I am SOOOOO jealous!!

[gthal]

I just spent a week in Orlando and I am so damn jealous of you guys in Florida. Your roads are buttery smooth, fantastic highways, decent speed limits, and warm weather all of the time. It clearly is a sports car heaven on earth.

I so wish I could enjoy my M4 with you folks!! Even in summer where I live, I'm dealing with potholes and nasty roads due to frost/heaving from winter (P.S. my summer weather is like your December/January weather). I just can't get over the smooth roads and complete lack of potholes (or very limited)!!

The one thing I will say is you are all wimps for cold weather It was 65F the other day at Disney and the locals were all wearing winter coats and hats I was in shorts and a T-shirt and very comfortable. I flew home to 15F and just wore my Spring jacket and a sweater home

I'm very jealous of your wonderful State ... what I great place to own a nice car!!

[YMB-M3-J2]

i must say that i cant bitch about the weather because we do get to use our cars year round...rainy season will be a bit tough because the M4 gets ass happy pretty easy.

You guys up north have pot holes but we have loose rocks. because we dont get snow the DOT uses black asphalt instead of concrete for most road surfaces and as it wears it releases chunks of rock that always hit your car... rock chips in paint and broken windows are so common here and it really sucks. Plus we have lots of bugs so bug damage is always an issue as well... and then we have the worst thing of all....stupid ass people on the roads...they drive very slow..in the fast lane. Then when it rains and its dark the highways come to a grinding halt....but in the end the warm weather makes up for it all...screw shoveling snow!

[dmk08]

Im about to move to the Tampa area from GA and I have been worried about the lack of hills or mountains to cruise. The weather is nice but where do you guys drive for fun besides the track?

[YMB-M3-J2]

I just moved from Tampa to South Florida about 2 years ago..lived in tampa for almost 20 years and my "fun" drives would just depend on what kind of fun i wanted to have. If i just wanted nice scenary that you can cruise with the windows down and just enjoy the beach roads were usually the best like Gulf Blvd(Pinellas County), The Courtney Campbell Causeway or Bayshore Blvd in Tampa.

When i got my bike I found out that north of Tampa there are a ton of roads that are out in the country that have some good turns and hills and long straightaways. They are a huge attraction for motorcycles because they were the most "twisty" roads in Florida. i dont remember the exact routes we used to take but some of the road names were Ehren Cutoff, Bellamy Brothers, Hayman Road, Spring Lake, Powell. All of these should be pretty fun in F8x....one of these days i will get back up there and take my car thru some of them. I always had a blast on the bikes up there.

[dmk08]

Originally Posted by YMB_M4_j2

I just moved from Tampa to South Florida about 2 years ago..lived in tampa for almost 20 years and my "fun" drives would just depend on what kind of fun i wanted to have. If i just wanted nice scenary that you can cruise with the windows down and just enjoy the beach roads were usually the best like Gulf Blvd(Pinellas County), The Courtney Campbell Causeway or Bayshore Blvd in Tampa.

When i got my bike I found out that north of Tampa there are a ton of roads that are out in the country that have some good turns and hills and long straightaways. They are a huge attraction for motorcycles because they were the most "twisty" roads in Florida. i dont remember the exact routes we used to take but some of the road names were Ehren Cutoff, Bellamy Brothers, Hayman Road, Spring Lake, Powell. All of these should be pretty fun in F8x....one of these days i will get back up there and take my car thru some of them. I always had a blast on the bikes up there.

Awesome thanks for the info. Yeah we are actually moving to Tierra Verde which is in Pinellas.

[YMB-M3-J2]

very nice area. Ft Desoto park is great during the summer time.

[nbennettksu]

Everything (over here) is straight and flat... spirited drives include: acceleration, immediately followed by burying the brake pedal ---> repeat

That and on/off ramps, we have a lot of giant loop on/off ramps. Also quickly followed by braking.

[dmk08]

Originally Posted by nbennettksu

Everything (over here) is straight and flat... spirited drives include: acceleration, immediately followed by burying the brake pedal ---> repeat

That and on/off ramps, we have a lot of giant loop on/off ramps. Also quickly followed by braking.

A far cry from being 1hr from the Cherohala Skyway and a bit further to the Tail of the Dragon. Oh well as my business partner said I guess I'll have to get into boats.

[Sean@PSI]

Ya, great roads and many BMW guys!

[Money2536]

I love living in FL. The roads are a bit boring, but the fact that we are able to drive and enjoy cars in January is awesome.

[IRNM4N]

I'll second what YMB said... Just north of Tampa there are plenty of hills and twisties. San Antonio is just about 30 north on 75 off SR52 and tons of bikes run out there every weekend. Just keep an eye out for the cyclists (including me!) as that is where most of us train for hilly races. Nighttime is good to go. PM me when you get into town and I'll introduce you to a bunch of good people. Not sure if you will be in town by 3/27, but a group of us are planning on hitting the Friday sessions at the St. Pete Grand Prix to watch practice and the GTS cars run. Welcome!!!

