Cooler Weekend?

[slomove]

Supposedly "down" to 75-80 degrees in the Mountains on Saturday (unfortunately warmer again Sunday&Monday).

Anybody interested in a round trip like that ?

E.g. meeting at Jazmine's in Newhall, Bouquet, Spunky, Pine Canyons, Frzier Park, Lockwood Valley, 33, Ojai and back to Moorpark. Or a shorter trip returning via Castaic Lake?

[johnh]

That would be a nice drive...

[Doug Liedblad]

Gert

Can't make it this weekend and most Saturdays are booked for me.

Doug

[slomove]

Given our last trip to Canada was cut short and after some discussion we decided to expand this one.

New Plan... We will not get to Hwy33 which is a shame but Tepusquet Canyon is a good alternative.

We are planning to stay at the Skyview Motel in Los Alamos Sat/Sun but not sure yet if we can get a room.

[rzempel]

Unfortunately, I'm headed to Seattle, so I can't join you. Otherwise, that looks to be a great drive.

Randall

[slomove]

We are scaling back to the original 1-day plan. This holiday weekend seems to be pretty crazy. Many hotels are sold out and the ones that are left are like $150 for a low rated Motel6. Some don't even pick up the phone anymore. Oh well, the first plan was not bad.

[Sean]

We have a company picnic on a weekday each year at a site 10-12 miles from the office. Almost every year, I drive the 7 to the picnic, but find myself taking a series of "wrong turns" on the return trip. Last year, after a good hour+ of "wrong turns" through the Santa Cruz mountains, I ended up stopping at the Boulder Creek Brewery to "ask directions" before finding my way back to work. I find weekdays work much better for drives, if the opportunity presents itself.

[johnh]

If you get lost at Sean suggests and find yourself in Fremont, CA this weekend I'll be at Ardenwood Park sans seven but with Calliope!

And, sadly, the Boulder Creek Brewery burned down a few months back. Tentative plans are to rebuild but the red tape hoops in Santa Cruz County are many and difficult...

[slomove]

Yes, I wish we could do such spontaneous trips during the week. Maybe in a few years after retirement...
But I am sure we will find one or the other opportunity to make wrong turns and ask for directions. Just need to turn of that GPS.

[sdcat]

Looks like a great drive! I will be up at Buttonwillow for the VARA event. This is only my third time at the track this year. Plenty of rooms available in Bakersfield! Enjoy your drive. Still would like to join a road trip some time.

Justin

[prabjohns]

Nice! I'd love to do that drive sometime. This weekend I can't though.

[slomove]

Good trip! In the morning it was cool enough to let us pack a jacket (never needed to put on). Breakfast at Jazmines' and the described loop. Lunch in downtown Santa Paula. It never got really hot temperature-wise but frying in the sun made us sweat as well. And the traffic going back on 118 and 210

[slomove]

I just filled up first time after that trip and needed only 7.29 gallons. Last gas station before that was in Newhall and I checked the mileage on Google Maps. 231 miles on one tank of gas which makes it 31 mpg. Not bad, that new SVT engine :) My old engine made 26 mpg at best. At my rate of 4000 miles per year the engine swap will pay for itself in only 25 years....

Admittedly we enjoyed the scenery and were not in a hurry other than passing a bunch of really slow cars. But I guess the milder valve timing makes a difference when cruising.

[GWise]

Gert - glad to hear the new SVT is serving you well. If my memory serves me right, your car previously had webers? What mileage did you get with them?

Since Sean and johnh have both commented on this thread, maybe I'll commandeer it and see if they or anyone else would like to take a short ~2 hour drive this sunday afternoon in the San Jose/Santa Cruz area?

[slomove]

Gert - glad to hear the new SVT is serving you well. If my memory serves me right, your car previously had webers? What mileage did you get with them?

Since Sean and johnh have both commented on this thread, maybe I'll commandeer it and see if they or anyone else would like to take a short ~2 hour drive this sunday afternoon in the San Jose/Santa Cruz area?

Sure, please feel free to recycle this thread! Unfortunately a little far for me. But at some point we should have another North/South drive in the middle, e.g. around Paso Robles.

The previous engine (Ford Contour silvertop) had Webers when I bought the car but after a year or so I had it with jet experiments to get them right. They were the newer 152 version of the DCOE45 made in Spain and apparently they were just not as good as the Italian original. I forgot how much gas the car used back then. I installed the fuel injection already 2004 and with the stage 2 Kent Cams and 10.6 compression I usually got 25 or 26 mpg on the highway, maybe 10-12 mpg or less on the track.