[SRR]

In 1992 I drove my 65 Catalina, 389 2V, TH400, 2 series gears from San Diego Ca. to Springfield Mass. and back. Not one single problem! No AC or cruise control. It got 17 MPG on the highway. Gas was $1.61 a gallon back then. My family in Mass. thought I was insane for driving such an old car cross country and back until they saw how nice the car was. No rust, fresh paint job and I had just rebuilt the engine a month before. For some reason it was burning a quart of oil every 250 miles at first then not another drop after it hit 1000 miles on the engine. My Dad (R.I.P.) flew out to make the trip to Mass. with me and I let him drive when I got tired, fell asleep and woke up to him going 100 MPH! I'm like Dad why are you going so fast? He says it doesn't feel like it. I didn't let him drive anymore after that. 😂

[rohrt]

When I took my 64 on power tour. I put together a tool box with common tools.
Fuses, wiring diagram, role of wire, a few spare parts that would be difficut to get. Points, coil. I should get a spare fuel pump but have not done that.

Also a quart of oil and trans fluid and juge of radiator coolant.

All that said, I had replaced most of the brake hardware, the rearend was rebuilt and U-Joints replaced. The hoses and belts were all new. I put the old belts in the trunk as well.

The car ran great and had no issues.

[unruhjonny]

proof that I'm not talking out of my corn-hole

[Heybuck]

Originally Posted by Heybuck

Driven my '66 Grand Prix just under 60,000 miles since I brought it into Australia. Done many long distance trips of of over 2000 miles and one where we drove it right up the centre of Australia and right down the East coast back to home. That was an 11,000 mile circuit.

Ian

I should add to this that not long after I got my GP I found the original diff ratio to be hopeless for cruising. It had a 3.23 open rear.

I got a 2.56 Posi, had it gone through and installed it. Transformed the car.

Prior ratio had it revving hard to the point it was intolerable. The 2.56 makes such a lovely long cruiser. I don't need fast off the line nor do I drive in mountains. I just wanted a car with long legs that burbles along without a fuss.

[lust4speed]

Les Iden (Wheelspin) and I drove from Southern California to the Co-Vention in Ohio for a total of 4,600 miles round trip. We packed a bunch of spare parts and didn't need a one. Was a great trip and a lot of fun. Les drove his '68 Grand Prix with the 2-4's and I had the 67 GTO. Have done a bunch of 600 mile round trips into Arizona for different events.

Torrential rain in St. louis was a little stressful.

[cleveweld]

I took my 62 Tempest wagon on a 250 mile road trip this morning. I drove down to Great Bend Kansas to see Chad at Nobody else's Auto. He has over 2000 vintage cars and trucks and is open by appointment only.

While I was there he took video of my car to upload to his Youtube channel.
The car ran perfect down there and back. I was nervous about taking the car that far because I've only had it drivable for about 3 weeks now since fixing an upshift issue with transmission.

[mgarblik]

Originally Posted by cleveweld

I took my 62 Tempest wagon on a 250 mile road trip this morning. I drove down to Great Bend Kansas to see Chad at Nobody else's Auto. He has over 2000 vintage cars and trucks and is open by appointment only.

While I was there he took video of my car to upload to his Youtube channel.
The car ran perfect down there and back. I was nervous about taking the car that far because I've only had it drivable for about 3 weeks now since fixing an upshift issue with transmission.

That's a good long test drive and a confidence builder. Such a cool car and the work you have shown is first rate for sure. So how do you like the shift timing vs throttle opening and speed? Are you happy with the governor and modulator interaction? Were you able to get the detent downshift situation resolved or is that a later project?

Conversely, my first long test drive in my 62 Catalina left me stranded on the interstate on the way home. One of the inlet seats in the AFB carbs had worked itself loose and backed out about a full turn, flooding the engine. Easy fix but it rattles your confidence when you think you have checked everything several times.
Keep us updated with your exploits in this car!

