One of my forum friends is going to MMW - Mini Meet West - in Abbotsford, BC. this summer....he's driving there in his classic Mini - from Atlanta! 5500+ miles round trip - his wife thinks he's nuts but I'm jealous as I had planned on doing this trip too when the meet was announced last summer at MMEmW - Mini Meet East meets West - in Milwaukee. Unfortunately I can't be gone that long, at least this summer. I figure at 500 miles/day it's 6 days drive up, 6 back and 5 for the event - almost 3 weeks total. That's if nothing goes wrong with the car to delay him.... I'm trying to get him up to speed with a Facebook page and his smartphone so we can "ride" with him..... Right now my biggest concerns are not with the car but with him - he's an old fart like me and he's driving across some pretty open territory in the dead of summer in a car with pretty much no creature comforts - no A/C, no cruise control, just a simple little bare bones economy car. He's got it all planned out pretty well, he even built himself a sort of cool suit, taking a piece of foam, looping some vinyl tubing thru it and running it to a cooler with a small pump in it where he'll keep ice cold water, he'll then use the foam as a backrest which should help keep his upper body cool. When I was younger I'd of thought nothing of jumping into my car and driving across the country like this, but it's a little different when you're older and driving a car almost as old as you are! So, the sticker on his rear window is very appropriate, and can be interpreted many ways - a "real Mini" vs those pretenders from BMW, a real mini adventure, in that he's just driving across country and back and so on.....fun stuff! He leaves in 6 days, his outbound route will take him to Tulsa where he'll stay with classic Mini friends in case he needs any quick repairs and he'll pick up some spares to take with, then he'll head to Denver and on west. His route home will pass thru KC so I'm planning a meet up for him with some of my local classic friends too. I'll post updates as they happen.....
I wish him well. 500 miles a day is a stretch, even in a new MINI. I'd never do it... Well maybe if that white cooler is filled with beer and I was plumbed with a catheter!
It's a challenge, I agree......all the more props to him for going for it. I can do 500 miles a day @70mph (he claims he can maintain that speed with no issues) as that's only about 7 hours a day of drive time. If you break it up between bathroom and fuel stops, plus a stop for lunch it's not too bad.
He's got a lot of guts to make a trip that long and in a car that's older than most of the members in M/A! I wish him well and that he has a safe and uneventful journey! At least he will win the "miles most travelled" award!
Yep, he leaves in 4 days and will be updating his trip on Restoration-Mini's website.... Restoration-Mini I tried to get him to start a Facebook page but he's just not into Facetube......
Wow, it is going to be HOT for Willie B's drive from Atlanta to Abbotsford - low 100's most of the way. Even Abbotsford Canada will be in the high 90's during the event, and the long range forecast says 100's all the way home till he get's to KC, then only 80's from there on to home. In preparation he's added this..... Hope it's enough, but I'm even more concerned about keeping the driver's temp under control. His cool suit thingy should help, but any way you slice it driving in those temps with the windows down for that many miles will wear on a guy.
Driving at night becomes a very viable option, as you mentioned 100 degree blowing on you will take its toll. I wish him safe passage.
Willie B left Atlanta this morning for Little Rock..... In his own words..... "No problems today. My seat cooler was great for half the day. 98 degrees in the car and did not even break a sweat. Then it started blowing it's fuse this afternoon. Of course by then it is 102 in the car and I am driving into the sun. Ran into a couple of guys that had flown from southern California to Asheville to buy a BMW M3. No ac for them either. They are headed to Tulsa to pick up a Porsche 930 they also just bought. Then drive both back to Cali"
Yeah, me either....no way I could do this trip without A/C - I don't do heat well. But it sounds like his cooler was doing the trick! Today's report so far....he was supposed to meet up with a friend in Tulsa who has some extra wheels and tires for him, but Dan is a pilot and his flight got diverted, so he won't make it to Tulsa till late tonight..... "Roadside repair in the Harbor Freight parking lot in Muskogee Ok. Swap out the seat cooler pump. Got two just in case. Then up the road to Tulsa. Was going to meet Dan this afternoon but ended up having to work late. Guess I be a tourist." A little more from Willie B this evening. "I should have stopped but I could not bring myself to do it. What am I talking about. When I saw a sign today for Toad Suck Park. You know you are in the country when you see someone driving their riding mower to the Dollar Tree store, like I did today. Averaged 33mpg today at 70mph."
What did Kipling say? Mad men and English cars? Something like that. Very crazy undertaking. Having driven my classic Mini 8 hours home from Arkansas several months ago (in very mild temperatures) I can't really imagine taking a Mini on a much longer and hotter drive. But way back in the late 80s (or early 90s? it's all a blur) some friends (Karl and son Kraig Strauch) from the aptly named M.A.D.M.E.N. Mini club in St. Louis drove a 998 Mini from North Carolina to Alaska, and back! As I remember it, the toughened windscreen (i.e. not laminated) cracked and crazed over completely opaque on the way back, and they were forced to look though a little peephole in the glass to navigate hundreds of miles back home.
Tonight's report from the road: "Made it to Rock Springs WY. Was looking iffy for a bit. Car has been sounding off and getting hard to start. When I stuck my head under the bonnet the rockers sounded noisy. Of course I did NOT pack a feeler gauge. Nurse the car to Laramie, find a parts store to buy one and check the valves. One exhaust was way too tight, no idea how. Got them all checked and adjusted and Bob yer uncle. GPS was fun. A few miles after I got the freeway it showed I had 402 miles till my next turn. The cool weather was nice. Till I crossed the continental divide. There is desert scrub land on the other side, that means more heat. No pics tonight as I have no data service here. Did not take many as I was concerned that the car might not start if I turned it off"
Not sure of his intended route of travel after he leaves Larimie, but it's a whole lotta nuth'n with a long ways out there. A Long Ways... Thanks for the latest update!
Not sure where he landed tonight, but has taken some pics along the way...... Today I got an early start at 6am to beat some of the heat. It was 67 when I left, 100 in Boise when I passed thru. Looks like I will do the same tomorrow as well. No car issues today but as the day got hotter my grade climbing speed slowed. When it is less than 80 I can cruise up most at 75 but when it got HOT my best speed was 65 to not get too hot. I usually gain 30 degrees in most climbs. If I run the heater also it takes a wee bit longer to gain it but it still gets there. A few photos of todays roadside near the start. To back up what Firebro said.....he's on I-82 heading towards Seattle now, looks like he's got one more long day to get there.