With the car running well I took part in the San Diego British Car Club run into the local mountains; the first real outing for Midlana. Cars and Coffee – 120 miles of freeway driving – didn’t involve twisty roads, bicyclists, trees, motorcyclists, boulders, rocks, and very steep cliffs…
It went well, but no video of triple-digit speeds, smoky burnouts, or drifting, just… <a href=”http://youtu.be/-DHajQTBLnE”>driving</a>. As with Kimini, no trip was complete without stopping by the Palomar Observatory, barely visible through the trees in the distance.
Coming down the south face of the mountain would have been fun, except that a group of motorcyclists deciding to coast down, at 20-30 mph. That’s fine… except that they wouldn’t pull over for the long line of cars behind them.
On the way back, stopped at a grower’s stand and bought 25 avocados for $5… farmer-direct prices are always good.
Put about 150 miles on the car with no problems… mostly. The engine was reporting high oil temperature, as high as 125 C, which I’m not convinced is real. The sensor was calibrated with water and an accurate thermometer, so I don’t know why it would be off but it’ll be checked again. Also, oil pressure seemed low. This I can believe since I used the inaccurate gauge on the air compressor to calibrate it. I was reminded that I do in fact have an accurate pressure gauge… a tire pressure gauge! I’ll have to make an adapter so compressed air can be used to calibrate it again. Oil pressure and temperature are too important to have wishy-washy readings.
The wind around the windscreen is really annoying. Even with earplugs, the low frequency “thumpings” goes right through them. In the video you can see me moving my hand around to find the wind’s path. Even with the baseball hat adjusted as tight as possible, any speed over about 70 mph threatens to tear it right off my head. Cobra-style wind-wings will work, or possibly bowed Lexan side curtains that snap into place between the side of the windscreen and the shoulder-height side tube. There will need to be a solution.