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Saito2

Do you drive for the drive?

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Does anybody else just go out for a drive anymore? My commute to work is ridiculously short (about 5 minutes). Nearly every day it doesn't rain, after work, and at least 3 times over the weekend, I take my C4 Corvette or Fox Mustang (and occasionally the MGB) out for a drive just for the enjoyment of it. I may dislike the state I live in, but it is blessed with some entertaining twisty back roads that I make regular use of. If this little past time of mine comes up in conversation, most folks think I'm nuts. It seems the romance of the drive is lost on most in this age (to absolutely no surprise on my end). I admit with the rampant over-development in my area, swallowing up farm land, traffic on these roads has gone up, ruining a nice night out. Still, if I time it right, there's nothing like putting a car through its paces, listening to the pipes emit their music and being in synch with mechanicals of a machine I know so well.

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when i get my car and get it on the road i probably will do just that. it's not a daily or beater.

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I really enjoy driving and used to just go out for a drive as something to do to go somewhere ive never been before or to a place of interest i spot on a map but the cost of fuel in the Uk is the highest ive ever known it so its becoming a bit prohibitive. I own a 19 year old car and the garages local to me have all switched to E10 unleaded and i cant find a definitive answer whether thats going to screw my fuel system up so the last two fill ups have been 99 ron E5 which is about £1.49 a litre (or if my sums are right equivilant to approx $7.80 a gallon to give you some idea)

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Yes, but not nearly as often as I'd like to. I'm hoping that will change now that I'm getting the MG whipped into shape, and more or less reliable. It's really not good for anything other than a nice drive in the country, or maybe a quick trip to the store.

The truck I only drive when I need to do something trucky, and the Toyota I slog through traffic twice a day, which is anything but enjoyable.

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I'll have some fun if I happen upon a bit of twisty tarmac, but I don't specifically "go for a drive" anymore like when I was younger.

I've definitely lost the romance for driving over the years commuting to work.

I'd much rather be RCing or riding BMX or doing anything other than sitting in that smelly metal cage.

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Back in the late 90s, going out for a drive was my favourite pastime.  Every Friday night, my best friend and I would fire up our modded cars and go out around the lanes for a couple of hours.  We didn't enjoy alcohol or crowds, so the usual Friday pub scene wasn't fun, and the roads were always quiet because everyone else was in the pub.  But times moved on and I realised I wouldn't meet girls while driving around the lanes, and then I realised I didn't actually find them much appealing unless I drunk alcohol, so I stopped driving and started drinking (and all I have to show for it is this belly).

For a long time, my daily commute was an hour across empty country roads.  It was a real blast.  I looked forward to going to work every morning and coming home every night, whatever the weather.  But times moved on, speed limits went down, traffic went up, and the job turned sour.  I moved to a local company which involved a 15 minute ride into the city.  Every time I got home I was wound up, stressed, angry.  It took me a while to realise I was still in work mode, I didn't have that hour behind the wheel / in the saddle to unwind.  If I'd been sensible I would have started cycling (it would have been so easy from where I lived) but instead I took to having lunchtime walks around the city to ease my stress.  To be fair, Bath is a beautiful city to walk around any time of year.  And that's how I happened to spot a re-release Lunchbox in the window of the model shop.  And we all know where that story ends!

Post-pandemic, I'm mostly a home-worker.  The office in Bath is closed, so if I want an office, I need to commute to Bristol.  That's an hour plus depending on traffic, only viable on the motorcycle (£26 for a full day parking in the car :o ), and it's not really a fun drive.  Half of it is commuter slog, half of it is motorway.  It doesn't really de-stress me.  Plus, although Bristol is motorcycle-friendly in terms of free parking and 24 hour use of bus lanes, it's a very aggressive city to be in.  Passive-aggressive road rage is the norm.  Passing a car in traffic only to have it force its way back in front at the lights is the norm.  Having people swerve across the road at me while I'm passing isn't unheard of.  And in the current era, I'm competing for roadspace with deathwish Uber Eats and Deliveroo riders on mopeds, who are more interested in making their drop count than living to see tomorrow.

