Charting the Hudson Quattrocento was New York's ultimate grand tour.
. When we drove through, cars were loading in for that weekend's Grid Life event. Skylines and Stageas filled the parking areas, preparing for a car culture event that brought full course drifting to Lime Rock for the first time ever. Track tie began the next day, but we had to continue on to Saratoga Springs.
This part of Connecticut is at its best in Autumn. In late August, you see the first signs of the season. Roads with dense tree cover mean harsh rays of diagonal sunlight, perfectly backlighting gusts of yellow leaves just beginning to fall. When the Hudson Quattrocento reaches these roads, the season will be at its full power.The stretch up to Saratoga Springs was the end of day 1 with the car.
After stopping in Saratoga Springs, I drove back into the Hudson Valley and through to Woodstock. This stretch brought me through open expanses of the sort of upstate townships you'd imagine in the region, complete with 18th century buildings across from drive-through Dunkin' Donuts. The roads through the Catskills that followed start to get technical, particularly at higher elevations.
The route from Woodstock to Calicoon Hills took me alongside a half-dozen reservoirs and creeks, through tree canopies and open skies. Every few miles, the scenery seemed to grow in scale and grandeur. It's the sort of place a car like this belongs. Drives like this are the reason cars like this exist.