overtaking.

I do agree that Tasmania has some beautiful winding roads, at the same time, many of them are horribly neglected and are probably the cause for more accidents than speeding imo.

[quirdan]

I took a BFII about a year ago to drive around Tasmania, it was fairly new but by the end the brakes were squealing. Took a new FG down recently and not too long after getting back the front stabilizer became a little loose on the left hand side!

The surfaces of some of those roads are atrocious! But the scenery and the routes are amazing otherwise.