But I still love being on the open road.  When the pandemic hit and all the events were cancelled, it wasn't the racing I missed - it was being on the open road.  I sometimes wonder if I should have been a truck driver.  I just love being out on my own, me and the road and my own agenda.  I've seen some beautiful parts of the country, and at times I stumble across a little hidden gem I'd never have seen if I'd stayed home.  But I only do that sort of journey if there's an RC event at the end of it.  (Next year I plan to have a camping road trip, where I do some of my favourite roads, but actually stop and get out along the way to explore some of the better places on foot).

These days I rarely go out for a drive just for the sake of it.  I no longer have a 'drivers' car.  If I still have my Miata, my FTO, my Supra, or even my Mondeo, I might enjoy a blast around the lanes, but the van is too big, heavy and thirsty for spirited driving.  It'll embarrass some commuter cars off the lights and gets up to 80mph in not much time, but corners are something that need to be planned in.  I do sometimes drive the van out to a local beauty spot, park up and work on my novel on the laptop for a couple of hours, and I'll often take a longer route home just to make it feel like it was a proper journey, but it's not really 'a drive'.

I'll still take the bike out for a ride, though.  There's some really nice roads near me that are still fairly quiet after 7pm, so in the summer I can go out for an evening ride and get some space from the home.  If I finish work early, around 4pm, I can get all the way to the south coast in time for fish and chips and a sunset over the beach, then ride back in time for bed, although this summer I've been so stacked with RC event prep, plus my fuel budget has been under so much pressure from all these RC events, that I haven't done it as much as I'd like.  But I've got to head south for work on Friday, and I'm considering detouring to the coast for some sea air before I come back, if the weather stays dry and I go on the bike.

:)

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I fortunately still enjoy 4 modes of transport, as with most of our age group on here getting your license was paramount to any kind of freedom pre internet. Getting out and about was how you found work, friends, new places and experience’s.

Discovering that sense of ‘I wonder what’s around the next corner’ is still strong today. I would often just get on a Motorcycle or in my car in my youth just because I could.

Just after I got married,  my father and I restored a 72’ VW Beetle. I’d never looked at them much before until quite by chance it was acquired from a friend and I actually drove the thing for a pre MOT to see what was wrong with it. I was hooked from that moment. Once it was all done it was our daily drive for years even when our 2 children came along, often just going for a drive at weekends. I was thinking just the other day that as safe, efficient, comfortable new cars are they just don’t seem to have the soul of older ones without all the whizz bang gadgets removing the driver ever further away from any actual ‘driving’ experience they are more just a tool for a job.

As with you @Saito2, I am only 5kms from work so a bicycle is my main form of transport as it’s to short for a car ride. Since moving to Australia I had time to cycle just because.

As the kids got to driving age a Suzuki Swift was purchased as a second car for them to learn in a manual car. It’s a fun car to drive, a recommendation by James May of Top Gear said, “If you can’t afford a Mini, get one of these” He wasn’t wrong they are like a go kart round town and makes driving an enjoyable pleasure.

I also have a Motorcycle that I bought new in 2014, that is purely for pleasure purposes. All of the 25,000kms I’ve put on it are on it because I wanted to not because I had to. A small taste of where it’s been…


As a kid I looked longingly at Australian Roadtrains seeing them as the ultimate driving experience in my eyes. Which brings me to my 4th mode of Transport. Little did I have any idea that years later I would be driving a Truck here in Oz. You do need to keep a watchful eye out though for the unpredictable wildlife ready to pounce…

9900684A-1722-41EC-A883-604024FEE74F.jpg

 

Plenty of other situations to keep you on your toes too..

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Where was that turning again?…

34A9BAC9-DE52-47E3-AED6-9F4D6D775A06.jpg

 

I often find myself chugging along completely forgetting that I’m at work, then pull up, take in the scenery and just enjoy the drive…

5545C655-7C6F-4E68-884F-388B17291F02.jpg

I’m not in any rush for autonomous vehicles. 

