Jamie decides to cut out the distractions and rediscover how much fun driving can be.
As people who love cars, it’s sometimes easy for petrolheads to get caught up with all the peripherals that come with loving cars. Races, auto shows, car magazines and websites are all things we love, but I don’t think I’m alone in saying that it’s sometimes easy to forget why we all came to love cars in the first place: driving.
I recently decided to remind myself what all fuss was about by heading east out of San Diego down Route 94. If you were to take 94 east out of downtown, you would initially be fairly unimpressed. It’s a freeway that takes you through the East County suburbs, but once you get past the small farm town of Jamul, everything changes.
You begin to get into a much more mountainous region where things get much more interesting. First you find mountain passes with very fast sweeping turns that really test your nerve. After a few miles, the road narrows and the turns tighten as you descend into a canyon that winds along a river bed.
Here, there’s a side road that my Mini feels custom-made for. Barrett Smith Rd. has no delineation and looks like the last time it got any attention from the DoT was about 30 years ago. The lack of guard rails really focuses the mind and gives you a clear view of the terrain down-slope of you, which is littered with boulders. It looks like someone plucked a stage from the Monte Carlo Rally and dropped it in the desert.
Continuing on down 94 and making a right on 188 will land you at the Mexican border at Tecate. In my three drives in that direction, I’ve yet to venture into Mexico (mainly because I never have my passport), but I have no doubt that some pretty interesting roads lie beyond.
If you ever find yourself in the area and want to checkout route 94, be sure head out early or close to dusk. It can get clogged with two and four wheeled enthusiasts and there’s a Border Guard check point along the way that can at times get backed up.
Also, if you time it right and take an alternate route down Skyline Truck Trail, you’ll be rewarded with a spectacular mountain top view of the Pacific Ocean which at this point is about 20 miles away. It’s particularly breathtaking during sunset and is a perfect way to wrap up the drive.
Apart from providing me with loads of entertainment in recent months, the Mini has also continued serving as my daily driver. An oil leak that had been getting worse and over time prompted a recent visit to the garage. While it was being repaired, the mechanic found that for some reason my timing chain cover was also leaking but was kind enough to repair it free of charge.
Other than this hiccup, the Mini seems to be coping just fine with life over 100,000 miles. The engine is still pulling hard and the chassis still feels as sorted as you could expect of a car of its age. It still feels up for it and I think it says a lot that I still drive it for the sake of driving.
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