Well ye olde Diseasel went on its first road trip in 10+ years this evening. Drove it to San Antonio and back without incident. So smooth and quiet! Total trip duration was 204 miles. Used just a hair over 1/4 tank of fuel doing 75-80 the whole way there and back. Temp never went over 85, and hovered between 80-85 the entire trip.

Trip seems to have done the car a lot of good. Idle is quieter than it's ever been, and the oil consumption is finally to a point that the difference in oil level before and after the trip isn't measurable. The fantastic side effect of that is no more haze in the headlights at night!

Car had no problem on the highway, even with the steep hills and carting around 3 full grown guys and 112 pounds of bowling balls in the trunk. I was frankly surprised how good the car drove on the highway. Effortless. Definitely need to fix the A/C though...

It's hard to believe that the last time that car was on the road was over 10 years ago. With the way it runs and drives, you'd think it was parked yesterday. Obviously it's had quite a lot of work done to it, but it's rewarding to finally give it a good test on the road and be successful! One of my friends pointed out that with the car being in San Antonio and with the disabled turbo and extremely impacted soot in the intake manifold, it could have been years before it was parked that it was last on the highway. We know for sure the most recent trip it could have taken was March 2007 (registration expired).

What a great car!

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Current stable:
1995 E320 157K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 125K (SLoL)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Gone and wanting to forget:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™) [Definitely NOT a Benz]