Do you trust your car to be reliable to make a 500 mile road trip? How about 1000 miles?
When these were new, people drove them simply as cars, not rare classics. They packed them with luggage and drove all over the place.
You can still do that.
Nothing compares to a classic car for that unique feeling of nostalgia.
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Where have you been with your car?
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I never have hesitated about make a long tips with my Charger. After all it has been my daily driver since ever.
I have made these several times.
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Second pic including a ferry trip... so really more hours in total
All three not just once.
I had a girlfriend in Maracay city ( is on the way on two of the pic included ) so was a constant 1:45~2 hours trip.
Bought overhauled in 40 days then driven St. Pete FL to Richmond VA. (1K miles.) Used for a year and driven back to St. Pete. before the crank snapped.
Nacho has me beat!
For me, I've taken the car to Los Angeles 6 times and that usually means just shy of 1000 miles for the whole trip including driving around while down there. The only breakdown I've had was the RH tailpipe bracket has broken a few times. No water pump/radiator hose failures, no alternator/starter problems, no coil/distributor issues. I expected something and was ready for it with spare parts stowed away but nothing broke.
My last trip was last week...I did drag the exhaust when going over a speed bump and I knocked a muffler loose but the car was still running !
Drove my '70 Charger RT to Las Vegas and on to Boulder Dam...a little over 1300 miles in a long weekend. Averaged 10 mpg with the A/C running almost continuously.
To me, the 10 mpg number was a bare minimum.
My first trip down south, I had the 440/493 with the MP 509 cam and 3.23 gears. I barely got over 10 mpg.
Now, fuel economy wasn't a major consideration but it did matter some. When you have long distances between gas stations, just having more range makes a big difference.
My 2022 trip to Van Nuys was my first with the Tremec 5 speed. In overdrive, my final drive is 2.27. Even with the almost 500 cubes and A/C, I got 15.1 driving between 65 and 70. I could have probably squeezed 16 or better if I had a Thermoquad and drove around 60.
That wasn't the main point though. I wanted to drive a classic on the road and see the sights. My last trip, I had readings between 10.9 and 12,5 but I was with a group that wanted to do 70-75 with some blasts up to 100 just for fun. I was fine with that....I didn't build a big block for hypermiling!
If Venezuela was larger, maybe I could have driven more miles quite often, but Venezuela is about the size of Texas.
About trip incidents... waterpump/steering wheel belt broken on one of the trips with my former GF at the moment to Porlamar (Margarita Island), while riding at maybe 75-80 mph at highway. Had to call a tow service up to the closer city to buy at shop and replace it.
And riding to my former GF home city (same one with I had the belt broken), the exhaust to manifold flange coming loose couple of times and had to get underneath the car at his home to tighten up the flange. This was a constant deal I had to keep working on still daily driving around Caracas, causing leaks on driver side.
Mileage? In Venezuela that was never a problem paying maybe 5 cents by gasoline liter (around 18~19 cents per gal) so I never took care of that and nobody did... untill maybe 2016~17 when the gasoline crisis by "goverment" negligence and corruption floated on, but when that happened my car was already dissasembled (once more) for the new resto job... and still now dissasembled. But I used to get the tank filled up on halfway of Caracas-Maracaibo trips (when arriving to Barquisimeto on both ways)... it's on maps I posted.
3.23 open and last trips with 3.55 SG, but always on 255/60-15 tires.
I've never had a flat in this car....
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It is a good thing but I do have a spare that is close in diameter to both the front and rear tires.
I've kept a small floor jack in the trunk since 2003 but never used it. I pulled it and replaced it with a lighter scissor jack a month ago.
I've looked at ways to shed weight from the car without sacrificing any function or comfort.
Lighter improves just about everything.
Drove yellow dqytona from Indiana r/t mobile alabama for mopars at battleships. 700 miles down, no issues. On drive back left headlight door would not stay open, jammed a pine cone under it, worked fine. Blew throwout bearing 15 miles from home but ran in 4th gear and alran 3 unoccupied traffic lights and coasted all the last mile to shop.