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Yes, I still drive for the drive from time to time.

I'm lucky enough to live in a place with plenty of open roads, and I'm also lucky enough to have this as my daily driver:

 

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In college I would happily spend whole afternoons driving around the countryside. That was a fairly small town though, 5 minutes in any direction and you were out in the fields. Now I live in a larger city and it's a lot harder. The calm of the drive is replaced with irritation at the congestion, endless billboards, etc.

I walk a lot more now. And watch various scenic screensavers on the computer. :wacko:

(The SlowTV train channel is addicting :D)

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1 hour ago, Re-Bugged said:

I’m not in any rush for autonomous vehicles. 

Actually, I am in a rush for autonomous vehicles - not because I want to sit back and let the computer do all the work, but because without them I can see private vehicle operation becoming something only for the wealthy, as climate change policies force the rest of us back on to mass transit.

I'm not a climate change denier and I can definitely see how important it is that we do something, but part of what we must do is fix the transport problem.  I may sound hypocritical, because my "daily driver" is a 3.5 litre campervan that does around 18mpg around town.  My journey to the Revival and back can probably be counted in polar bears.  The solution is for me to sell my 20yo camper and buy a new van with better mileage and lower emissions, but there is no way I could afford the payments on a new van, or even a nearly-new one.  The world's governments want us all to keep buying new vehicles every few years so we're always as efficient as possible and take advantages of every technological leap when it arrives, but if you can't afford it you'll be back on the bus.

Now I have no problem with mass transit in principle, but I've lived all my life in my own vehicle, I don't like crowds, I don't like strangers, I don't like public places.  I have anxiety so bad that even a 10 minute bus journey fills me with dread.  I don't want to live in a world in which I can't just get in my car and drive to where I need to go.

Now I could really get off-topic here about how we should bring back coachworks like we had at the turn of the last century, and instead of throwing a vehicle away once its motor is obsolete we actually take it out and put in a newer one - but we all know that isn't going to happen.

That said, it would probably be a lot cheaper for me to fit a modern motor into my camper than to sign up for a high monthly fee on a new van...

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On 8/15/2021 at 8:53 PM, Saito2 said:

Does anybody else just go out for a drive anymore? My commute to work is ridiculously short (about 5 minutes). Nearly every day it doesn't rain, after work, and at least 3 times over the weekend, I take my C4 Corvette or Fox Mustang (and occasionally the MGB) out for a drive just for the enjoyment of it. I may dislike the state I live in, but it is blessed with some entertaining twisty back roads that I make regular use of. If this little past time of mine comes up in conversation, most folks think I'm nuts. It seems the romance of the drive is lost on most in this age (to absolutely no surprise on my end). I admit with the rampant over-development in my area, swallowing up farm land, traffic on these roads has gone up, ruining a nice night out. Still, if I time it right, there's nothing like putting a car through its paces, listening to the pipes emit their music and being in synch with mechanicals of a machine I know so well.

My commute to work is also only 5 minutes, walking! It takes me longer to find a parking space, so I sold my car. The only car in the family is now owned by my wife. With 2 young kids, it is a boring family car, a Ford Mondeo, BUT with higher specs engine and larger wheels/tires and it can go for a spirited drive if I want to but again with kids, it is something I rarely do anymore as the kids throw up if I get too wild! Truth be told, my wife now do more miles than me every week, but I do more steps. :) 

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@Saito2 I do, every weekend mornings for 2 hours if the weather is nice out.  My poison is AWD 4 cylinder turbo’s a VA WRX STI, Mk7 Golf-R (MT), with the exception of an A90 Supra (I6) that I rotate every weekend.   I hibernate these modified cars in my garage starting mid-September until April so I am coming up to the end of the season soon.  

My commute is about 30 minutes on the expressway and I only go to the office once or twice a week these days due to covid.   I own another lightly modified VA WRX a FA20 (MT) which is my double duty daily driver and winter weekend car. 

