Earlier this month, RS Xperience founder Andy Papa invited me to join a group of sports car enthusiasts on his new company's first curated trip of the new year, the Spring Mountain Rally exploring the hills and roads where North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia meet in the Great Smoky Mountains. As the 'RS' suggests, Papa's programs lean heavily towards Porsche enthusiasts, a natural segue from his time as a professional driving instructor behind the wheel of a GT3 RS in nearby Louisville. But when I spoke with Papa, he also mentioned the recent acquisition of a 2020 BMW M2 CS to serve as his daily driver—and in a bold move, to say the least, he even made the decision to kindly let me drive the stick-shift Bimmer for the duration of the adventure.

In an even bolder move, though, when I showed up at the lodge that served as our home base on the banks of Lake Santeetlah, NC, Papa surprised me with a new-to-him McLaren 600LT Spider from which he planned to lead our group for the following two days of driving.

Welcome To Lake Santeetlah

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via Michael Van Runkle / HotCars

Lake Santeetlah sits nearest to Robbinsville, NC, but more importantly, smack dab in the midst of famous roads with names like Tail of the Dragon and Cherohala Skyway. As the gracious host of our lodge explained, the unique geography of the Smoky Mountains evolved when glaciers expanded then receded over the region during the last ice age, depositing seeds from all over the North American continent that grew into massive forests full of a startling variety of trees. Geologists recognize the Appalachians as the oldest mountain range on the planet, and the perfect terrain lends well to long sweepers and tight, technical sections of road that today attract thousands of enthusiasts a year to test their cars and their own skill on some of the most gorgeous asphalt in the country.

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Andy Papa's Two One-Year-Only 2020 Models

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via Michael Van Runkle / HotCars

Papa and I both found his ownership of two one-year-only 2020 cars a bit funny. The M2 CS I drove carries over all the greatest attributes of the legendary E36 and E46 M3 generations, with a twin-scroll-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six pumping 444 horsepower and 406 lb-ft of torque to the rear wheels through a six-speed stick shift and an electronically controlled limited-slip differential. But the driving experience also revealed some hints at BMW's otherwise steep decline over the past decade-plus into bloated straight-line speedsters, most noticeably thanks to a curb weight of 3,489 despite the copious use of carbon fiber for the hood, roof, and trim.

The 600LT, meanwhile, tips the scales more than 10% lighter and bumps output from a twin-turbo 3.8-liter V8 to 592 horses, routed also to the rear wheels through a paddle-shifted seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. But all the stats in the world fail to do justice to either the M2 CS and 600LT, both of which provide perfect platforms for tackling the Tail of the Dragon—even if the McLaren can do so much faster, without a doubt.

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The Crew Arrives

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via Michael Van Runkle / HotCars

Three other enthusiasts in three Porsches joined for the Spring Mountain Rally. One drove up from outside Atlanta in his 718 Boxster Spyder, after deciding to leave his own 600LT (which inspired Papa's purchase, it turns out) due to an ominous weather forecast in the mountains. Two arrived from eastern North Carolina, both with PDK gearboxes powering their Cayman GT4 and Boxster GTS, respectively. Power output for the three P-cars in descending order went from the Spyder, with a tune and aftermarket exhaust, at somewhere around 460 horsepower, to the GT4 at 419 and the GTS, model year 2018, with a turbo-four rated at 365 ponies. But the Spyder also came with a six-speed, so the car's owner and I naturally considered ourselves the most dedicated drivers of the group.

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Climbing Into My Ride For The Rally

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via Michael Van Runkle / HotCars

Every other car on the rally sported two seats and a mid-engined layout but my M2 CS afforded me plenty of room up front, back seats for camera gear, and even a trunk. And yet, pushing the little coupe into twisties and plowing out with the traction control sprinkling a bit of throttle modulation into some pretty regular wheelslip, I found the old magic that left me so in love with my first car, an E46 BMW four-door. Fiddling with the drive modes and figuring out the gear ratios for rev-matching left me plenty to do as we cruised around on country roads between intervals of harder rallying.

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Onto The Tail Of The Dragon

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via Michael Van Runkle / HotCars

Eventually, we made our way towards the Tail of the Dragon, a snaking stretch of road spanning the border between North Carolina and Tennessee. Signs on roadside shops cued us into the communities and cultures that show up to ride motorcycles and drive cars on the Tail of the Dragon, broadcasting the 318 curves over 11 miles that never fail to provide a challenge for even the most seasoned locals.

In the M2, I eventually discovered that sticking the six-speed in second gear for all but the longest straightaways left me plenty of leeway on the way up to a 7,600-RPM redline (not bad for a turbocharged engine). Rather than shifting up and down repeatedly, even with BMW's rev-matching system leaving me feeling heroic about my heel-toe technique, staying attuned to the road and environment clearly required a bit more focus than usual.

We spied sportbikes, Harleys, and entire cadres of like-minded car clubs, most notably what looked like an assemblage of Golf GTI, R, and R32 variants, with a healthy dose of the Mk1 Audi TT siblings sprinkled into the mix. But the crowds also lead to strict law enforcement on the actual Tail of the Dragon, as well as some slower speeds due to amateur drivers, less powerful cars, and safety concerns. As much fun as I had traversing the Tail, we found even better driving on surrounding roads where Papa knew that fewer drivers tend to congregate.

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Making The Best Of Bad Weather

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via Michael Van Runkle / HotCars

Papa's knowledge of the surrounding region came in handy even more when, despite the purposeful planning and buoyant name, our Spring Mountain Rally encountered some rain, a bit of hail, and even snow when a late-season cold front rolled down from Canada. In the McLaren, he led us down into Georgia in the hopes of finding warmer weather, calling out slippery patches and new directions on walkie-talkies, generally demonstrating a solid grasp of our individual capabilities, not to mention our cars and tires—all in the rearview of a much more potent supercar constantly begging to walk away with ease.

By the end of two days, our group coalesced into a cadre of hard-chargers when the time called, but also patient cruisers willing to take in the scenery equally as much. After all, spending a full rally pushed to the limit of performance leaves even professional drivers drained, so Papa's perfect measures of pace and space throughout the trip felt perfect by the end of day two.

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A New Band Of Brothers

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via Michael Van Runkle / HotCars

We all learned a ton about car control, especially the Spyder and GT4 on Michelin's famous warm weather-loving Cup 2 tires. And the Spyder owner even demonstrated the relatively convenient inconvenience of putting that borderline-bimini top up and down, as compared to the GTS which allowed for the choice between an open or closed cabin on the fly.

Dinners at sunset from the lodge living room, a roaring fireplace still serving all-day duty throughout the cold snap, and hot coffee in the morning kept us fueled up—as did a couple of stops at gas stations along the way. Papa made the hard choice to skip Cherohala Skyway this time around, which turned out to be a wise decision when our professional Tail of the Dragon photographer, Darryl "Killboy" Cannon, shared photos that a friend snapped of deep snow on the road's highest sections.

Papa even let me drive his McLaren for a quick, if somewhat teasing, lap, down past the dam to Topoco and back. Something like a Lotus Evora GT, but simply more in every respect, the 600LT now sits at the top of all the best cars I've ever driven, proving Papa's patience as he kept our group of searchers together throughout the spectacular countryside of the Spring Mountain Rally.

Sources: rsxperience.com, nps.gov, tailofthedragon.com, michelinman.com, and killboy.com.