In 1995 I bought my 73 Charger SE 440 out of Mankato Minnesota. I flew in to Minneapolis and the seller picked me up at the airport.I hopped in and started driving.Made it to Cincinnati Ohio before stopping for sleep.Got a few hours and drove the rest of the way to just south of Raleigh NC.
440/727/3.23 gears. Car did fine the whole way. Never checked any mileage. Snow on the ground and road from Mn to the Tennessee/NC line.
Passed the Oscar Meyer Weiner mobile in Iowa.
When I had my first 1969 Charger in the 80's I remember I had taken it to PA from NJ to a car show. Not too far, maybe a 90 minute trip one way. I did take it to Wildwood, NJ, a 3 hour drive to spend a long weekend there at the shore. I can't recall if I had driven it to Carlisle which would have been another 3 hour trip. It wasn't a very reliable car, the previous owner abused the crap out of it.
My 1969 Satellite went on a much longer trip in 1985. My girlfriend (now my wife) & I went to the Mopar Nationals in MI. After the show we decided to take an unplanned trip to kill time & headed north between the Great Lakes to Canada. From there we cruised through Ontario eastward & ended up at Niagara Falls. Spent some time there, then headed south through NY back home to NJ.
The whole trip was roughly 2000 miles & most of them done with the top down in this thing.....
By the way, these two photos are 37 or 38 years apart & with the same tires....LoL :smilielol:
I have driven my 68 a couple of times from Massachusetts to the Mopar Nationals in Columbus Ohio. Its a little more then a 1,400 mile round trip. It has been very reliable for me except that one time she broke down on my wife and I in the middle of Amish country on our way home... ::)
What happened that time?
Around the block twice but then again its still a project.
Quote from: Kern Dog on May 01, 2024, 01:24:25 PMWhat happened that time?
They were harassed & threatened by the Amish, they're dangerous people.
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For me, the longest trip was 1,400+ miles round trip from Boston to the Chrysler Proving Grounds & back. The second longest was from Boston to Butler PA & back which was over 1,100 miles. But those trips were decades ago.
The furthest I drove my car was about a 150 mile round trip from NE Mass down to Rhode Island for a Mopar only show. That was over 20 years ago before I rebuilt the car.
I was in my late 20s at the time and should have known better to drive all the way there with no spare tire and then decide it was a good idea to enter a burnout contest.. luckily I didnt win, that guy blew a tire off :icon_smile_big:
I finished the resto on my Charger around 2018 and have put less than 2k miles on it since then. I drive it alot, just not very far.
Good topic Kern, been thinking about this as my car will be ready to drive in a few days. In my 20's I drove it as just a car (cool car) didn't hesitate to do long drives at all. I drove with a non-working fuel gauge, bald tires, front end issues, etc. Now the car is basically going to be all new and I am a little concerned. I'm now in my late 50's so lets see.
Quote from: Old Moparz on May 02, 2024, 01:33:22 PMQuote from: Kern Dog on May 01, 2024, 01:24:25 PMWhat happened that time?
They were harassed & threatened by the Amish, they're dangerous people.
Actually they were real nice. We were running down the interstate on our way home and needed gas. The 500ci engine likes lots of gasoline! Anyways, the station turned out to be a further off the interstate then I had thought and we were passing Amish buggy's and their farms. Made it to the station which only had 2 pumps and maybe 5 Amish horse & buggies and a couple of cars. I filled her up. Went to start the Charger up and the starter did nothing. No sounds, nothing. Gauges worked and lights worked. Thought the starter might have an issue and crawled under the car to check it out. That's when a nice Amish couple stopped by to see if everything as okay. During our conversation it dawned on me that maybe there was battery connection issue. I pulled both cables off, cleaned what I could and reinstalled. Starter worked as it should and we were off again.
