Topic: Hooning my way through Transylvania on the Transfagarasan
I had a day to kill in Romania, and not too far from my hotel in Bucharest is what Top Gear said is "the best road in the world", the Transfagarasan. I'd paid for the Super Cover on my rental, so why not? You can't see it in the video, but I had a big smile on my face every time I hit a straight stretch and could relax for a few seconds.
I drove a little Mercedes hatch:
Some scenic pics:
Here's about six minutes of video at 2x speed of some of the different parts of it. It's about 90km long and takes a couple of hours to traverse:
If anyone else does this, and after doing it I recommend it if you're in the area, then starting the twisty parts at sunrise worked well. I left Bucharest at 4:00 AM, which put me at the start of the fun part right as it got light enough to see, but before traffic started. There were shepherds with big flocks out on the road that early, but they will move their flocks to one side for you, so the delay is minimal, and I only saw one other vehicle in the first hour, an old pickup truck that I passed quickly (there are a lot of short passing zones and the locals are good about letting you get by). After about 1.5 hours, I started to see local traffic and tourists, which cuts your speed down from 80-100km/h to 30-40km/h, and turns a tire-squealing adventure into a leisurely scenic cruise until you can get past them, but by then I was almost done with the fun part. It's about 90km from start to finish, and leaving at 4:00 AM from Bucharest had me done by 8:00 AM. I returned via another road because it was quicker, and was at the airport by 12:00 with one bathroom break and one gas stop, plus a couple of stops to take pictures.