[cleveweld]

Originally Posted by mgarblik

That's a good long test drive and a confidence builder. Such a cool car and the work you have shown is first rate for sure. So how do you like the shift timing vs throttle opening and speed? Are you happy with the governor and modulator interaction? Were you able to get the detent downshift situation resolved or is that a later project?

Conversely, my first long test drive in my 62 Catalina left me stranded on the interstate on the way home. One of the inlet seats in the AFB carbs had worked itself loose and backed out about a full turn, flooding the engine. Easy fix but it rattles your confidence when you think you have checked everything several times.
Keep us updated with your exploits in this car!

I feel that it upshifts too soon at about 15-17 mph. I would start up a highway onramp and it would quickly upshift. If I pushed harder on the gas pedal it will downshift for a couple seconds and then upshift. So it's a little bit slow getting up to speed. It cruised nice at highway speeds even with 3:55 gears.

I had it running about 4 years ago without the modulator connected and the transmission would bang into gear really hard. So the modulator really smooths out the shift.
I did adjust/tighten downshift cable and it will downshift now but I think it needs to be a little bit tighter.

I had fears of breaking down on the highway so I brought an assortment of tools I thought I might need in an emergency.
Another concern was parts possibly vibrating loose. My turn signal lever became loose a couple times. I'm going to put some Locktite on the threads to keep it from coming loose in the future. I'm going to look the car over this morning to make sure all is good.

I'm thinking about going to the Pontiac uprising in Arkansas City next month. That would be a 400 mile trip and about 6 hours of driving.

[geeteeohguy]

Drove 2715 miles on a trip last year, in May. Central CA to Colorado, doing a bunch of national parks and visiting friends in Phoenix. The car is my 1967 GTO convertible running the original engine with the original Q jet and points distributor. Only mod is 87cc 1970 heads for 9.3 CR. Using a Melling 068-equivalent cam. Engine had 85,000-90,000 miles on it since my 1988 overhaul. Total car mileage at the time was about 260,000 miles.
Car has a TH400 and I swapped in a 2.56 Safe-T-Track about 13 years ago. I did a thorough inspection of the vehicle before the trip, but I've been using this car as a car since 1983, so it doesn't just sit. It's reliable as a rock, although not exciting out of a stoplight. We averaged 20.6 mpg for the trip and cruised 75-90 mph most of the time. We used between 1/3 and 1/2 quart of oil for the entire trip.
We were in Cortez Colorado when I heard the dreaded squeak from the driver's side rear in the hotel parking lot. My previously OK axle bearing was toast. So we went to NAPA, they ordered the bearings from somewhere, and we stayed an extra day. I had both sides done. Got very, very lucky that the axles weren't toast. I tried to get ahold of Steve at Pontiac Heaven for a spare axle (we were in the neighborhood) but got no replies. I have driven this same car to Yellowstone park from Oakland CA with a 3.36 gear and got about 16 mpg at 65 mph. A tall gear or overdrive is your friend. These cars eat up the miles, particularly the '68-'72's, which are more advanced.

[ID67goat]

Good discussion regarding the mechanical aspects of road trips and long drives, but what about theft, vandalism, etc? Any stories, pointers, etc?

I am more worried about someone rear ending me because they are on their cellphone, or theft / vandalism more than anything else.

Just had someone smash and grab my minivan a few weeks ago along Highway 101 in Oregon at a very busy beach access to steal a pair of Crocs that my wife bought the previous day…..not sure I would want to deal with that with one of my Pontiacs.

[71GP76TA]

Originally Posted by ID67goat

Good discussion regarding the mechanical aspects of road trips and long drives, but what about theft, vandalism, etc? Any stories, pointers, etc?

I am more worried about someone rear ending me because they are on their cellphone, or theft / vandalism more than anything else.

Just had someone smash and grab my minivan a few weeks ago along Highway 101 in Oregon at a very busy beach access to steal a pair of Crocs that my wife bought the previous day…..not sure I would want to deal with that with one of my Pontiacs.

In this day and age I am more worried about theft or accidents. Reliability is the easy part.

