From a 240D fanboi no less
.
This morning I hopped in the car and headed West out of Ridgecrest and spent some time (hours) driving CA178 and 155, on both I was dwaddling up the hills....
I was really irked going up the grade of West bound CR155 as I was only able to maintain 25 ~ 30 MPH, there was _zero_ Westbound traffic (one tractor I passed easily) .
Then I went over the summit and the GPS said speed limit 55 MPH ~ this road is seriously serpentine and I quickly discovered I couldn't really exceed 30 ~ 45 MPH unless I wanted to fly off the mountain....
SIGH .
Once out of the Sequoia National Forest I hit the mostly flat central valley and easily zipped along at 66 MPH, I don't like buzzing the crap out of the engine .
I reached Delano by 10:30AM and none of the other cars showed up until noon .
So, as much as I love these cars they are slow and ponderous .
Don't buy one thinking you'll peak & tweak it or add a turbo to get it up to speed, that's simply not going to happen .
No regrets tho, the AC (Rich's SANDEN AC compressor & cross flow condenser upgrade) works fine and every where I stop folks say either 'I used to have one !' or 'that's nice, I gotta get one my self' .