Originally Posted by dmk08

Im about to move to the Tampa area from GA and I have been worried about the lack of hills or mountains to cruise. The weather is nice but where do you guys drive for fun besides the track?

[JB.M.]

Originally Posted by IRNM4N

I'll second what YMB said... Just north of Tampa there are plenty of hills and twisties. San Antonio is just about 30 north on 75 off SR52 and tons of bikes run out there every weekend. Just keep an eye out for the cyclists (including me!) as that is where most of us train for hilly races. Nighttime is good to go. PM me when you get into town and I'll introduce you to a bunch of good people. Not sure if you will be in town by 3/27, but a group of us are planning on hitting the Friday sessions at the St. Pete Grand Prix to watch practice and the GTS cars run. Welcome!!!

Great tip, I have never been to that area, will have to check it out soon.

[FeckinSpaceman]

Originally Posted by IRNM4N

I'll second what YMB said... Just north of Tampa there are plenty of hills and twisties. San Antonio is just about 30 north on 75 off SR52 and tons of bikes run out there every weekend. Just keep an eye out for the cyclists (including me!) as that is where most of us train for hilly races. Nighttime is good to go. PM me when you get into town and I'll introduce you to a bunch of good people. Not sure if you will be in town by 3/27, but a group of us are planning on hitting the Friday sessions at the St. Pete Grand Prix to watch practice and the GTS cars run. Welcome!!!

Originally Posted by JB.M.

Great tip, I have never been to that area, will have to check it out soon.

So I was trolling and I noticed some others from the Tampa area so I had to shout. I am in Wesley Chapel area!

I am seriously considering ordering an M3 and getting rid of my 550i.

For the record if you go 1 exit North of SR52 there is some awesome driving up there as well. In Trilby or Spring Lake Hwy area

[Thrak]

Great to find this thread. I'm just south of Gandy, near the air force base. I'll be picking up my M4 at the Performance Center in SC on Wednesday - ordered through an out of state dealer because after seven years of a great relationship with the Audi guys at Reeves, it only took two visits to the BMW side of the house to drive me away. I've had a great time with my S5, but it's starting to have issues, and with the S5/RS5 still using the B8 platform that premiered in 2007 it was time to move on.

I've been fairly active with ACNA activities over the past few years, and hope to be similarly active with CCA. I'll have to try out some of these driving areas in Hernando/Pasco. I've lived in Tampa my whole life but never really ventured north of the city to explore the back roads.

[FeckinSpaceman]

Originally Posted by Thrak

Great to find this thread. I'm just south of Gandy, near the air force base. I'll be picking up my M4 at the Performance Center in SC on Wednesday - ordered through an out of state dealer because after seven years of a great relationship with the Audi guys at Reeves, it only took two visits to the BMW side of the house to drive me away. I've had a great time with my S5, but it's starting to have issues, and with the S5/RS5 still using the B8 platform that premiered in 2007 it was time to move on.

I've been fairly active with ACNA activities over the past few years, and hope to be similarly active with CCA. I'll have to try out some of these driving areas in Hernando/Pasco. I've lived in Tampa my whole life but never really ventured north of the city to explore the back roads.

That's awesome, congrats! I am also considering doing PCD if I can make up my mind and pull the trigger

I agree there is just something abut Reeve's, they have the only guy in town mentality which is a turn off for me. I like my service guy but I have passed on buying through Reeves on countless occasions from VW, Audi, BMW, and pre-owned. I always get a better deal elsewhere. The past 3 cars were purchased in Miami, Naples, and Cocunut Creek as a result.

Good news is we have a new Benz dealership being built up the street from me in Wesley Chapel, Mini is here, every other dealer is around so I am hopefully that we will get a new BMW dealership in the next year or two.....although that may be a bad thing for my car habit

[Thrak]

Originally Posted by FeckinSpaceman

I agree there is just something abut Reeve's, they have the only guy in town mentality which is a turn off for me. I like my service guy but I have passed on buying through Reeves on countless occasions from VW, Audi, BMW, and pre-owned. I always get a better deal elsewhere. The past 3 cars were purchased in Miami, Naples, and Cocunut Creek as a result.

Considering Ferman and Bert Smith are both about 20 miles away, and Fields in Lakeland is about 40 miles, and within a little over an hour you have Sarasota and Orlando, you'd think they'd try to attract business. I'll be honest, though, it's almost through luck that I learned there really is a lot of room to negotiate in a lease. I could have easily signed a contract for their first offer, which would have had me paying ~$20k more over the course of my lease.

I did get them to come close to the other deal I had, but when a friend went in to complain about his price, he was told he was lucky to have a car, and I might not even have one in 2015. All of a sudden my submitted order became #4 on the waiting list for an allocation. Needless to say, I cancelled, ordered from the dealer in Nebraska, and was in production two weeks later.

It's a shame, because I really did have excellent service from everyone at Audi - sales, service, etc.

[dmk08]

Well after lots of big things happening quickly the wife and I will not be moving to TPA/St Pete area. I accepted a new job a couple weeks ago at a company in Atlanta.

So over the weekend we found a new community going up and we are going to be putting down our builders deposit soon! More mountains less sunshine.