I done several (3 - 4) 3000+ mile trips mostly down the west coast, northern
Washington to LA, or so, and back to eastern Washington, through the mountains
and high desert. One time had a water pump leak in Altura CA, but it went away
and no problems since, with the water pump.
My experience is it is a very dependable car. Oh yeh, its a 78 1500. I'm the
2d owner, at 40K. It now has about 80K Had a sticky gbx problem for which it
is now disassembled, plus maybe a preventative engine overhaul. I'm sure it
needs one, at least to restore compression.
--Gary
Mike Welch wrote:
> Longest I've done is about 900 miles from Ft.Rucker, AL up to Ft.Eustis, VA
> back in '86. Me and an army buddy were transferred and went in my '78
> Spitfire. 4 duffle bags strapped down on the luggage rack. The only
> problem we had was about 50 miles from Eustis we took the top down and
> stowed it in the trunk, about 5 minutes later we ran into a storm and
> couldn't get the duffle bags untied fast enough to get the top out. Had
> about 2 inches of standing water in the floor boards.
> On a side note, the engine blew when I was there, and I ended up leaving
> the car in the Ft.Eustis gas station parking lot when I was transferred out.
>
> Mike Welch
> http://home.turbopower.com/~mikew
> '68+/- Triumph Spitfire
> '60 Jaguar MkII 3.8 auto
> '87 Jeep Cherokee
> '96 GMC Suburban
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: SJagGo@aol.com [mailto:SJagGo@aol.com]
> Sent: Friday, February 18, 2000 11:58 AM
> To: spitfires@autox.team.net
> Subject: Long distance Spits
>
> Greetings:
> What's the farthest drive any of you have taken in your Spitfires?
> My personal best, no CO-driver has been 6100 miles, including the last 1500
> (Lava Hot Springs, ID to Springfield, IL) stopping only for gas, oil, and
> fast foods. That's what the 1500 really stands for-1500 miles.
>
> The quirkiest has been Springfield to Macon, MO to Columbia, MO to St. Louis
>
> back to Springfield. Over 500 miles. Why? A girlfriend called and wanted
> to go for a drive. "How far?" I asked. "Till I say to turn back," was her
> reply. She fell asleep about 50 miles out and never told me to turn back
> until she woke up near Macon. We ate a very late dinner at a country bar
> with live band in Macon and headed home by way of St. Louis. Great
> sunrise-darn those bucket seats and parking brake handle!
>
> If you've gone 1500+ miles, what breakdowns occurred. In my case, the
> gasket
> between the head exhaust pipe and the exhaust manifold blew out. Found one
> in Missoula, Montana. A couple thousand miles later on the return trip, the
>
> headpipe broke away from the flange attaching to the exhaust manifold. I
> had
> it welded in Arlington, Oregon.
> Bill Brockschmidt
|