 

 

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I used to love the drive in my Supra, especially tearing up the local canyons.  I got carried away with modifications and bought a motorcycle to ride during the engine swap.  Then I got hooked on the motorcycle.  8 motorcycles have been bought and sold since, and I let the car go for a stupid price to free up the driveway.  I’ve been commuting on a motorcycle for 21 years now, rain or shine. Now I take an occasional ride for the ride, but mostly to work.  The bike never fails to put a smile on my mug.

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My neighbor organized a group drive for Sunday.  A few of us are going to take some winding roads from NC up to VA to catch the Blue Ridge Parkway and get some lunch together.  It should be a nice day out just enjoying the sights and sounds.

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Yep, been into 1:1 since I was young.

It helps that I have an M3 to haul out on the weekends.

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Way back when, during college/university, it was taking the POS Escort I had and driving the enthusiastic roads near there.  Shortly thereafter I got the WRX, right around the time internet forums were exploding.   Southeast Michigan, around Detroit is a pretty flat and uninteresting suburbia.  One has to drive a bit to get out of the suburbs to find enjoyable roads.  I kinda pieced together several fun sections of road into a drive. Eventually lots of friends joined in. Good times! Then it was the Mustang when I worked at Ford, but around the same time I fell in love, got married and eventually had a kid.  With the wife, it was less enthusiastic driving and more "lets go see what's over there" kinda trips, just exploring the world within driving range.  With the kid, it was "I don't want to twist my back like that trying to get the child into the baby seat in the back of the mustang again" so the Mustang went.  We still tend to take the scenic/long route when going on vacation, but not much enthusiastic driving lately. :)

 

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Nothing I like more that a nice drive.  Before my daughter came my wife and I would go out every weekend for hours and try to get lost, have some dinner, and then make our way back home.  Since the baby has come I haven't pulled back the covers on my toys once this entire year.  Seems every free minute I have I'm working on the house or doing something with RC since it's quicker and I can drop it at any minute.  I do plan on getting the cars out in the fall for some exercise, would hate to have them sit for an entire year without being used.  Curernt toys are my 87 Buick Grand National and 2003 Jaguar XJR.  

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It was either this thread or the fall like weather, but I got a major itch to take the car out this weekend...Put the baby down around 7:30 on Saturday, pulled the cover off of the GN, removed the battery tender, and she fired right up like I drove her yesterday (last time was October/November 2020 so its been a while).  Only took an hour or so ride by myself, but had a nice time.  Will definitely try to get some nice fall rides in before the winter weather hits.

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Not for a while unfortunately....

My daily hack is diesel Golf (still £60 to fill though...😳), like most modern stuff, alot of fun is taken away, and you get a flashing light on the dash to say 'stop it' and even a dab of the brake with the left foot, puts it straight into limp mode for a few seconds.... (Seemingly a 'safety feature' of drive by wire....😩). 

The last car I went for a drive in, just because , was in the TransAm, when it was my daily (and in one piece..🙄), and a 1275GT. Thinking about it, it's cars I've worked on , have a connection with, so far I've only changed the brakes on the Golf , so early days maybe? 

Really wished the TransAm had been together for lockdown, there where times coming off a nightshift, I never saw another car, on the 20 miles home, even Christmas day is busier, really was nice, your own autobahn....😉

The TransAm is 40yrs old in a few weeks, which means it's Tax & MOT exempt, so really need to get the thing road worthy again, and just get out for a drive, just because...

 

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6 minutes ago, Wooders28 said:

Not for a while unfortunately....

My daily hack is diesel Golf (still £60 to fill though...😳), like most modern stuff, alot of fun is taken away, and you get a flashing light on the dash to say 'stop it' and even a dab of the brake with the left foot, puts it straight into limp mode for a few seconds.... (Seemingly a 'safety feature' of drive by wire....😩). 

The last car I went for a drive in, just because , was in the TransAm, when it was my daily (and in one piece..🙄), and a 1275GT. Thinking about it, it's cars I've worked on , have a connection with, so far I've only changed the brakes on the Golf , so early days maybe? 

