Cross-country and back in my 924S - Someday. My motivation thread until I actually do it.

mazdeuce - Seth said:

I've been around the country a fair bit. The only part of the US that I've not explored is the East Coast from about South Carolina to Newfoundland. The whole west from southern Alaska to central Mexico. You can't see it all. You never see it all, but I've put on a bunch of miles. 

Driving at night on a trip like this sucks. As soon as it gets dark you're missing something. Sometimes it's ok, things like berkeley Kansas, but for the most part I'd rather be up at 5:00 AM and on the road as things just start getting light. 

I hate campgrounds. HATE THEM. Mostly that's because I dislike people randomly wanting to chat with me and that only goes up after 12 hours of driving. The more interesting your car or you are as a person the more they want to talk. Hell, I'd walk up to a 924 with a roof top tent and chat. I like E36 M3ty hotels. $40 a night type hotels where getting fleas or stabbed is a possibility. Nobody talks to me at a $40 hotel. Ever. 

It's more fun with a co-driver. At least for me. 

haha for sure. I'm not a huge fan of night driving for a variety of reasons (including my odd fear of wildlife crossing the road). I've run the whole east coast pretty much multiple times so ready to see a new area. Good point about campgrounds though haha.....though not sure if I want to find the fleas/stabbing motels either!

So today I completed my "road trip" in-car audio/GPS/map setup that I've been fiddling with for a while. If anyone wants to read about it, I made a separate thread about it: https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/grm/adding-modern-music-to-an-old-car-heres-my-100-solution/143156/page1/

Because I cannot drive anywhere without music.

I also added a 1" spacer to my steering wheel Hub (Momo hub with Momo Monte Carlo wheel), since I found that the wheel position was a bit too far away for me to comfortably be able to hold the wheel by the left spoke with my elbow on the rest, and my arm was getting tired on long trips from that. Can't have that for cross-country!

Also doing a carbon of this thread on the Pelican 924/944 forum, since those guys have a lot of knowledge on car-specific things that I need to keep in mind. Turns out several guys have done recent XC trips in 944s, and also one guy in an '88 924S (also red) . so that's cool. 

Last summer my Dad went from Canton Ohio to San Francisco using as much of Route 30 as he could find.  He did it by himself, in a 9-3 vert with 230K miles on it and he was 71 at the time, being retired is nice.  

I enjoy driving by myself, a book playing, no one else to worry about but at the same time it is fun sharing the adventure with someone too. 

Anyway, sounds like a cool trip with a cool car so however you end up doing it I am sure you will have a blast.

So one of my big pre-trip ideas was the parcel shelf/storage bin to replace the rear seats. So this week I got it done. I made another thread with more "construction details," but here are a few shots. I plan to get some kind of lockable latch for it so it's (kind of) secure. I think it'll come in extremely useful. 

In reply to irish44j :

Just a note on the route. I have never driven across country until last year, when I bought my 996 in Paso Robles California, then drove it on the "southern" route back to NJ. Your northern root looks fun, once you get past Iowa (I have done that trip many times) but I cannot emphasize enough how much fun the Cali to Texas route was on old Route 66. We were a little pressed for time, so we couldn't do too much site seeing, but holy cow, it was eye opening. Driving out of the desert of california into the high desert of Flagstaff, then down into the lowlands of Oklahoma and Texas was like driving on a different planet. Just amazing. Anyway, our route went:

Paso Robles > Flagstaff > Amarillo > Little Rock > Nashville > Home.

GamblinMike said:

In reply to irish44j :

Just a note on the route. I have never driven across country until last year, when I bought my 996 in Paso Robles California, then drove it on the "southern" route back to NJ. Your northern root looks fun, once you get past Iowa (I have done that trip many times) but I cannot emphasize enough how much fun the Cali to Texas route was on old Route 66. We were a little pressed for time, so we couldn't do too much site seeing, but holy cow, it was eye opening. Driving out of the desert of california into the high desert of Flagstaff, then down into the lowlands of Oklahoma and Texas was like driving on a different planet. Just amazing. Anyway, our route went:

Paso Robles > Flagstaff > Amarillo > Little Rock > Nashville > Home.

cool., I'm definitely taking down notes and suggestions (and for any friends who ride with me on diffferent legs, they'll obviously get a say as well). This whole plan came from Nonack's fly-and-drive back on Rt66, so that is definitely one part I don't plan to miss.

I think you'd be crazy to skip this Utah National Parks ROUTE!

The Grand canyon is cool and all, but you can only see anything neat if you're standing on the rim looking in (unless you hike down into the canyon, although I don't know if you would take the time on this kind of trip)

Every single mile of the route shown above is scenic beyond belief.  There's some seriously rad country through there.  If you were in a hurry, you could bypass Moab (Arches and Canyonlands Natl Parks) and continue east on I70 towards Colorado

Cool, yeah not set in stone. Grand Canyon is mostly because I have an old buddy who lives about an hour away who I want to visit anyhow. Route is far from set in stone though!

And this road.....I might need to find it

It's between Escalante and Boulder UT.  Super awesome drive!

2002maniac said:

It's between Escalante and Boulder UT.  Super awesome drive!

noted :) thanks

Is your car an 87? Ok went back and saw it was. You mentioned fuel smell and lines in the rear. Have you inspected the top of the fuel tank?  They are known to crack on top and leak. I have had two of them do it. 

dean1484 said:

Is your car an 87? Ok went back and saw it was. You mentioned fuel smell and lines in the rear. Have you inspected the top of the fuel tank?  They are known to crack on top and leak. I have had two of them do it. 

yes it is, and yes I'm aware of the issue....though if that is the issue I'll probably just deal with it since I don't want to drop the tank. I sealed up the wiring grommets above the tank to try to stop any vapors from sneaking into the cabin.