I hate to say it... The values of these cars has gone up greatly.. Kinda takes the fun out of it..

[phil400]

This past May I did Montreal QC-Bennington VT- it's about 500 miles round trip, 3.42 gears, no OD 4speed, cruise around 70 with a 27" tall tire, I also routinely road trip it on 300 mile jaunts all the time.

I don't just leave it parked just anywhere anymore though unfortunately unlike the old days.

[SD455DJ]

Got back from the TA Nationals...550 miles roundtrip with Dan's '69 350HO Firebird (M20/3.55) and my '70 Formula 400 (with temporary 455HO/TH400/3.55). The '69 knocked down almost 18 mpg and the '70 solid high 13 mpg. Fortunately, we had no issues on the road or with the heat (93 degrees with 105 heat index!).

We went to the Air Force Museum (spectacular!!!!) and saw the most awesome jet in the world, the Valkyrie XB-70A.

Dennis

[george kujanski]

My son and I were just there at the museum last Thursday! Took the same pic of the tail end of the XB-70!

Great museum if you are interested in aviation.

George

[mgarblik]

The Air Force Museum is one of the "Gems" in the Gem city, Dayton. FWIW, it's free to visit as well. The TA Nationals had a wide variety of beauties as they always do. Some extremely rare models as well like the 74 Formula SD-455 4-speed with 27,000 miles on the clock. Plus Herb Adams was there once again. Hard to beat that. Probably, the only sad thing to me was the ever increasing number of cars NOT driven to the event. My guess, non-scientific, is that less than 10% of the cars participating are driven to the show . So happy to see fantastic exceptions like the Jensens beauties on the road doing what they were designed to do. Thank you for bringing them under their own power.

[Ben M.]

I drove my '72 Lemans from San Diego to San Francisco and back a few times, same with my '78 Bonneville. I used to daily drive my '73 Grand Safari all over Appalachia as well. Did all of this in the last 15 years, so they were definitely "classics" by then and none of them had a problem in the slightest.

I think having a car with a smooth idle, 2.XX series gears (or overdrive), and functional gauges is really all you need to daily drive or road trip one of these cars in most weather and situations. You can carry an entire trunk full of spare parts but chances are you won't need them outside of basic hand tools and a spare set of belts or hoses.

[kingbuzzo]

Sounds like an amazing event...one of these days I'll get OD...can't drive 55

[unruhjonny]

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

Got back from the TA Nationals...550 miles roundtrip with Dan's '69 350HO Firebird (M20/3.55) and my '70 Formula 400 (with temporary 455HO/TH400/3.55). The '69 knocked down almost 18 mpg and the '70 solid high 13 mpg. Fortunately, we had no issues on the road or with the heat (93 degrees with 105 heat index!).

Man do I miss that view.

Originally Posted by SD455DJ

We went to the Air Force Museum (spectacular!!!!) and saw the most awesome jet in the world, the Valkyrie XB-70A.

Dennis

That is SUPER cool!!!

[HoovDaddy]

Originally Posted by ID67goat

Good discussion regarding the mechanical aspects of road trips and long drives, but what about theft, vandalism, etc? Any stories, pointers, etc?

I am more worried about someone rear ending me because they are on their cellphone, or theft / vandalism more than anything else.

In June we did a 600+ mile trip into northern Michigan with 3 other couples in our club. It was unseasonably cold and lots of rain with one day into the 90s. 6 nights at hotels. Nobody had any mechanical issues although we were prepared with spare tires and enough tools. I do have a lock on my hood release rod, I pull the coil wire at night, I have a Club, and a GPS tracker. We try to request rooms viewing the parking lot.

I also have LED tail light bulbs which are very bright. Bringing these cars out for stuff like this is a lot of fun.

[PAUL K]

Originally Posted by unruhjonny

Man do I miss that view.



That is SUPER cool!!!

You got beat by a 69 Firebird also ..... Or are you talking about the scoops

I agree I miss looking over that Formula hood!