The Slowest Quarter-Mile In The World: Lombard Street!

When we were but a small Jalopnik, no higher than the fender badge on a Nova, no trip to San Francisco was complete without a ride down Lombard Street. When we were of age and living in the Bay Area ourselves, and at least as tall as the painted on "Brave" logo on a '78 Winnebago, we would attempt to drive down "The Crookedest Street in the World" as fast as humanly possible, first in our '75 El Camino, then in our '70 Skylark. We managed 15 mph down the eight-turn, 27-degree grade, thrice the road's speed limit and an excercise in sweat-inducing lock-to-lock wheel-sawing.

Today we got a call from a pal who is doing a driving tour of the Bay. He did 12mp down Lombard in a Subaru Forester. To be fair, it is possible that his Subie has a more accurate speedo than our old relics; on the other hand, why were the cops pulling us over for excessive speed when our velocity gauge was right on the limit? Oh, right. We looked like a meth dealer at the time.

Lombard Street (San Francisco) [Wikipedia]

Related:
The Girl Who Lives on Russian Hill: Lombard Street Tricycle Races [Internal]