Wish me luck!

[tobluforu]

My car has been in storage for the past two years in southern IL. In that time I have driven it maybe 60 miles or so. Before that it lived in the bay area and saw maybe 30 miles per month for 5 years or so. This Tuesday I will be driving it from Southern Il to Chicago, and this will be the longest trip I have ever driven the car (5 hours or so). I’m a tad nervous just because it’s never seen this kind of driving, and the fact that it has been stored for so long.
It should be a real comfy ride, not, as this car is lowered to the ground, has a fixed racing seat with almost every damn suspension mod. In other words, it’s a Kidney killer. Plus it’s pretty damn loud. If all goes well, it should be kind of fun for say an hour.
Wish me luck!

[Oh Haha]

Good luck!!


Do you have tools and a phone/laptop in case you run into problems so we can help?




That being said, I told someone yesterday that I would drive my SC to anywhere in the US without hesitation.

[Mike O'Meara]

Cool! Another '72 in the chicago area, but you said, the state of road disrepair in this area is abysmal. Good luck!

[e p slick]

Take a tent.

[sailchef]

Maybe a little "together" time before you embark, check fluids etc. explain why you haven't been around for awhile. They need that you know.

Good luck, be safe.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

good luck! take pics.

[Gunter]

Storage for 2 years?
Hope it had a full tank with Stabil in it and an oil change before storing.

[Dantilla]

I recently fired up my 911 after sitting for two years. When I parked it last, I had no idea it would be so long, so I just shut it off, and pulled one battery cable.

It started right up, and runs like a champ. Good to have it running again.

[kidrock]

Personally, I think you'll be OK and it should be a heckuva fun drive.

That being said, I would probably expect a couple of new leaks afterward.

Good luck, and let us know how it went.

[tobluforu]

Thanks all. My wife and son are already down there and I fly down tonight. She went down with a full set of tools, battery charger, tune up parts and so on. Monday I will drain the oil, replace rotor, cap, points, air/oil filter and replace some fuel lines as some seemed to be super hard the last time I was there. I will leave about an hour before she will on Tuesday, and if anything goes wrong then she will be my savior.
This will be the first time I will be able to check gas mileage and I'm speculating no better than 15?
P.S. Not really looking forward to driving it around the horrible streets we have here in chicago (will have to raise the height), but the longer it stays down there, the worse it gets. These cars need to be driven.

[carlosR]

Read a bit of "Carrera to China" for inspiration. Your trip is a piece of cake, do your maintenance, relax, make an offering to the gods of the road and have some fun.

[AndyK!]

The $45.00 I spend each year on AAA road coverage/towing is a good investment, especially when the kids lock the keys in the car or leave two interior lights on overnight when they ran back into the car to retrieve a cell phone and I find a dead battery in the morning. cheap insurance. Good luck on your trip and have fun.

[Hugh R]

Good luck, bring a few tools and the wrenches to change the fan belt, and a spare belt.

[cmoanz]

Get gas early ... get gas often... I just found this out tonight!

I had what I thought was 1/4 tank in my 70T, took a trip to my parents for Easter with the kids. Skipped getting gas on the way down (about 15miles). Well as I'm just learning the gas gauge is not even close to accurate! Car started bogging down running odd on the way home, shutdown on me three times before I figured out, it was the lack of gas...

Live and learn

[Mike Andrew]

Your kidneys should feel really good after a few hours on I-57.

[tobluforu]

