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Re: Road Trip

To: triumphs@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Road Trip
From: Bob Lang <LANG@ISIS.MIT.EDU>
Date: Thu, 26 Dec 1996 16:16:39 -0500 (EST)
Hi,

The operative issue in a road trip is: what are you trying to accomplish?

For instance, if you take limited access motorways, you can easily make  700
miles a day. That works out to around 11 hours driving time at 65  MPH. If
you're in Montana that distace can be stretched because of the  higher speed
limit. If there are two  drivers, so much the better. When you factor in "pee"
breaks and gas and  oil checks this'll probably work out to around 13 hours of
real time.

However, if you take more scenic roads, then figure on averaging 
something more like 45 MPH. In that scenario, figure less than 500 miles 
in a day and you'll be plenty tired at the end of the day.

In fact, I have made more than one trip where driving a mere 210 miles 
took close to 13 hours. Must have stopped at every gift shop and scenic 
view on the route.

The bottom line is: if your car in in pretty good shape, and you are well 
rested, you can drive a considerable distance per day. I drove with a friend
out to Wisconsin from the Portland, ME area last September and we made about
650 miles a day with no problems. The car was rock solid and we had no
problems. We just kept putting gas and oil in (we "used" 2 quarts over a 2600
mile round trip).

My TR6 will drive at 3500-4000 rpms all day and not miss a beat. I have driven
many trips with over 500 miles in a day with no problems. But that's me. My
soon to be ex-wife was uncomfortable driving all that distance in one day
because of lower back pain, but that's her. I'm actually quite comfortable
driving my car for many hours at a time.

So, the answer is: it depends.

bye,
rml

p.s. as you can probably guess, it's pretty slow here today.
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Quote: How many Triumphs do you own??? 3.5, more or less.
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