So sad so many people here hate on motorcycles. They're a lot of fun and make a lot of great sounds with the right exhaust. Sure, there are dirtbags who just lop off the muffler and call it a day, but a well made exhaust can make a bike (or a car) sound like music. I like the variety that the different cylinder configurations and firing order give each bike. I'm not a fan of "one-lungers" since they sound like lawn equipment, but they're still fun machines.
Anyway, I actually took my S on the Blue Ridge Parkway this past Friday. It was not a good experience, but that was my own fault.
I was on my way to SW VA for the weekend, so I supercharged at the Lexington, VA supercharger for a bit and then went through Buena Vista to get to the Parkway. Last year I had been up a twisty mountain road on my Monkey that was a lot of fun, and I figured I'd picked the same one on the Tesla nav screen. I was wrong. I ended up climbing a 5 mile long gravel road. The air suspension shrugged it off, but my energy consumption had gone from ~292wh/mi on the way to Lexington to over 500wh/mi. I only had about a 30 mile buffer, and I was quickly chewing through that. I finally reached the Parkway and decided to head south anyway.
I had no cell signal so navigation did not work, but I knew the way - mostly. The car continued to climb and gulp electrons, but then I started to descend. I noticed my consumption plummeted along with my elevation. Yes! I breathed a sigh of relief as I was able to cover several miles without losing a mile of range. Eventually I got a signal back and was able to instruct the car to head for the supercharger in Salem, VA. To my surprise, it said I would reach Salem with 5% charge. That was a relief. However, I also saw my projected range remaining was 3 miles SHORT of the distance I needed to travel. I figured the elevations would mostly cancel themselves out, but I also wondered if I would have any significant climbs on I-81 before I reached Salem?
Each minute I kept a tally of my projected range and remaining distance. I was slowly trending back to the positive. Whew! This must be what range anxiety really is. Getting off the Parkway, I had a very long descent down a road near Buchanan I took 20 years ago in my first Miata. It was nice to see miles come back "into the tank." When I reached I-81, I drafted a few trucks until I could see a buffer of about 12 miles remaining. I was going to make it! I made it to the Salem supercharger with 18 miles left in the pack. I know there are others who have cut it closer, but this was a record for me.
As for the driving, the car was just okay. The plus suspension really is terrific. It keeps the car flat through the corners, but the car is so heavy and wide that there is little to no "wiggle room" in the lane. Granted, I am on 19" MXM4s which are okay for a touring tire, but are not very inspiring, but I was also not getting close to their limits either. The car just did not encourage me to flog it around the bends, and I barely hit 150kw on the power meter, wanting to keep an even pace with no brakes. I missed the sound of my Miata's supercharger winding up and echoing through the tunnels. I'm sure my range anxiety colored my experience a bit, and It's difficult not to have fun on a mountain road, but I can firmly say it would have been more fun with about a ton and a half less weight and a 4 cylinder soundtrack.