I made it! So here are some things that happened or did not happen. When I got to the garage, I placed the charger on her and went to bed. Went to start her in the morning and heard noises I have never heard before while cranking. I about crapped myself thinking that the car locked up on me and seized. Turns out that since x-mas the starter decided to kind of freeze up. The noises were downright scary, but after I figured it was not internal, she fired and off I went for a test run in the rain. 5 minutes later, off goes the driver’s side wiper. I was able to pull over and fetch it off the road. Came home and tuned her up. I also replaced all the gas lines in the engine compartment, and fired her up for another test run. "What's that smell?" It's gas you dummy!. All lines in engine bay were fine but one of the lines attached to the fuel pump was spitting gas all over. Great! Jack car up with Porsche jack-what fun, remove wheel and remove fuel pump. Snipped off about a 1\4 inch of each line, and placed pump back in. Off I went and we are good to go, except the throttle felt funny. I unattached all the linkage and re-adjusted some of the rod lengths which I thought were just fine, but the last time I did this was 5 years ago. There is a rod that attaches to a pivot point on the tranny; this rod then goes through the fire wall and attaches to another pivot point on the back side of the MFI (left bank of cyl’s.). Well low and behold it looks like the bushing has disappeared, but the car still accelerates fine, if not a tad hard.
The next day I’m off to Chicago and it’s still sprinkling a bit which was a bummer because all I was thinking about was that damn wiper. I started off at around 60mph, the rain stopped about 1 hour later and before I knew it I was doing around 85-90 the whole way. Top speed on trip was over 120mph and the car ran like a top!
Things we/I take for granted.
1. Reclining seats! My car has a fixed racing seat which is probably the cheapest piece of crap ever made. It’s a corbeau, forza from over 10 years ago. Thank god I stole a pillow from the in-laws as it help beyond belief. Just bought some A4’s which will be going in a few weeks from now.
2. Suspension! It sure is nice driving a car everyday that does not have the suspension this car has. Not only is the car dropped, it has koni shocks (I think the fronts have had it) set on the firmest position, monoballs, 22mm SB's, 22 and 28 torsion bars and it has zero toe. It was almost impossible to reach behind me at 80mph without being in the next lane in a split second. I spent most of time dodging ruts in the road which was kind of fun, and made the drive go faster. It’s funny how small these cars are because I could dodge them all for the most part. The car is like a go-cart as there is no way I could do this in my other cars.
3. Seat belts! Having a 4 point harness-enough said.
4. Music-The cd player I have in there did not want to play any cd’s. Too damn rough of a ride I guess.
5. Visors- That’s right, I don’t have any, but thank god it was over cast most of the time.
6. Exhaust-I think you all know what I’m talking about? Pull over to get gas, get out of car and wonder what that ringing in my ears is from?
7. Wind noise. Wow!
8. Heat! Half way through the trip it got a tad cold and I realized that the passenger vents were not putting out any heat. Oh well, I had a coat.
9. Tranny-What’s that whine in fifth gear? Oh yeah, it’s always been there.
10. Cruise control. Its one thing driving this car to get coffee, it’s another keeping the pedal in one place for 5 hours. The other cars I have are drive by wire; I can’t believe how much force I had to keep on the pedal.
BUT, it was a blast and I can’t believe how fast it went. Good old tobluforu was a champ.
God the roads suck in Chicago.

[Fishcop]

Great to hear you got there safe and sound!

I know exactly what you mean about the compromises that sometimes come with these cars... I'm in the process of 'sanitizing' my car for more road use, including; raising ride height, higher profile tyres, softening the dampers, new seats (got rid of the Sparco), and putting some sound deadening back in!

[FinallyGotOne]

tobluforu
that is a funny damn article! I can relate, i just drove about 60 miles round trip and the wind noise is pretty loud! my wifes car a 96 lexus es300 is sooo easy to drive, and quiet, my other car is a 98 Land Cruiser on 33"s and what a difference driving from the big truck to this little gokart!!
So is the wind noise coming through the windshield or what?? My car is euro height and I have all new struts on it now, it is stiff but it's ok. I did break my ribs in Judo a few weeks back, so the stiff seat and tight steering play havoc! thank god for Aleve.
I could just picture driving along with the wiper blade flying off!! We would NEVER put up with these issues with any other car, something about these 911's just say "Forgive me my faults, and remember how much fun I am!!"

[Zeke]

Still like this?

[Mike O'Meara]

Congrats! I'm about to put about 3,000 miles on my '72. Sport seats, stock "T" suspension, brand new cd/ipod player, good visors, stock exhaust, wind noise will be deafening (although it really helps to have the 1/4 windows open, too) heater works fine, my tranny whine is in third, not fifth, so that'll be ok, and my right foot will be planted for every one of those miles. I have to think that the worst roads I will travel will be the first fifty out of Chicagoland. Glad you made it back safely and the pony is in the stable. Enjoy driving it regularly now.