TR to Yosemite and back

[Ken Cunningham]

Took my TR up to Yosemite and back. Here are my impressions of using this car for a long car camping trip.

Yosemite is a good 6-7 hour drive from Oceanside. Everthing for 2 people to camp (tent, sleeping bags, food, ice chest, etc, etc) packed in the trunk and in the back seat. The seats are adequate for that much sitting, but not exactly cushy. The center armrest from a Roadmaster (thanks Lance!) is a real big help. Cupholders, Kleenex holder, triptix, and lots of junk right at your fingertips. 6 REM cds in the trunk-mounted changer took us all the way there.

Went over the 'grapevine' 2x in the midday sun and the Regal (with a new radiator from Nick Micale and 160 deg thermo) never got over 190 even with the a/c blowing the whole time. The elevation got as high as about 8000 ft on the highest pass, this takes a little out of the TR of course, but you don't notice it because you're on twisty mountain roads that don't allow you to sprint anyway.

The car was a champ the whole time. Started and ran perfect every step of the way. I gave her a well-deserved cleaning and got all the tree debris washed off. Even the black tire scuffs that I got when a semi in front of me kicked up a tire tread right into my pass. side. If your TR is in reasonably good shape, I wouldn't hesitate to take it on the longest road trip.

 

[Whistlin'87GN]

Long Trips

Sounds like you had a great trip!!
My father and I took his 86 GN to Mineral Point, Wisconsin. Almost exactly 1000 miles one way and the car did great! Turbo Regals really are great cars for road trips, tons of rooms, Im 6'6" and I could sleep comfortably in the passenger seat.
The only problem we had was a fan blade broke off his electric fan!!! So we had the local shop cut off the opposite one to balance it out (it was shaking the whole car) and got a new one when we got home. Other wise it was a great trip!
-Jeff

 

[d0n_3d]

several years ago i took my GN (bone stock down to the filter) on a 1300 mile trip one way from northern indiana to south florida...on the way back i drove straight and ran the car 22 hours exactly and it didn't hiccup once...great cars for daily driving

 

[87ttypeV8]

just cursious to see what types of gas mileage you guys get...

i am starting to drive mine all over and up north everyweekend... (2 hours one way)

just wondering how my gas mileage is comparing to yours!

 

[VIRGIN87T]

I remember my father and I took our Turbo T to Laughlin, NV and back from Los Angeles and got around 22mpg. The car was completely stock then with probably aroung 85-90 thousand miles on it, and it ran great, even my father, who ordered the car brand new, was very surprised on how well the car ran and the gas milage we got. Great daily driver.

 

[2quiktocare]

Good report. Just shows when American auto makers decide to build a very universal car, they can do it. Try doing all that with a ricer. lol

 

[1ARUNEM]

Just got back from driving my 87T to Pigeon Forge, Tn. About 5 hours one way..

Tracked mileage up there was about 21mpg and that was with 50-60 miles of mountain driving.. Mileage on the way home was right at 23 mpg.. I was pleased..
It's a bench seat, column shift car so the seats were plenty cushy and room was in abundance. In fact, my wife slept in the back seat on the way home.

I had one issue.. My prom chip went bad when I was up there (see my thread in General Tech) but I simply stuck my race chip in and she brought me home. Always carry a spare..