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A bloody good drive

StrayKiwi

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I drove the section of road between Otamauri and Moawhango called the 'Gentle Annie' for the first time ever. We drove it from east to west because accommodation options are much better in Hawkes Bay than in the central North Island. We were blessed with an absolute stunner of a day. If you get the chance to drive it, I can't recommend it highly enough. One of the best drives in the country in my opinion.

And I got the chance to really explore the performance aspect of the VXR in a road legal context as the road is very twisty in places. I still can't fault the AWD system, there was no wheel slippage or centre diff clunking in the switchbacks as you'd get from a Haldex or Subaru system. The car definitely doesn't feel like it weighs nearly 1800kg either. You can throw it from lock to lock and it just settles and drives through the apex like a hot hatch.
Even when driving it hard, the gearbox is smooth although in automatic mode it would like to change down very late in corners which was a bit disconcerting. I ended up driving most of it with the gearbox in manual mode and using the paddles.

When you get to the end, put the drive mode back to Touring, move the gear shift sideways back to D, set the Adaptive Cruise Control and head home @ 7.5L/100km.
N4u30xk.jpg


EDIT: For our Australian friends who might want to give it a go (and I still recommend you do) pick your time of year carefully. The NZ Spring and Summer will offer the most settled weather. In winter the road can be closed due to snow and I would say some of the more shaded parts would get black ice on them very quickly in cooler weather.
 
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arsevee

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Nice one! :cool:

You definitely can feel the back-end behave sweetly on the twisties... :)
 

wetwork65

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I drove the section of road between Otamauri and Moawhango called the 'Gentle Annie' for the first time ever. We drove it from east to west because accommodation options are much better in Hawkes Bay than in the central North Island. We were blessed with an absolute stunner of a day. If you get the chance to drive it, I can't recommend it highly enough. One of the best drives in the country in my opinion.

And I got the chance to really explore the performance aspect of the VXR in a road legal context as the road is very twisty in places. I still can't fault the AWD system, there was no wheel slippage or centre diff clunking in the switchbacks as you'd get from a Haldex or Subaru system. The car definitely doesn't feel like it weighs nearly 1800kg either. You can throw it from lock to lock and it just settles and drives through the apex like a hot hatch.
Even when driving it hard, the gearbox is smooth although in automatic mode it would like to change down very late in corners which was a bit disconcerting. I ended up driving most of it with the gearbox in manual mode and using the paddles.

When you get to the end, put the drive mode back to Touring, move the gear shift sideways back to D, set the Adaptive Cruise Control and head home @ 7.5L/100km.
N4u30xk.jpg
I'm jealous. Nice road, I remember how enjoyable these roads can be from when I used to live there.
But haven't tried it with my wife, she gets car sick on the NZ twisties...o_O.
Mind you the rental Kluger we had last time is probably not the best way to travel these roads.
 

StrayKiwi

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EwATWW0.jpg

Up at the Te Mata Peak car park the day before, looking NW towards where we were going to be driving the next day. For the record the road cuts through the lowest point in the distant hills just to the right of the handlebars of the bike. Not a drive for the faint hearted as this one is very narrow and has quite a lot of traffic on it.
 

Badgerdog

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Very nice and thank you for sharing. Never even knew this road existed so you've painted me a target to hit and let me take a punt here and suggest there's no speed camera's and no cops and very little other traffic so you really can really explore the limits of the handling and have fun on this remote road well away from the ever present PC police that exist almost everywhere else ?

Gotta say in sport mode you can really feel the torque vectoring kicking in and it makes these cars handling a very, very sweet ride.
Plenty of power when you really "get up" the engine too.
 

Immortality

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You should try the Taupo to Napier/Hastings road.
 

Badgerdog

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I haven't driven that one either...I am feeling the need to explore !!!
This a good place to start from, right on the lake edge. https://clearwatermotorlodge.co.nz/ (apologies for the thread hijack)
Its okay to go on a road trip for no good reason at all, just to enjoy the car and see the scenery...
 

kos

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Gentle Annie is on the Taihape / Napier road is it not?
You could always stay at the Taihape Motel and do a bit of train spotting
Did a trip Hastings/Rotorua return 2 years ago left Hastings it was 25 degrees at the peak of the Napier Taupo Rd it was 8 degrees and misty this was in Autumn.unfortunately I was only driving a Hastings rentals jap import 2.4 Camry. Coming back to Napier that day a manual box would have real nice on those steep down hill curves.
Nz roads for drivers eh.
Going to have to do the Gentle Annie next time I trip back home to nz.
 

StrayKiwi

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You should try the Taupo to Napier/Hastings road.

Do you mean SH5? Each end is crawling with traffic cops, the middle not so much. Plenty of idiots who think their Ranger/Amarok/Colorado/SUV or work van is fast too. This poor guy in a Corolla wagon just couldn't pass me going up hill on the passing lanes, but he spent the better part of 50km trying.
 
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