steve
07-05-2010, 05:08 PM
We just got home last night, suprisingly, all in one piece too. It was good of Pepper to let us stay at his place; also at Gunnars,(Mini Mogul) in Seattle. I logged about 3,200 miles total, had next to no problems; had to tighten the alt belt in Canada, lost my turn signal connection on what had to be the countries worst paved freeway, (into Seattle), and lost a castle nut, which vibrated loose from the plug-wire cover. I, myself, fared a little worse; My ears are still ringing, and while sleeping in the Mini one night, I had a dream that I was fighting a Wolf; I hauled off and kicked it, but it turned out I only kicked the sheet metal parcel shelf brace, under my dash, and broke my big toe and peeled off half my toe nail. Blood all over the place. I also bought a lug of those giant Washington cheries on the way up, and shortly thereafter, blasted a wet one in my pants while on the freeway! Nasty. Does anyone need a slightly used CRX drivers seat?
Otherwise, we had a great time in BC. My only complaint was about the Autocross layout; the worst ever. Just a few scattered cones and no white lines to mark the course; it was a guessing game, at speed. I could not tell which way the course went, so DNF all three runs. my consolation was when I got Crazy Mike, one of the top drivers, to drive my Mini. He posted the quickest time of the event in my car, never having driven a VTEC car before, against a 100+ car field, including a GT-5 racer with 9" slicks.
On the way home, I did lots of freeway "testing" against anyone who wished to do the same. I tested everything from mustangs to a porsche 911. I finally found a little black, late model turbo mazda that did me in. that was really scarry, but fun. I was hitting over 120 in several "test phases'.
I almost crashed once when a big 60s pontiac full of kids came screaming up behind the car next to me on the freeway, hit his brakes, and threw it into my lane about 1/2" in front of me to avoid hitting the car in his lane. he temporarily lost controll and almost rolled it; in the process, about a gallon of fuel sloshed out of his tank, covering my car completely, including the windshield, so I couldn't see a thing. I hit my brakes hard and managed not to hit him, but could not see where I was going for about 10 seconds...... Now, I was down to my last pair of clean pants.
a more satisfying part of the trip was keeping track of my fuel mileage, as I averaged 37 MPG. with my worst tank at 31, and the two best, back to back fill-ups, when traveling at about 60 miles per hour, (3,500 RPM), averaged 40.6 MPG. I think, with better gearing, 45 to 50 MPG may be atainable.
Lots of cleaning to do now on the car,(and laundry); we hit rain in several places along the way, a million bugs and a couple birds.
later with some pics
Otherwise, we had a great time in BC. My only complaint was about the Autocross layout; the worst ever. Just a few scattered cones and no white lines to mark the course; it was a guessing game, at speed. I could not tell which way the course went, so DNF all three runs. my consolation was when I got Crazy Mike, one of the top drivers, to drive my Mini. He posted the quickest time of the event in my car, never having driven a VTEC car before, against a 100+ car field, including a GT-5 racer with 9" slicks.
On the way home, I did lots of freeway "testing" against anyone who wished to do the same. I tested everything from mustangs to a porsche 911. I finally found a little black, late model turbo mazda that did me in. that was really scarry, but fun. I was hitting over 120 in several "test phases'.
I almost crashed once when a big 60s pontiac full of kids came screaming up behind the car next to me on the freeway, hit his brakes, and threw it into my lane about 1/2" in front of me to avoid hitting the car in his lane. he temporarily lost controll and almost rolled it; in the process, about a gallon of fuel sloshed out of his tank, covering my car completely, including the windshield, so I couldn't see a thing. I hit my brakes hard and managed not to hit him, but could not see where I was going for about 10 seconds...... Now, I was down to my last pair of clean pants.
a more satisfying part of the trip was keeping track of my fuel mileage, as I averaged 37 MPG. with my worst tank at 31, and the two best, back to back fill-ups, when traveling at about 60 miles per hour, (3,500 RPM), averaged 40.6 MPG. I think, with better gearing, 45 to 50 MPG may be atainable.
Lots of cleaning to do now on the car,(and laundry); we hit rain in several places along the way, a million bugs and a couple birds.
later with some pics