[SD455DJ]

Dan and I had our own little two car 455 HO parade to and back from the Eyes on Design show. Both cars ran great and got 14.5 (+) mpg driving 65 mph average speed (slowest cars on the freeway!!!) with our 3.42/3.55 gearing and bucking a headwind down and back (not to mention driving into the sun both ways too!). This was the Firebirds maiden voyage and the furthest I've driven it since I got the car (260 miles round trip).

The dimmer portion of the headlight switch fried on the way down. I was running with my headlights on early (6:00 am) and then the running lights for an hour. I noticed that the dash lights didn't come on and the rheostat turning was very vague feeling. Then the dash lights and courtesy lamps came on by themselves and couldn't get them to shut off, so left them be. about two thirds of the way tho the show we smelled something burning, so turned off the running lights and the burning smell went away. If it didn't we were going to pull over and had the fire extinguisher ready and the wrench to disconnect the battery. The switch cooled down and I pulled the courtesy lamp bulbs out at the show. I noticed that the volt gauge indicated a halh volt higher reading the instance I turned the lights off, so it was drawing more cuurent than it should and fried the switch good. Fortunately, we had zero problems on teh way back home despite the 95* air temps. Both cars ran 180* and cooled down further when going slower, so our cooling systems are working fine.

Dennis

Dennis