Road Trip in Carrera
 

Thought I'd share this as there's been some discussion on the board about taking our old cars on long road trips.

In August I took my 86 Targa on a 4500 mile round-trip - LA to Calgary to Vancouver and back (with a detour to Pemberton north of Whister).

The car had nearly 193,000 miles on it at the start of the trip.

Apart from a failing starter motor (I twice had to wait 'till it cooled down) and a small hesitation around 3K in 5th, the car ran like a charm.

I averaged about 24mpg (though got as much as 28 mpg at times).

And I used about a quart of oil every 2,000 miles.

Oh, and it even stopped leaking oil - though once back in LA it started again!

The I-5 was predictably tedious but the drive through the Rockies was great.

I would post some photos but either Pelican or my browser won't let me.

PM me and I'll show you how to the pics.

Wow. That's a road trip. I get nervous when driving further than I can reasonably walk home. One of these days I'll iron out all the bugs and take a cruise longer than 20 mi.

P.S. - We need pics!

That's what the car was built for.

Nice trip. After a PPI, I bought my 89 911 Cab in Kansas City and drove it back to Los Angeles in 2 days. Trip was uneventful except for a rear driver side blow out probably caused by 18 hours of driving on the second day.

With the company it keeps, I think it leaks just to fit in.

The biggest mistake made with a early 911 is allowing it to sit in the garage.;)

in mid July, I drove my '88 coupe from Everett WA to Grand Junction CO in 1.5 days (~1400 miles one way). The car had about 114k on it and used one quart of oil. A short time later, I met up with Scott from PP and some of the early car owners in Durango then drove it back a couple of months later to Bellevue WA for sale. Consistently pulled 28-29mpg no road problems at all and the factory air worked as well as could be expected considering it was stock....they were/are made to be driven....! :D

Just think of it in the same way as a cat taking a dump in your favorite shoes because you're not paying them enough attention... :)

Cool trip!

Scott -

Thanks for the offer re the photos. Apparently, I also need help with sending a PM!

I tried to upload the photos but Pelican wouldn't allow it - said my browser settings might be set for security or some such. I use Mozilla. May try it with explorer or navigator.

Hello, congrats on your road trip !! This is what this car is made for !! July we (2) made a F /Cal/Fl road trip 7300 miles plus. in 3 weeks, 8 nights of which we camped out, tent and everything. I wrote about it, back in July. We cant wait to do it again !!! I avoided I=5 boring, Hwy 1 north and the Sierra Nevadas, now I have over 200 k , no leaks yet.
Next year we would like to take the northern rout, it may also be cooler than the Texas/NMexico/Arizone route. HOT !!!!! but beautiful. Wish therer where more Carreras on the road !! happy driving Peter

Greetings,

I just love hearing stories like this. I think the longest trip I've taken in my 85 Targa is 100 miles round trip, as I too fear about breaking down. The car has 120k miles on it and uses a qt. of oil every 750 miles or so. I often wonder if it would use less oil if I was on a longer trip, as opposed to the short little trips I take around town. As for gas mileage, that sounds great - getting in the mid to high 20's.

Can't wait to see some pictures.

Love to hear there are others who believe a 911 is built for driving. There are often posts on this site that favor the "garage queen" philosophy of leaving a good car to sit unloved in the dark. I'm not talking about keeping it out of the snow, salt etc. I'm talking about the equivelant of dry storage. The problem with that philosphy is two fold...

First - it ignores the basic principal that Porsche built these cars to drive.

Second - it fails to acknowledge that a 911 is a durable robust machine that will reward the enthusiast long after lesser cars have given up at the roadside.

I say Bring on the roadtrips!!! Oh and please post pics!

angela

If you're using Firefox, you get the little error message in the pop-up window after it uploads the pic, then there's a bit of code below that - copy the code and paste it into your reply post and voila, pics.

I can't say I've ever done a road trip as long as that before, but I did do a several hour trip a few months ago, about 650 km round trip, no AC, in sweltering heat! I had no problems with the car at all, though the drive was pretty boring (4 lane highway the whole way). In a couple weeks we're taking the 911 up to (semi) northern Ontario for the weekend - 3 hours up, 3 back. That'll be awesome! Beautiful roads and scenery, and IMO P-cars look best in the autumn :cool:

I too don't understand the garage queen mentality. No doubt these cars were meant to be driven, and I intend on driving mine as long as I can, until the maintenance just gets to the point where it spends more time on jackstands than it does on the road. I love getting into stuff and getting dirty, but I prefer to drive.

The way I look at reliability is I never drive further from home than I can walk without a cell phone, and worst case scenario is I have to call for a tow. I'm never more than a couple hours tow from a Porsche shop (and that would cover an easy 1500-2000 km radius from my house, probably more), and I keep a list of several shops in my cell. So the risk of a few hundred km tow is one I'm willing to take, if it means I can take the 911 anywhere. And now with the babyseat in the back, we all can go! (though people do look at the child seat kind of funny when I'm at the track...)

edit: oh yeah, and I keep a small tool kit in the trunk, along with extra CD, coil, fuel pump, fan belt, etc.

Just did a 1000 miler (round trip) in my 89. She's had top/bottom redone about 35K ago and is presently at 131K...ran like a dream. Having been down on the Gulf Coast area for about a week, rest assured (upon returning home), I cleaned her undercarriagebody/engine and immediately ditched the air filter (yes, the air filter only had 1K miles on it!!) No salt even near my BABY!!! Much less small grains of airborn beach sand!!!!!

YEP,..they're made to be driven. And I am made to drive them!

Best,

A real feel good thread!

How typical with your oil leak experiences. My Carrera hates short stop and go trips. I usually avoid it but sometimes I have no choice and then she inevitably show her disgust of not being properly heated (like most women..) by dumping a couple of small drops on my garage floor. Otherwise she is bone dry.

Great to hear about other long distance trips.

Wonder who's gone the farthest?

I'll try posting the photos later today/tomorrow.

Angela, my sentiments exactly !!! next year we would like to beat our previous record distance wise.
happy driving , Peter

PS Florida is a bit boring for road trips, much to flat.

I guess I shouldn't complain. My 84 with 123K on the clock uses about 1 quart every 2,000 miles. Do you leak?

Back on topic, I haven't driven my pcar 2,000 miles, but I wouldn't hesitate to do so. The furthest I've traveled in it is from LA to Cambria and back, about 300 miles round trip. For one of my shows, I regularly drove it from LA to Palmdale and back several days a week. About 110 mile RT.

Calgary area of the Rockys is alive with wildlife and great rugged scenery.


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