Miles Driven

@Greg54 posted:

Hey, guys.

As a newbie to this madness, I must say I absolutely love driving my Speedster! I have other cool classic sports cars to drive (‘87 911 Targa and ‘79 Alfa Spider) but I love driving this Speedster the most right now! I’ve had it a month and a half and have already put 800 miles on it just commuting 6 miles to my office on days when rain was not in the forecast.

I'm curious. How many of you put significant miles on these things? I’d love to take it 360 miles to FL but I’m afraid of getting caught in rain.

Jack Crosby or Jim Ignacio probably hold the " highest mileage" records anywhere on the list but my Wife and I likely have the record for long distance trips. I'd regularly go from Ottawa, Canada to Key West, Florida up to the Carlisle meet and back home.

The craziest thing we did ( my Wife enjoys travelling in a Speedster ) was to ship the car from upstate NY to Sacramento, Ca. and drove down the PCH to Malibu up thru Victorville to Vegas, over past the Dam and Grand Canyon, East on route 66 over to Kingman, Az to backtrack into Oatman to see the donkeys, got the standard pic taken "standin' on the corner" Winslow, Az then East to Gallup, NM then up to Cortez, over thru Durango to see a friend in Taos, then down to Albuquerque then East again thru Tucumcari, Amarillo, Oklahoma City and on East to hook up with the gang in Carlisle, Pa then on up back home to Ottawa, Canada.

Drove our Roadster from Vancouver, BC to Ottawa in October a few years back and encountered snow and ice in BC hills then freezing temps across the prairies and it finally warmed up in Ontario.

Earlier in life we bought our Speedster in Boise, Id and drove it East to upstate NY and up to home in Ottawa. $6,500 Speedster with a bone stock 1600 cc VW engine. Never had so much fun.

Nice! How did you handle the rain? Do you worry about breaking down from flooding or overheating?

Difficult to handle rain anytime but we never had any on the Boise or Cali trips. Of course you worry about breaking down.

The worst rain I ever had was a solo trip heading South to pick up my Wife in Daytona for a few weeks down South. Near Dunn, NC I had the worst rain breakdown ever. At that time I had installed my Soob Frankenmotor and very heavy rain came down for miles with no exits available. Plenty of rain came into the cabin, no where to pull off safely and suddenly I'm down to 3 cylinders running. I finally got off 95 and a Napa store put me in touch with a local hot rod shop who took me in and fixed things up. They filled the spark plug recesses with dielectric grease after drying things out properly. At one point I didn't even know what town I was in. Got a hotel room and started to dry things out. Had about 1/4" of water in the footwells, even had to put my shoes in a clothes dryer. It turned out that the louvered rear lid would collect rain water and that would overflow and flood the engine. Holes were drilled in the lid in Cocoa Beach.

RainX in and out helps some. A real good defroster helps too. Good wipers are a must. At that time mine had two speeds. Slow and slower.

Good planning and some flexibility in your schedule would be good too. I failed there.

@Greg54

Hey Greg, what a beauty you got there and it's great to hear how much fun you're having driving it. Our SOC friends @David Stroud IM Roadster D and his wife, Francine, manifest their adventurous spirit with the long distance trips they've taken.

As for venturing out on your trips, best you can do is to plan a safe route and keep an eye on the weather forecast and have a Plan 'A' and maybe even a Plan 'B' in the event things don't go as planned.

Our 1st VS Speedster was a daily driver in SoCal. We logged 100,000 relatively trouble-free miles over 11 years traveling throughout CA, NV, AZ,UT and CO before it was damaged in a collision (we walked away unharmed). We replaced that with our current VS Speedster which is also a daily driver and have logged 40,000 relatively trouble-free miles.

"Welcome To The Madness" known as replica ownership. Here's wishing you many  miles of top-down cruising in your new toy. BTW- I'm guessing you probably spend quite a few hours just sitting in the garage staring at your new ride (as have many of us SOCers).

You may have already seen this (posted MANY times) but if you haven't, here's a tip on packing your Speedster for your extended trips.

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Greg, how far you can go is more up to you (and your traveling companion) than anyone.

Some of us are road warriors. Some, not so much.

You've probably already noticed that driving these cars is more physically tiring than cruising in a modern car, but everyone has different tolerance for that. After ten years, and about 45,000 miles, we find ourselves using the car mainly for day trips of 50-100 miles. But we also do one-day vacay sojourns quite a bit, too. We'll drive someplace 100-200 miles away, spend the night, and return the next day. I might suggest this as a good way to get into Speedster tripping gradually to see how it works out for you.

As a rule, we don't do rain, after a few damp experiences early on, but the climate here allows us the luxury of pretty much choosing our weather. If you're concerned about that, why not wait for a rainy day, put the top up, and go out for a short drive? You'll discover pretty quick whether it's a deal breaker for you. And it's a good way to learn all the tricks of dealing with rain while you're still close to the refuge of your own garage.

These cars are different things to different folks, and figuring out how it works for you will just take some time. I do know we took it step by step, gradually expanding the range we felt comfortable with. Ten years down the road, my wife loves the car more than ever and won't let me consider selling it.

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Thank you both for sharing your experiences. It’s good to know these cars are capable of going 100k.
I have no problem getting tired driving my Speedster on the highway. For the better part of 2009 - 2019 I rode touring and sport touring motorcycles on multiple trips across the country and Europe. I experienced every manner of weather including thunder and lightening storms on the road without stopping.

The allure of motorcycles wore off when I got so comfortable and proficient on a bike that I no longer had to think about what I was doing and started getting back in my head thinking about work or many other things. That’s when riding a motorcycle becomes super dangerous because you’re not giving it 110% of your attention. I had logged some 225,000 miles on a bike when it became not as much fun.

Thats when I got into classic Euro sports cars which led me to getting a Speedster. It’s comforting to know the engine is easy to have fixed or serviced. When I was a kid in the early 70’s you could get a 5 year old Beetle for $550. And they were bullet proof with motors smaller than the 1915 cc that’s in my car.

I still enjoy riding but just not for commuting or traveling unless it’s a specific moto-trip. In fact, I’m going to France next month for 10 days to join a buddy in a motorcycle tour through the Mediterranean Alps with a company called Edelweiss which provides the bikes, hotels, meals and guides through spectacular roads.

Driving my Speedster reminds me of what it was like for me when I first started riding motorcycles at the age of 53. It was exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. It took all of my attention.

And, like many motorcycles, they are works of art to enjoy cleaning, polishing and just looking at them.

Safe travels,

Greg

Cute Dog Greg !  Looks like our Thelma Lou.   A Mexican rescue mutt............Bruce

@Sacto Mitch posted:

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Greg, how far you can go is more up to you (and your traveling companion) than anyone.

I do know we took it step by step, gradually expanding the range we felt comfortable with. .

Sage advice from Mitch. Drive around in circles from your home and expand your distance but you don't have to go far from the safety of home. I did that with my first homebuilt airplane ( C-FDWS )  that I accumulated so much time expanding my circular flights that I realized I could have flown to Vancouver......

@David Stroud IM Roadster D posted:

Sage advice from Mitch. Drive around in circles from your home and expand your distance but you don't have to go far from the safety of home. I did that with my first homebuilt airplane ( C-FDWS )  that I accumulated so much time expanding my circular flights that I realized I could have flown to Vancouver......

At least with a speedster there is no fear most times of sudden stops.

Suffer! When it rains you get wet. If that's a great concern sell the Speedster; but a coupe.