At first it sounds like a hundred angry bees resonating through the dark valley. In five minutes, it sounds more like a million fuming hornets. In ten minutes, the engine notes become clearer, the tire screeches more apparent, and a few blips of light manage to find their way through the tangled terrain. The pack of hopped-up sports cars races their way around the last bend hiding them in a hurry. They blow by bumper to bumper while spitting revs, pops and gurgles, and bam! – tuck back in the darkness and silence just as quick as they came.

The pack that just blew by is Aaron Johnson and his buddies making another late-night blast through the canyon roads. We catch up with them a few miles ahead and find them pulled over with flashlights, sniffing and feeling around the wheels, engines and tail-ends of the cars like police dogs searching through a suspected vehicle. But instead of drugs, Johnson is checking the brakes, tires, and engine parts to see if they’re overheating, which this canyon road will do to even the most expensive sports cars. He smells burnt brakes and rubber, and finds one exhaust manifold still glowing red-hot. But after a short cooling period, they all jump into the rides, and smash back into the twisties.

Johnson, 30, is no stranger to ridiculous runs of late-night canyon carving. Ever since he was 18-years-old with his 70’s Beetle, this Volkswagen junky has pushed all his V-dubs to the edge, literally – as in cliffs.

Today he tears up the tarmac with his super rare 2004 R32. Only 5,000 copies of this ultra-high performance GTI made it to the U.S. and only sold for one year. Johnson has the rarest of them all – one of just 500 that were made in Tornado Red. It could stomp on most offerings from BMW at the track, and hold its own against the more powerful, no-compromise Mitsubishi Evolution and Subaru STI. But in traditional tuner fashion, Johnson takes this already capable sports-car and stretches its abilities, focusing mainly on better handling and higher cornering speed instead of straight line acceleration. This better suites his style since he prefers windy roads to freeways.

“I’m always looking for Bay Area back roads you can totally abuse,” says Johnson.

But don’t take Johnson as an out of control street racer, hounding Bay Area roads and putting peoples’ lives at risk. He’s a seasoned pro, marked by his advanced status in the revered National Auto Sports Association (NASA). Without a doubt, his skills out on the racetrack have matured enough to handle dangerous roads that most people wouldn’t dare drive in the day, let alone at night.

Like most driving nights, this one begins with many phones calls. Johnson knows a bunch of Volkswagen R32 guys always willing to make a run through the canyons. By 11:00, there’re six cars gathered at their usual meeting spot, Starbucks in Castro Valley. But sometimes, they’ve got the parking lot jam packed. Johnson says the most they ever had was roughly 30 cars, which included the other popular 4-wheel-drive tuner cars from Mitsubishi and Subaru.

Johnson’s road of choice, Mines Road, snakes through the hills east of Hayward and Fremont, starting from Livermore, and ending east of San Jose. It all adds up to 69 miles of winding roads, hairpin turns, sharp elevation changes and un-guarded cliff edges. Most sections have no lines or reflectors defining the roads boundaries. The road is so narrow that two Honda Civics would barely squeeze by each other. There are no streetlights illuminating the pavement. They depend on their headlights and the light of the moon. Basically, Mines Road is an invitation for vehicular disaster.

“Every time we go, we say we’re gonna take it easy. But about a quarter the way through, it just gets crazy,” says Johnson. “You just can’t help it.”

Mines Road comes with its share of surprises too. From the tail end of the pack, you can see the cars swerving to opposite ends of the road, trying to avoid random debris that’s littering the road. Johnson veers and misses a dead pig. Another driver swerves to miss a rabbit streaking across the road. Further down the road, another driver tries to avoid a small boulder but eats it with the right side tires. Luckily no damage was done.

On this night, there is one surprise Johnson and the gang didn’t expect – the Law. All the cars are parked along the cliff edge for their usual cool down while the guys mingle around enjoying music and the broad view of the South Bay. Without warning, a white SUV comes hauling down the road, and stops diagonal to the lead car to cut any escape path. Just what the guys needed – the SUV couldn’t say Santa Clara police any bigger. Johnson asks out loud, half sarcastically and half serious, “Were we doing something wrong?”

Everyone shuts off their music and cars. Officer Mark McDonald sets the tone very quickly, walking by and scanning all six cars with his flashlight including Xpress Magazine’s camera car, “No front-plate and illegally parked.” No one says anything. He gathers all the guys around for a 15-minute lecture.

“This road will tame the best of drivers,” says McDonald, who has logged more than 50,000 miles patrolling Mines Road in five years. “It is the most dangerous road in all of Northern California.” Despite watching the group race through the road like maniacs, McDonald appreciates the guys’ cooperation and lets them go with a warning. What a close call.

In obedience with officer McDonalds demands, the group makes their way down the remaining 10 miles like slugs. It’s depressing, but making it back to the city streets brings sigh of relief as great as usual. If they weren’t so delayed so much, they would have had enough energy left to grab their favorite post-run meal at La Piñata, a Mexican restaurant in Fremont. Instead, they take a calm cruise to the freeway where one by one, they drop away from the pack and head towards home.

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What does it take to build the ultimate canyon-carving R32?
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It takes stacks of cash, a competent Volkswagen mechanic, 110 hours of labor, and lots of patients. Luckily Andrew Mitchell has got it all. Three months after Mitchell bought his brand-new 2004 R32, he grew an itch to make it go faster. That was about the time Mitchell met Aaron Johnson, who is a VW pro at Volkswagen of Newark. Mitchell said he decided to let Johnson tweak with the car a little bit, and ever since then he stuck with him. Now, Johnson is the one choosing the performance path of the car.

Mitchell did the basic modifications when he bought the car – air intake, exhaust, and other various bolt-ons. But the car has been dismantled ever since the real transformation began four months. They decided to go with a VF Engineering supercharger kit which would boost the car’s power from 240 HP to about 350 HP. But it wasn’t enough, so Johnson massaged the kit a little bit and added his own expertise. That included a Super Sprint exhaust system which no other R32 has – the unit was Super Sprint’s display item for the SEMA auto show. The interior and exterior have been left unchanged but the wheels, tires, suspension, and drive train have been reworked to make sure all that power makes it down to the ground in a useable fashion.

Exactly how much power? Johnson estimates the car will put 600 neck-snapping HP to all four wheels, which is just a little less than the $650,000 Enzo Ferrari. Mitchell spent about $30,000 in mods, plus the car. Now that’s bang for the buck.