blueline

I took a road trip in the Turbo. After 6000 miles, I'm convinced, this is one fantastic ride. Here are some photos of the car at various points along the way. Photos

Notes:
Sport seats are great for hours on end.
Vanentine V1 saved me 3 times for sure
Top speed 150MPH
Used Zaino Z6 detail spray and microfiber cloths to keep her looking nice
Average MPG - 24.5
Was glad I to have standard ride height on several streaches of concrete Interstate.
Need new tires now. Suggestions?
Bought a cheap GPS from Radio Shack instead of buying the outdated CDROMs from NavTeq
Lived on Podcasts that I updated nightly.
Love my Nikon D80.
Would do it again.

KPG

Very nice car and pics...

alpha1

Beautiful car and pics. Sounds like a great trip. On one of the pics the tires look like they have plenty of tread left -- must have been early on in the trip!

FlyingLow

Awesome pics. You've inspired me to do some better pictures of mine. I'm thinking about the lawn at Griffith Observatory. Hmmm

Wachuko

Wow!! Very nice!! That is a trip alright! Love the color of your car

I love this photo:


and my son will love this one with the Route 66 sign (4 years old that loves the CARs movie)



What lense/s do you have for the Nikon? I am trying to decide between a D200 or the D80 so any comments on the camera are welcome.

Did you start the trip with new tires and went through the set?

Made the trip alone? How many days?

1AS

While it's not the best dry performance tire, the Conti's have been my choice for 2 successive 4-tire changes. They are good in bad rain, reasonably quiet for the first 3/4 of the tread life, and wear well. They do flat spot if you leave the car for a week or more, but even out in 10 miles. They are not good snow tires (Went to Pirelli for that). For track use, Pilot sports are significantly better, but much more compromised for bad conditions.
At 24 mpg, I'm guessing that you were mostly under 80. Nice shots, and nice car. AS

blueline

Thanks, I'll look into the Continentals. The tires I'm replacing are the original tires which have 15,000 on them now. On the Interstate, I tried to keep it around 15 over the speed limit, which was mostly 75, although part of Texas was an 80 limit. If I got the right traffic ahead of me, I'd let it run a bit higher.

As for the camera, I bought a Nikon D80 with the 18-135 lens, which is equivalent to a 28 to 200 35 mm lens. More photos here

The only problem I had was a recurrent CEL when at high altitude. It had to do with engine idle, but was fine below 5000ft. The bad thing is that I couldn't check the oil level because the computer didn't think I was at idle. BTW, I used 2 quarts of oil for the trip.

alpha1

I am very impressed with 15k miles on the original tires, and only 1 qt of oil every 3k miles. I burn about 1 qt of oil every 800 to 1,000 miles (mainly city driving), and I hear most people get only about 8k miles per set of rear tires. I live at about 4,500 ft altitude, and so far no CEL or idle problems ('01 996tt, had it for over a year).

FixedWing

I'm surprised that you don't like the Conti winter tyre.

My impression has been that the Pirelli is more of an aggressive winter tyre than the Conti but that the Conti is probably better all-round winter tyre if you are looking for something that will spend most of its time in good conditions with an occasional need to deal with snow. I have no clue where the Michelins would place. And my only behind-the-wheel experience so far is with the Conti.

I think it is probably more about what you are looking for in a winter tyre than one being better or worse than another.

And of course, none of them is going to compare with a studded Nokian Hakka.

Stephen

p.s. great photos Blueline. Poor, poor butterflies.

Jon Elliott

I have the Blizzak snows and they are incredible in the wet (especially the deep pooled stuff) in Seattle. They are WAY more quiet on the road dry than the summer OEM Pirellies (sp?) that I run on the car in the nice seasons. I also use the Blizzaks on the snow and ice and have had excellent results with reasonable driving.

As to the Pix, those are the most beautiful butterflies that I have ever seen, I hope to catch some the same way one day!

1AS

FixedWing,
My Conti's aren't the dedicated snow- they are fundamentally the summer tire which I use in 3 seasons. They have deep circumferential grooves, but very few side sipes, so they don't bite snow but do clear water. My winter Pirelli's ae dedicated snows. AS

drh

Looks like you had a great time.

How did you manage to clean this area up? Mine seems to fill up with leaves and all kinds of debris.

blueline

I reached in there and used a toothbrush to clear out the radiator fins. Good lighting is important too. I'm still looking for a better brush that I could use without having to squeeze my hand past the plastic grill. It would be nice to be able to remove the grill, but I couldn't figure that out.

Thanks to everyone for the positive feedback.

Chris

JP Schnitzer

Yo Chris,

Way to use the car! You really have to go out and use these cars on massive roadtrips to fully understand what they can do. 6000 miles is a BIG trip. The only drawback on these cars is the pathetic gas tank......It needs to be double the size!

I get my shop VAC, with the narrow blade type attachment and stick it in the radiator and suck all the junk out....After a big trip, that area really looks like hell....bugs, twigs, gravel, feathers...

fbfisher

9 0f 10 is a great shot! Nice looking car.