Just going to throw out highway 128 in NorCal. It connects the coast with the 101 freeway and it’s a really nice windy road through the red woods. I always really enjoyed driving it, even in boring cars. Just watch out for deer!

Also, if you can make Yosemite NP a stop I think it’s worth it. Glacier point has some epic views. The park isn’t too bad in the off season but peak season is really crowded. 

Get on Pelican parts forum and run your plan thru them ,

You really want a bunch of Porsche 924-944 guys cheering you on and sending you some spares if needed :) and maybe a few pitstops along the way.

Make sure your AC and heater are perfect , and a spare fanbelt for AC pump delete if you freeze up the pump,

Also a couple of cell phones , At&t and Verizon so you have a back up if needed , plus a AAA card with 200 mile towing,

What time of year are you planning to go ?

PS.  What about Sirius radio for a month , I am sure someone has an unused Sirius radio laying around !

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Seats- I have some decent stock Merkur heated leather seats, as well as some 80s-tastic FloFit seats, if either of those appeals to you let me know.

Other car prep- skip the roof rack, if it's just you or +1 you've got plenty of space as long as you're not sleeping in the car.  Make sure you've got good lights if you plan to drive at night at all.  Alternatively, do a beefy roof rack with a rooftop tent.

Camping- I'd combine campgrounds/free sites/hotels as you see fit.  There is a LOT of free camping as you go further west, get a tent that's easy and quick to set up and have at it.

Codriver- This depends entirely on what you want, but the best blend is probably to be had by having "short term" codrivers throughout rather than trying to spend 3-4weeks on the road with one person.  I bet there are people who would want to go along for a few hundred or thousand miles at a time- one of them might be me, let me know your plans as it gets closer.

Return route- The western section of Route 66 from California to central Arizona is awesome and you should do it.  From there, maybe Grand Canyon, then a bunch of parks in Utah, then Moab, Western Colorado, and back down through New Mexico.  What kind of stuff do you want to see?

If irish isn't interested in the flofit seats, i may be for my duster.....

californiamilleghia said:

Get on Pelican parts forum and run your plan thru them ,

You really want a bunch of Porsche 924-944 guys cheering you on and sending you some spares if needed :) and maybe a few pitstops along the way.

Make sure your AC and heater are perfect , and a spare fanbelt for AC pump delete if you freeze up the pump,

Also a couple of cell phones , At&t and Verizon so you have a back up if needed , plus a AAA card with 200 mile towing,

What time of year are you planning to go ?

PS.  What about Sirius radio for a month , I am sure someone has an unused Sirius radio laying around !

 

Yep, already have a companion thread to this on PP forum, and a couple guys offering to be stopover/fix points if needed (including someone in Montana who has a bunch of these cars).

AC has a brand-new compressor and works like a charm with r134 conversion. Heat blows hot.

I have full-range AAA membership.

I'm not sure if it's noted in here, but I have a Huawei pad installed in place of the center dash speaker wired to my stereo. It can stream music off my phone and has my full 6,000-song iTunes library loaded onto it :) So, music will not be a problem, either inside or outside of cell coverage!

Not sure of time to go - open to suggestions. It'll also depend a lot on when I can actually get out of the office for 3-4 weeks, which is a fairly tall order. And of course when I have the money available, and when some of my co-travelers might be interested in going!

Dusterbd13 said:

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ said:

Seats- I have some decent stock Merkur heated leather seats, as well as some 80s-tastic FloFit seats, if either of those appeals to you let me know.

Other car prep- skip the roof rack, if it's just you or +1 you've got plenty of space as long as you're not sleeping in the car.  Make sure you've got good lights if you plan to drive at night at all.  Alternatively, do a beefy roof rack with a rooftop tent.

Camping- I'd combine campgrounds/free sites/hotels as you see fit.  There is a LOT of free camping as you go further west, get a tent that's easy and quick to set up and have at it.

Codriver- This depends entirely on what you want, but the best blend is probably to be had by having "short term" codrivers throughout rather than trying to spend 3-4weeks on the road with one person.  I bet there are people who would want to go along for a few hundred or thousand miles at a time- one of them might be me, let me know your plans as it gets closer.

Return route- The western section of Route 66 from California to central Arizona is awesome and you should do it.  From there, maybe Grand Canyon, then a bunch of parks in Utah, then Moab, Western Colorado, and back down through New Mexico.  What kind of stuff do you want to see?

If irish isn't interested in the flofit seats, i may be for my duster.....

I must have missed the seats part. I will likely pick up some 987 Boxster stock seats this winter since they're almost a drop-in fit and will look good in the car. They're apparently much more comfortable than the 924/944 seats and much more supportive.

I actually LOVE both my WRX seats and my GTI seats for long-distance travel, but after much measuring they would both be very difficult to make fit, thanks to the ebrake being mounted between the seat and the door. Too bad, because both WRX and GTI seats are DIRT cheap and widely available on ebay in mint condition. I thought about doing some fab work on the mount to make it happen, but they are offset so much on the mounts it is probably well beyond my skill level and/or just too difficult. Also they are both a bit on the tall side for steering wheel clearance over my legs. That's one of the big issues with this car - the stock seats are practically on the floor and even with a smaller wheel there's not much clearance for thighs (thankfully, mine are not meaty!)

So have at the flo-fits :)

Dont miss canyonlands. Some of the most incredible countryside i have seen anywhere. Mind boggling and a fun drive.

Another guy (also with a red 924S) recently finished an around-the country trip in basically the same car as mine. He's finally beginning to post his three-part video-documentary of the trip, which I'm excited to watch :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STWyhvqRODs&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR3z9lZ9b3Z50C4KtYqDUW1vN8Hfvgdnar7j6KR1lXNJIUoRVuG8V7YnHog