Whew! What a drive! We logged 2293 total miles on our Morro Bay adventure. The Audi engine delivered 30 to 33 MPG for all the legs of the trip and ran strong. I flew solo yesterday and today after leaving San Jose where Vada hopped on Southwest for a relaxing flight home.
My first stop was at 034 motorsports in Fremont to check out a weird noise that I was worried about. It was nothing but loose chunks in my catalytic converter. I did take advantage of their facilities to get the car corner balanced and to make a couple of dyno runs. Starting out, the car was fairly balanced at 48.6% / 51.4% with a 1" higher rise on the RH side in front. Finishing up the balance was 50.1% / 49.9% with 0.25" rise on the RH side. Total weight w/ me and my bags, tools and 1/2 tank of gas was 2616 lbs. The front to back weight ratio was 38.2% / 61.8%. Dyno results were good at 172 ft lb @ 3500 RPM and 168WHP @ 5900 RPM.
So I got away from 034 at about 2PM or so, then gassed up in Fremont and started on my way to Grants Pass OR via 101 to the Avenue of the Giants to check out the coastal redwoods and finally to 199 to cross over to Oregon and over the coast range and more big trees. I hit rain in the middle of the redwoods and it continued for the whole drive. In the mountains on highway 199 the rain was washing rocks down on the road in front of me which I had to see and then dodge. Exciting! I arrived at Grants Pass at 12:30 this morning. Started out at 8:30 AM and made it home to Olympia at 3:30PM. The car is now drying out as it took on quite a bit of water which drained down the windshield pillars and then into the lowest points of the floor pans. I stayed dry and warm though and that is what matters.
Tomm
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