Further along I-8 things got very scenic again. Arizona really has beautiful roads and scenery.



On into California we again began to see wind farms. This one was particularly dramatic as the freeway went right through the middle of it.



Well, here are the final stats on the trip.



Note that my odometer reads 10% high so the mileage numbers are raw while all the other numbers have the correction factor built in. Average cost per gallon is the actual cost average, not the average of the amount paid across the trip.

I added no oil, coolant, P/S fluid or brake fluid throughout the trip. I did add about 8 oz of transmission fluid. (I was about a quart low when I got the oil changed in Kernersville, so I used probably 1.5 qts through the almost 6000 miles of the trip)

The car performed almost flawlessly. At the last stop for dinner, the engine wouldn't shut off and had to be done manually. So there is a vacuum problem that will take some troubleshooting.

Attached Thumbnails

     

__________________
Current Stable

• 380SL (diesel)
• Corvette C5
• Manx
• Baja Bug
• F350 Powerstroke
• Auburn Boattail Speedster replica

I like it how the last - must get home quick - MPG went a bit low!

__________________
1992 W201 190E 1.8 171,000 km - Daily driver
1981 W123 300D ~ 100,000 miles / 160,000 km - project car stripped to the bone
1965 Land Rover Series 2a Station Wagon CIS recovery therapy!
1961 Volvo PV544 Bare metal rat rod-ish thing

I'm here to chat about cars and to help others - I'm not here "to always be right" like an internet warrior



Don't leave that there - I'll take it to bits!

Actually, I believe that I had another "fill anomaly" at Eloy. Based on the terrain and wind, that mpg should not have been that high, meaning that I probably didn't get the tank filled to the consistent level I'm shooting for. Taken together those two legs produce 29.4 over terrain with a small headwind and an elevation change at the end from below sea level to 4100 ft back to 900 ft at the destination.

The other pair with the same anomaly were col-bir.

This confirms the problem with single tank mpg numbers that are sometimes quoted. Terrain, wind, speed, driving profile, altitude and other factors have a huge effect. Only a long duration test can give accurate results.

__________________
Current Stable

• 380SL (diesel)
• Corvette C5
• Manx
• Baja Bug
• F350 Powerstroke
• Auburn Boattail Speedster replica

A very interesting tool for monitoring winds on a cross country trip is a web site called, appropriately enough, Wind Map. This is a dynamic map that provides a graphical representation of the current wind flows. Check it out here - Wind Map

Here is the iPhone screen from yesterday with the approximate route shown. It's hard to understand in a static picture but if you go to the web site it will make complete sense.



By comparison if we could have waited a day, it would have been virtually calm the whole way. Here's today -

Attached Thumbnails

   

__________________
Current Stable

• 380SL (diesel)
• Corvette C5
• Manx
• Baja Bug
• F350 Powerstroke
• Auburn Boattail Speedster replica