(Words by Tommy Lee Byrd Photos by Tommy Lee and Christina Byrd ) – If you’ve been watching Bangshift for the past couple of months, then you’ve likely seen an event gallery by Tommy Lee Byrd. He gets around to a lot of events, and has a few hot rods of his own, so he decided to partake in a cool road trip known simply as “Hot Rods Runnin’ the Dragon”. The Dragon refers to “The Tail of the Dragon”, a super twisty section of road in the mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina. How twisty you ask…318 curves in 11 miles with crazy elevation changes and switchback turns. Continue reading for Tommy Lee’s commentary on the whole deal and a gallery of photos to go along with it!

“The event started by meeting at a diner in Maryville, Tennessee but I planned to meet the pack of cars as they intersected Highway 72, turning off of 411, shortly after they left the diner. A few other guys joined me at the meeting point, and we waited for the pack to come to us. By the way, my vehicle of choice was a ’64 Corvette coupe with a fairly rowdy small block, backed by a Tremec 5-speed and 4.11 gears. Other notable details about the car—M&H slicks, front runners, manual steering and manual drum brakes. If you’re gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough.

 So, we joined the pack, and motored East, toward the legendary Hwy. 129, home of the Tail of the Dragon. The mix of cars is the coolest part of this deal, as there were some great street/strip cars, hot rods, pro street cars in the pack.

The nature of a group drive generally means that you’ll eventually get split up, but the lack of intersecting roads on the Dragon kept us all together, unless you count the sport bike riders who passed us on blind corners. That really freaked out my wife, by the way. Either way, we successfully made it through the Dragon, and split off to view the awesome Fontana Dam, just across the border into North Carolina. Then, we made a pit stop at the only gas station around, and headed back through the Dragon, heading the opposite direction. From there, we turned onto Foothills Parkway, which provided lots of great mountain driving, and some scenic overlooks. The Parkway dumped us out into Townsend, Tennessee where we finished off the trip with a giant group dinner at the “Back Porch Restaurant”.

By the time we finished dinner it was around 7pm, and we had a two-hour drive to get home, so we blazed a trail. Overall, the car did surprisingly well, considering the abuse it went through. I will definitely go back next year to try it again. Thanks to Richard Payne for organizing the event, and inviting us to tag along!”