As weird as it will sound, I almost enjoy it when a small mechanical issue crops up on a road trip. I feel like a boss when I do some quickie fix and get back on the road like nothing happened.
My longest trip with my 68 Charger was 1,750 miles on the Hot Rod Power Tour. Many miles of smiles! Only had a voltage regulator go bad. In my Coronet, I did 1,200. Doing about that again this year on HRPT in my Coronet - can't wait!
That is so cool.
It does help to make the car more comfortable. Heat protection, A/C, better seats or at least good supporting ones too.
I am lucky to have a supportive wife. I love going places with her. A car that looks like this may be a hard sell for a road trip with her:
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She would go along for a short drive but surely not 900 miles like I did a couple weeks ago.
the longest trip I have taken the Charger on was from Katy Tx to Austin Tx was about 300 mile round trip, cold ac & overdrive make it nice, for a car that cracks into the 10's 1/4 mile its a very enjoyable car to drive, unless its raining LOL
Quote from: Kern Dog on May 04, 2024, 12:02:50 AMThat is so cool.
It does help to make the car more comfortable. Heat protection, A/C, better seats or at least good supporting ones too.
I am lucky to have a supportive wife. I love going places with her. A car that looks like this may be a hard sell for a road trip with her:
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She would go along for a short drive but surely not 900 miles like I did a couple weeks ago.
What's the brick for?
I drove my car to Carlisle in '12. 1,000-ish miles round trip. Black on black and no a/c was a little uncomfortable in the July heat.
The brick was in the car when I bought it. I don't know why Tom left it in the car.
When I restore an "old" vehicle, it's completely gone thru with quality parts and workmanship, so I have no issues with long haul trips, I took my 1970 Daytona down to the Year One meet from Massachusetts to Florida, drove 1500 miles non stop (other than gas stops) ran 70 to 100+ mph the entire way in about 20 hrs straight...hit the show, then the road course track, tore up the track, did a photo shoot for a magazine, then drove home another 1500 miles non-stop (again other than gas stops)....and a few HotRod Power tours over the years avg about 4000+ miles round trip, I only had one break down on a Power Tour when my "big buck professional" resto alternator seized a bearing as it couldn't take the extended high RPM and hours of running, luckily I had a small tub of spare parts in the trunk (starter/alt/coil/belts/oil/filter/etc) to do a quick road side swap
MikeG
That is great.
If you have the money to go through everything on the car, that does help. I know that I've spent some money on stuff and also reused some old stuff too. I don't have an unlimited amount of money so some things are still original. I haven't replaced wiper bushings or pivot seals in my car and they are original. They keep working.
Nacho, when you took it on the road trip I bet it was very attention getting..
I drove 180+ miles yesterday to Modesto and back. ZERO problems except for the dang A/C!
Quote from: Polygon on May 15, 2024, 04:18:51 PMNacho, when you took it on the road trip I bet it was very attention getting..
Sure... in fact in one of them I was with a really pretty friend of mine and while I was on a gas station filling the tank she kept into the car waiting and heard one guy saying "look that hottie girl" and his friend told after that, FORGETT THE CHICK, LOOK AT THE CAR!
(She heard those comments and laugh, then she told me)
LOL.
One of the trips to Maracaibo was to a car show and won a throphy for the best muscle car of the show
Back in about 1989-90 I drove my 71 on a 900 mile round trip back home for a family reunion. Was my only vehicle then.
Then about 5-6 yrs later my van was acting up during a major job change and I had to drive my 71 prolly 700 miles round trip back to class after completing on the job training at home.
Todd
Quote from: 69hemibeep on May 02, 2024, 08:12:42 AMAround the block twice but then again its still a project.
keeping the miles low so when i inherit its pristine :icon_smile_big:
Quote from: Nacho-RT74 on May 16, 2024, 01:12:55 PMOne of the trips to Maracaibo was to a car show and won a throphy for the best muscle car of the show
You should drive it to Carlisle.