| SRD Art |
06-19-2013 01:51 PM |
When I hit Winslow AZ the highway was shut down because of 60 mph winds blowing across it and low visibility from all the dust. I was excited to see the town of Winslow because it's mentioned in the route 66 song. Unfortunately outside of a small downtown main street stretch, the town is run down and looks somewhat vacant. Too bad, I bet at one time it was a thriving little stop along the way. Well our option was to wait out the wind as many people chose to do, lined up parked along side both sides of the road. Another option was a detour south, go through the national park, and then back north to Flagstaff. I was already behind schedule so I chose the detour. I filled up on gas just in case and headed out. Fighting a 60 mph headwind wasn't fun, and I just watched my gas gauge drop as I rolled along at about 40 mph. Finally after what seemed an eternity I was headed up into the mountains and above the wind. Then it was a good long uphill climb. I started getting nervous on the way back down the other side as I got lower and lower on gas and not knowing how much further I had to go. I literally was on the bottom side of E when I got back to civilization and found a gas station. Glad I followed my gut feeling to fill up before I left on the detour. Once I hit Flagstaff it was a pretty smooth sail on through Vegas and up into St. George Utah.
All things into account, I'm glad to say my car served me well. I ran between 70 and 80 mph most of the trip. It never ran hot, had plenty of power to haul the load, braked fine even with about 3500 lbs behind me, and handled the drive fantastic. After about a 2100 mile trip twice within about 6 months plus daily driving in between, I say not bad for a car that was thrown together in 2 months of spare time from the point of an empty shell barely put back on the frame.
I used to really like daily driving my drag prepped Nova, but the pro-touring build philosophy is so much better, my Nova wouldn't have gotten far before I needed gas again and again, and it would've run a little hot along the way. No wonder the plans for that car are now my second pro-tour build... clickey for Trogdor build thread |
