I was in California for the last couple of weeks and hence was united with the Pagoda. My 12-year-old son and I took her up to the local mountains for some boating and fishing … a very enjoyable few days. Since I am in France and the car stays in California, I don’t get these opportunities often.
We have owned this car for about 9 months and this was our first long run.
In fact, according to the vehicle's document history, the 350 miles (560km) we put on the odometer during this short trip was more than the car has done in the last decade. The original owners drove the car about 90,000 miles in the first 20 years and then about 8,000 miles in the last 25 years.
Our drive started in Hermosa Beach California, at an elevation of a few feet, and we drove to Big Bear Lake to an elevation of about 7,600 feet (2300 meters). Unfortunately the drive requires a significant amount of Los Angeles highway driving prior to reaching the smaller and enjoyable mountain roads. We drove mostly with the top down and this was great except when we were surrounded by 18-wheelers barreling down the 5-lane highways --- a bit intimidating when you are next to one in a topless car and are able to see the underside of their trailers bouncing. On the highways we were running at 60 - 70 MPH (about 110 KPH). The car has a 4-speed manual gearbox and the RPM at these speeds ranged from 3,200 - 3,800 in 4th gear. Wish I had that 5th gear! I was impressed how well the car drove at these highway speeds and how stable it felt. At these high revs you clearly have power at your toes even at these speeds.
The TOM TOM GPS was showing the speed within about 1 MPH of the speedometer (running on correct size185 tires). I did notice that occasionally the speedometer needle would bounce quite a bit before settling down. Not sure if this is a symptom of something about to fail as it only occurred occasionally.
It was a hot June day and when we reached the base of the climb, I checked the temperature gauge on the car and the outside temperature. Engine temperature was normal at just above 180F on the dash gauge and outside temperature was at 83F. I expected the engine to heat up quite a bit during the upcoming climb based on remembering the common sight in the old days of cars on the side of the road cooling off with their hoods/ bonnets up. Also I’ve read on this forum much about these cars overheating. To my surprise, by the time we reached 7500 feet the temperature only went up very slightly.
The power felt decent up the climb and I didn't notice any change due to the slight altitude. I kept the RPM’s pretty high during most of the climb, as it just felt right.
The car seemed to handle decent around the tight bends ... not like a tight sports car, but not bad. It’s running on relatively new Coker Phoenix tires and new Bilstein shocks. Since I don’t know the car well enough, I was extra careful around the corners, slowing as I felt a sway. I am sure I could have pushed it … but took it easy around the curves.
Fuel consumption averaged at 18 miles to the USA gallon – I believe the Imperial gallon is 20% larger so this would equate to about 22 miles per Imperial /UK Gallon. To confuse or clarify, this is about 13 liters per 100km. This consumption was a mix of highway, city and mountain driving using premium unleaded fuel available in California.
We did some night driving in the mountains and I expected weak headlights but was pleasantly surprised with the low and high beams. In city driving I have not been able to judge the headlights so this was nice to see.
It was great to stretch her legs and get to know some of the nuances … never knowing if a new noise is normal or not.
Oh yeah …. we did catch some trout … but my son is a vegi, so we released them all. A very fun time.
