Just got back from an 8-day jaunt to southwestern Colorado and other points. The Z did great, although he needed an oil change and a very serious bath when we got back. I think we murdered every single little yellow butterfly in north central Montana. We also killed six stupid birds on one 140-mile stretch. Fortunately there were no "remains" in the radiator.

There are some pretty awesome roads in Colorado, but we had the worst possible weather (pouring down rain, zero visibility) and couldn't take advantage of either the roads or the photo opportunities. At Independence Pass (elevation 12,095 feet) there is apparently a viewpoint from which you can see forever. We couldn't even see the viewpoint. I'm sure they needed the rain, but did it have to happen while we were there?

The Z got to enjoy some, umm, spirited driving when conditions allowed. Fuel economy for the 3643 mile trip was 27.2mpg according to the computer, but I suspect it was higher than that because we didn't have a fill *below* that number at any point. Three fills were over 30mpg, and three more at 29. Altitude appeared to help.

Cargo space, limited already, became even more so when we picked up some spare parts for the Buell in Durango. Probably not everyone brings cylinders back from vacation.

The lack of cruise control wasn't fatal, but I will admit it would have been nice to have on Day Two of the trip, which was 740 miles of Interstate slogging.

No real other news, and I know that this thread is useless without pics. I'll see if I can find one worth posting.

 

sounds like you had a good trip - I just got back from a 3800 mile road trip myself. I averaged 24mpg, I didn't want to flash over to the economy map and I was on it pretty often.

went from here, down the coast line through san fran/santa cruz, over to vegas, up through zion national/grand canyon/yellowstone/utah, montana, idaho, back home. I drove the majority of the trip and cruise control was a god send for the boring interstate times.

one thing I noticed was at really high elevation my turbo was really starved (driving a wrx), the car was pretty gutless without downshifting.

did you take any pictures of the bug slaughter on the front of the car when you guys were finished? I thought that was pretty entertaining.

 

We did, but the pics did not even come close to doing it justice. The pics made it look like we hit a few bugs on the way home. In reality, the front bumper and radiator were a solid mass of bug guts.

The truly disturbing part was that we have some yellowjackets hanging around the driveway area, and they were aggressively feeding on the dead bugs on the car. Even when we washed the Z as well as we could, the yellowjackets were still coming after it. This made the oil change yesterday rather exciting. I dove under the car, and Mr. blastoff went after the yellowjackets with a swatter and tried to keep them away from me. I can't say I've ever changed oil under such duress.

Sounds like you had a good trip as well.

 

Excellent trip guys! you must have hit the one week of rain we've had all summer! I'll see if I can get out there and snap a few in the G to make up for the desperately needed watering we got during your visit I too notice that my G is avg 4-5mpg MORE since moving up here! wtf...I always figured denser air = bigger bang = better MPG...it's so anti-intuitive!

 

we had yellowjackets nom'nomin on the dead bugs too. very disturbing. you are a trooper not only for changing your own oil but doing it with those bastards buzzing around. :P

 

I think the longest I can drive my Z before my back goes bad is like 6 hours. That gives me a potential radius between Seattle to Spokane before I have to stop for the day.

I'd like to do a road trip like yours in the Z, but after reading your post, I might buy a bra first, just to save my bumper from all the angry birds out there.

 

Wow props to you guys making these long trips!! Seriously even a trip to Lake Chelan starts hurting my back. My drive to Spokane, Pulman, Tri-Cities was horrible! My back was killing me. I don't find our seats to be that comfy, wish it had a little more padding. Infiniti seats were comfy as hell!!

 

Our longest day was 740 miles. I drove all of it, making it my highest-mileage day in a car (I've had two longer ones on a motorcycle). Although I don't usually care so much for cruise control, I admit it would have been nice to have it at moments.

A nose mask wouldn't be a bad idea at all. And had I known ahead of time how bad the bugs/birds would be, I'd have slid a piece of plastic screen-door mesh in front of the radiator so that all I'd have to do would be yank it out and throw it away later.

 

I've yet to test my Z on a long drive.
Luckily my girlfriend's Kia Spectra gets 35mpg.
We took that bish to Portland and to Chelan.
No back pains

There were some very nice roads on the way to Chelan.
Really wish I had the Z at the time.

 

Chelan has some nice back roads to get sideways in. Hehe

 

Seattle to Denver in 40 hours...

bit off topic for the thread but craziest trip ever was a 39 hours blast from Spokane To Washington DC ...in a Kia SPORTAGE!!!! with 4 DUDES!!!! (none of whom drove a single eff'n minute) ...some roadtrips are doomed from the attendance list.

 

I did a 12k road trip beggining this spring. Took the passenger seat out and drove for 5 weeks. Stopping and camping everywhere. Was a great trip. Cost me $1547 in gas! Road trip of a lifetime! Z did well. The only problem I ran into was a flat rear passenger tire. Though when I got back I had to get all new tires. Front two were racing slicks lol