SVT2888

This past weekend I went on a drive with some friends. Three of the four of us had partied the night before and had hardly slept, but come one, it’s a drive! Sleep chosen over getting to enjoy some of the best and most scenic roads California has to offer? NEVER!

My friend Joe, the one with the best car and the one who didn’t party, did all the driving. We rode along in his recently purchased 2011 BMW 335d. He’s so in love with his diesel’s fuel mileage that he has put 3k miles on it in the month that he has owned the car. In fact, just three hours after he drove out of the dealership I joined him on a canyon run.

The canyon fun on this run started in the affluent town of Montecito. You know you’re in an affluent neighborhood when you start seeing Sotherby’s Real Estate signs on lawns, and you can’t even see the houses from the road because the fences are so high. Soon enough, however, the fancy houses stopped and we hit the rural areas of Santa Barbara, which is where the roads got really good.

Super tight twisties with lanes that narrower than the car, that to us is perfection. As we ascended higher into the hills surrounding Santa Barbara the road surface got poorer, but the views got better and better. We could see all of Santa Barbara below us with the ocean providing a beautiful back drop. Eventually we made it to Solvang for brunch (at 5pm) using canyon roads almost exclusively. Never once did anyone feel car sick, though it was probably due to the fact that we hadn’t eaten. Heck, we were having so much fun we had forgotten all about food.



How could you think about food when the roads you are traveling go from butter smooth through affluent neighborhoods, to rough in the hills, then you hit the valleys were they turn into dirt, eventually going into the woods. We did water crossings, encountered pot holes that could swallow a smart car and went over dozens of cow catchers. We never encountered a cop, and mostly just saw a few pick-up trucks driven by farmers who were probably thinking “These yuppies must be lost!”

At the end of the day we did 470 miles of nothing but canyon roads. The round trip took a total of about 10 hours, though we did kill a lot of time stopping for pictures and walking around Solvang looking for a place to eat. In the end we had a fun adventure, which made us closer friends and we got to see parts of California where few venture. All this while riding in what might just be one of the best daily drivers out there.The 335d allows you to get great fuel mileage without having to sacrifice in the fun department. If I had the money I would be all over one.



Towards the end of the drive, Joe brought up a good point; If you told a regular person, “Yeah I spent my Sunday driving around for fun through the canyons.” They’d probably think you were mad. They’d probably ask you “Why would you spend your whole day just driving around? You didn’t even have to!” But a regular person always sees driving as a chore; the Purist see it as a way to de-stress. We see it as a way to discover new places and get to know our car more. If we bring friends along, it’s a way to become closer with them and share in the adventure. We don’t always have to go on drives though; sometimes we are just happy sitting around talking cars, working on cars, or washing our cars. We’ll go to a car show and right after go home and instead of resting we start uploading and sharing our pics. Or we’ll go somewhere and sit down to discuss cars. We think about cars all day every day. Outsiders think we are weird, but when we are around other Purists we are seen as regular people.



I’d like to ask you guys, what do you see as the definition of an automotive “Purist” and would you consider yourself one?


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PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

And that's what I do every Sunday on my motorcycle...

gengar

Purists wouldn't choose a 335d for Sundays.

FrankReynoldsCPA

That's exactly how I feel.....but I haven't done it in about a year due to the cost of fuel and trying to stretch my tires out as long as I can.

cino

iTrader: (1)

I used to do it every week on my bike too. 2 hours round trip.

xsh0tya

I enjoy going on drives, just for the heck of it. However, I don't think I would drive all day just for the fun of it. 3 hours plus of driving with no specific destination in mind would not be something I would be interested in. Maybe I haven't owned or been in a vehicle that really did it for me yet.

mikez

During the summer I would take the long route to my gf's through the mountains which takes 1 hr and 45 mins as opposed to the shorter 50 min drive on the highway.

PhilipMSPT

iTrader: (5)

Today, I spent two hours driving with the top down in traffic-less SoCal freeways, just so I can grab a cup of Mexican hot chocolate from a little shop I know in South Orange County.

If only the left lane drivers didn't boil my blood too much...

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Sums up quite nicely

GS wanted

iTrader: (9)

Traffic-less and SoCal? Rarely hear or see that combo mentioned.

chnk

iTrader: (12)

I love driving around at night because of the lack of traffic sometimes ill drive an hour away to go get pho late at night

Jetfire

iTrader: (3)

I'm a big fan of driving late at night also. No cars, no sun blinding your eyes.

mmarshall

We also have some beautiful roads and scenery here in the East. Check out Skyline Drive, in Virginia's Shenandoah National Park, only an hour or two west of D.C.