Really wished the TransAm had been together for lockdown, there where times coming off a nightshift, I never saw another car, on the 20 miles home, even Christmas day is busier, really was nice, your own autobahn....😉

The TransAm is 40yrs old in a few weeks, which means it's Tax & MOT exempt, so really need to get the thing road worthy again, and just get out for a drive, just because...

 

What year is the TA?   Have had a few 3rd/4th gen TAs, but never an early car.  Any photos? 

I know what you mean about the roads being empty.  Last April/May it was the same here.  I would be coming home from work at 6PM on the highway and not see a car in front or behind me for miles, a bit odd considering the traffic we normally have.  I took full advantage, had the XJR up to speeds for prolonged stretches that should have put me in jail.  What a car that is, so stable at speed it didn't feel nearly as fast as I was actually going.  

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3 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

What year is the TA?   Have had a few 3rd/4th gen TAs, but never an early car.  

It's an '81, last of the 2nd gens, with a 350/700r4 engine swap out of a 3rd gen Z28, that's had a bit of tinkering.

Originally a manual car (just over 3k built in that year..), but had a 305/350 when it was my daily.

 

2021-01-14_10-34-26

 

2020-06-02_10-26-21

 

10 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

I took full advantage, had the XJR up to speeds for prolonged stretches that should have put me in jail. 

An XKR would have been alot more interesting than a diesel Golf ,although ,we'd still be sharing a cell...🙄 (and I'm still struggling now, to keep under jail speeds, a bit desensitised...) 

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A TPI engine, very familiar with those.  I absolutely love that body style, such an awesome classic.  That 350/700 will make it a lot more fun to drive I'll bet.  Those late 70s/early 80s 305/350 motors were boat anchors...Had an 86 Cutlass 442 with the Olds 307 and it was a real dog.  Loved the car but what passed for performance back in those days is laughable now. 

Yea, definitely desensitized to speed at this point.  More traffic now than there was, but still not back to normal (which is just fine with me).  I don't think I've been under 85-90mph on the drive to work in almost 2 years now.   Cut my commute from 45-50 mins to 35 if I'm really moving.  Crappy mpg at those speeds even in my daily, but going 65-70mph seems like I'm not even moving, perception is a funny thing. 

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3 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

A TPI engine

Aye, L98, with heads, mild cam (the TPI doesn't like big cams), inlet, runners, injectors, 9th injector delete, ported plenum, ARP throughout and Megasquirt ecu (map not maf) Runs, but I'm still battling with the spaghetti, that is the wiring...

 

9 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

Those late 70s/early 80s 305/350 motors were boat anchors..

😂😂, the 305 was a slug, the 1275 mini would leave it 😂😂 (well, it was bored to 1293, stage 4 head, 286 cam etc etc, it went like stink, and almost maxed the 120mph speedo..) 

 

11 minutes ago, 87lc2 said:

Crappy mpg at those speeds even in my daily, but going 65-70mph seems like I'm not even moving, perception is a funny thing

This is where the Golf shines , averaging 45mpg at triple figures, (40mph per 1000rpm in 6th), 

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On 8/15/2021 at 10:07 PM, Superluminal said:

I really enjoy driving and used to just go out for a drive as something to do to go somewhere ive never been before or to a place of interest i spot on a map but the cost of fuel in the Uk is the highest ive ever known it so its becoming a bit prohibitive. I own a 19 year old car and the garages local to me have all switched to E10 unleaded and i cant find a definitive answer whether thats going to screw my fuel system up so the last two fill ups have been 99 ron E5 which is about £1.49 a litre (or if my sums are right equivilant to approx $7.80 a gallon to give you some idea)

My 20 year old car accepts e10, what is your car. 

I used to just drive for fun when I had a fiesta st150, mainly to keep it running. Now I have a 2000 honda 7 seater that just sits on the driveway during the week, and is just used for shopping. The last big drive I did was from the uk to Spain, so around 3000 mile round trip.

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