Posted on 10/13/2017 8:02:47 AM PDT by Army Air Corps
In 1996 drove a 1995 Camaro with an LT1 engine and 12in wide tires from Seattle to Sacramento in 8 hours.
750 miles.
I had to stop for gas twice, and my two bio breaks were roadside rest stops.
I listened to all the Beethoven symphonies en route.
The Siskiyous slowed me a bit, but not much.
I’ve had a number of high end sports cars over the years, but my current is my favorite by far, Alfa Romeo 4C Spider, the thing is an animal, love it.
10,000 miles in 30 days from Florida to Canada, Washington State, down to LA then back east along I-40. Camped the whole way.
I have only seen those online while daydreaming at the Alfa website. I gotta hear more about the actual experience of driving one.
MAN, that was a long slog! I have never had a roadtrip that was nearly that long.
I liked the look of those, because they looked like something out of a Sci-Fi movie.
“Mid-1960s MGB, I can dig it. Your story brings to mind one of the very few things that I have ever coveted. :-)”
Learned a bunch of mechanic-ing from that car. Rebuild-able shock absorbers, simple carbs, short rebuild (3 of 5 crankshaft bearings from underneath in an afternoon), and reverse polarity Lucas electrics (of course it would be!). Great times. The missus loved driving it, and could get into as much trouble with it as driving out of trouble.
Oh yeah, it was red!
Cheers,
KYPD
A bit like driving an older (late 80’s early 90’s) super car. Very rigid, its a carbon fiber monocoque, totally manual steering, you can feel everything, I can tell the sex of road kill if I run over it. Race exhaust , no mufflers at all, yea, I don’t know how they sell it that way either, makes all sorts of wonderful noises, the rush of air going into thr turbo 241/2 lbs of boost, the blowoff valve going off when you let off the gas,when going up through the gears, DCT, it retards the the air/fuel for a moment so you don’t have to let up on the gas when you shift up, making a lound farting noise,rev matching on the down shifts.the car handles phenomenally , from 0-100 (top speed 160) it’s an absolute beast. Really sucks getting in and out of, once in though, all is good
88 Dodge Daytona C/S. Bought from the PX and delivered to Germany. Drive it to Hungary. $2 hr to drive on the Hungaroring. (F1 track)
It was a great time. Three of us in a toyota pick up, 34 states and Canada. Still kids at the time.
Rockies, Yellowstone, Glacier, Mt. St. Helens, Yosemite....
Besides the landscapes the best memories are when crossing back into the US from Canada one of guys couldn’t find his driver’s license at the border station. He and his brother started arguing and almost got into a fight about it. The border guards told us to proceed in a “get the hell out of here tone”. I think it was our southern drawls and rebel flag seat cover that vouched for us...and it was in 1980, so much looser policy back then.
Being dog tired at 3am and spreading a sleeping bag on the ground somewhere north of LA and laying down on top of a bunch of cactus.
Being woke up by German tourists in a rest area near Merced after driving most of the night because every door was open, one guy sleeping on the ground the other guy in the back of the truck and me slumped in the passenger seat. Don’t even remember stopping to sleep. Met the same people 3 days later hiking in Yosemite.
My friend’s 90 year old grandmother in Cal. fixing us up with girls from her church...
My drunk shipmates and I on the go cart track at Subic Bay Philippines. We turned a 10 lap race into a demolition derby. The track was littered with go cart parts when we were through.
How quickly did the SPs arrive?
Drove it off the showroom floor, started the trip two weeks later, and when I got back to Florida on July 4th in time for the fireworks the car had 13,000+ miles on it. Best summer of my life. Kept a diary of the trip and every once in a while I will pull it out and relive the adventure, and there were some real adventures during that ride.
But the Model A Ford is the best. It is a delight to all of the senses.
The sounds of the gears meshing and the carb hissing, the engine puttering, the fluted muffler sound, the smell of gasoline and oil, the windshield flipped up and cracked and with the wind blowing in your face, and looking over the hood shinny hood at the ground before me going all of 50 miles per hour.
Some fun sounds...
http://www.mafca.com/sounds/startup_and_ahooga.wav
Here is a video of a cut away engine...
Good story. I’m not surprised by the ending, though. Late ‘60s and early ‘70s full size Mopars are legendary demolition derby cars.
Ran from the cops a few times in a banana cream colored 4 door 68 Fairlane with a 4bb 289. The next day it would be parked out front of the gas station I worked at. It was also used for bootlegging beer while the undercovers were parked across the street.
Hard to say, since I've had so many fun times in cars over the years.
The one that immediately comes to mind is, driving my 1973 Jaguar Sovereign around the south of England, in the Spring, after having spent a miserable, cold, dark winter rebuilding the top end.
I felt such a great sense of accomplishment in that, given that I only had rudimentary mechanic skills and experience with American cars, exclusively.
Just a wonderful experience.
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