Not a bad drive.
Posted: 22 Jul 2010 23:48
Back home, with my son, after picking him up from Sydney. 2900 Km in 3 days, with 2 runs of 1250 Km door to door, with just fuel & coffee stops, in the 8.
The first one down to Sydney took 14 hours, as the first 200Km was very slow, in thick fog, & the last 70 in the city was slow in moderate rain. I started with the hood/top down, but was getting so much condensation on the cabin side of the windscreen in the fog, that I had to stop & put the hood up.
The trip home was better, as it took 12.5 hours, so an average of 100Km/H, not bad with a 100Km speed limit most of the way. [No officer, I'm sure I wasn't speeding].
We spent one part, [about 40Km] of this behind a convoy of 2 low loaders, 5 police cars & half a dozen pilot vehicles, with a 210 tonne dump truck on one, & it's tipper body on the other. The tipper body was almost 3 lanes wide, so the cops were stopping the oncoming traffic traffic, & moving it right off the road to let the trucks past.
The 8 pured along most of the way, & I don't think I used more than an inch of throttle all the way. The rout was mostly single lane roads, but we flew past semi trailers in very short overtaking opportunities, with just a little touch of throttle.
This trip proved that high power & moderate speed don't have to be expensive. It averaged 10.01 liters/100Km, [about 28 MPG], only about 25% more than the 7 has done on the same trip.
Only problems were, when I turned the head lights off, in Sydney, the lights went off, but the passengers pod continued to cycle up & down. A trick I then discovered was that when I restarted the motor, to move into the light to look at it, the thing stopped. The electrical shock, of the starter must have tripped the bad earth.
Then, when my son turned the heater on, [this system shuts the heater water flow off when the heater is off], the thing started to get hot. I realised I must have filled the water, with the heater off as I never turn heaters on. Must always make sure I fill it in future. The heater matrix must hold more than I expected.
A great trip, as usual. These cars are just so comfortable for long trips. That much time behind the wheel of almost any other car would have had an old bloke like me almost crippled, but not a problem in the 7 or 8.
Hasbeen
The first one down to Sydney took 14 hours, as the first 200Km was very slow, in thick fog, & the last 70 in the city was slow in moderate rain. I started with the hood/top down, but was getting so much condensation on the cabin side of the windscreen in the fog, that I had to stop & put the hood up.
The trip home was better, as it took 12.5 hours, so an average of 100Km/H, not bad with a 100Km speed limit most of the way. [No officer, I'm sure I wasn't speeding].
We spent one part, [about 40Km] of this behind a convoy of 2 low loaders, 5 police cars & half a dozen pilot vehicles, with a 210 tonne dump truck on one, & it's tipper body on the other. The tipper body was almost 3 lanes wide, so the cops were stopping the oncoming traffic traffic, & moving it right off the road to let the trucks past.
The 8 pured along most of the way, & I don't think I used more than an inch of throttle all the way. The rout was mostly single lane roads, but we flew past semi trailers in very short overtaking opportunities, with just a little touch of throttle.
This trip proved that high power & moderate speed don't have to be expensive. It averaged 10.01 liters/100Km, [about 28 MPG], only about 25% more than the 7 has done on the same trip.
Only problems were, when I turned the head lights off, in Sydney, the lights went off, but the passengers pod continued to cycle up & down. A trick I then discovered was that when I restarted the motor, to move into the light to look at it, the thing stopped. The electrical shock, of the starter must have tripped the bad earth.
Then, when my son turned the heater on, [this system shuts the heater water flow off when the heater is off], the thing started to get hot. I realised I must have filled the water, with the heater off as I never turn heaters on. Must always make sure I fill it in future. The heater matrix must hold more than I expected.
A great trip, as usual. These cars are just so comfortable for long trips. That much time behind the wheel of almost any other car would have had an old bloke like me almost crippled, but not a problem in the 7 or 8.
Hasbeen
