Driving long distance

[rob07]

I drive my 63 Austin Healey Sprite usually less than 5 miles once or twice a month,on rare occasions maybe up to 30 or 40 miles.
I am considering a 3 &1/2 to 4 hour long distance drive each way this weekend,is this unwise,or likely to give me problems.the car is reasonable condition and fairly reliable,but has some clutch judder and overheats in traffic.

[alfaspecial]

One of my childhood memories of the 1970's.

Every weekday, my Dad drove about 10 miles to work and never (seemed) to have any mechanical breakdowns.....
We would have our summer holiday - Dad would pack the car the night before and we would all be up at 6am to make an early start (driving from Ormskirk, Lancashire to say Cornwall) get in the car and Dad would turn the ignition and ........... nothing!
An hour later the AA would turn up - we'd start the journey - and then have at least a couple more breakdowns before arriving in Cornwall late, tired and fed up.
Well, that's what I remember!


Seriously, go for a longish drive tonight. When you plan your trip consider routing / leaving early to avoid traffic but other than that, when you go on your 'big trip' make sure the car has been fully charged, correct tyre pressures etc and you have some tools and breakdown consumables (points/ condenser etc). I think you'll be fine. But, in case I'm wrong have relay recovery......

Us classic car drivers can be a bit precious with our 'classics'. Our 'old' cars, driven just a few careful miles build up problems. A good long blast - what mechanic's call an 'Italian Tune Up' will do wonders.


Have fun

Edited by alfaspecial on Thursday 5th September 08:07

[Turbobanana]

Similar situation, OP. I have a 1971 Triumph GT6 and last September needed to vacate my garage while doing some building work. My in-laws kindly offered dry, warm, secure garaging a 2-hour drive away. The weather was hot and there were known hold-ups due to roadworks that I couldn't avoid. (It was not dark and I was not wearing sunglasses )

I set off nervously, having double checked everything important. The car relished the trip, feeling freer and more lively as the miles passed. It handled the hold-ups well, although we did put the blower on and set the heater controls to hot at one point, just to be sure. I watched the gauges like a hawk, but I honestly think it did it some good.

Enjoy the trip, and see how many admiring glances you get from drivers of moderns.

[RONV]

We are setting off again on Sunday Hull to Rotterdam then drive through Holland and Belgium to France for 2 weeks and 8 hotels and about 2000 miles which we do twice a year May and September and as I am 81 this year I hope we can do a few more years before I sell the cars.

[RONV]

Been doing these trips over 30 years and we both have loved it, better than sitting in a wet field on a Sunday talking the same old bull.

[daqinggregg]

People in the travel section ‘Where was I?’ thread, still waiting to find out where the bloody hell your FCCC, was;



Here’s to many more years happy

[RONV]

Sorry climbing up from Davos on our way to Cortina de Ampezzio absolutely super roads.

[VeeReihenmotor6]

When it comes to older cars I think the only way you can make them reliable for long trips is to use them for long trips. Sure you can go through replacing the obvious failure points but only a longer trip will highlight it's weaknesses and if there are none then it builds your own confidence in the car so that you are prepared to take it out on longer trips.

[ingenieur]

I drove to Finland from London through Europe before. More than 2000 miles for the round trip. In our convoy of older cars the unexpected breakdowns were one rear shock popped through on my car due to rust which hadn't been picked up on the MOT (despite moaning about a load of unimportant stuff) and alternator brushes failing on one of the other cars. Other than that it was okay. But you never know what will get thrown your way when you start off on a long drive in an older car and that's part of the fun... unless you end up waiting all night for a breakdown truck.

[//j17]

In principle you shouldn't give it a second thought. Someone driving a Sprite as their daily driver in the 60's or 70's wouldn't have and I don't driving my Spitfire 3+hrs home to see family or 8hrs down to Le Mans each June.

BUT it seems you have mechanical issues you know about but haven't addressed... Depending on how much clutch judder/what type of diving you'll be doing (motorway with few gear changes with few hill starts vs. switch-back Alpine passes with constant ones) that probably won't cause issues. The overheating is more of a concern as the cooling system [u]should[/u] but more than up to the job. I guess it again comes down to the type of driving/risk of going from a period at high RPM straight to sat in queue for ages.

[Slowboathome]

//j17 said:

In principle you shouldn't give it a second thought. Someone driving a Sprite as their daily driver in the 60's or 70's wouldn't have and I don't driving my Spitfire 3+hrs home to see family or 8hrs down to Le Mans each June.

Hmm. We used to get our Mark 2 Cortina serviced before we went on holiday in the '70s.

Dad figured the car would need to be checked and serviced before such a long trip. The trip in question was 75 miles from Essex to the Kent coast.

[Riley Blue]

Deal with those two issues and go from 'fairly reliable' to 'very reliable'. There's no reason why a '63 Sprite shouldn't cope with an eight-hour round trip.

I do +/-200 miles most summer Sundays in my '63 Riley. Old cars need to be driven.

[Turbobanana]

Something else I just remembered: unless you 100% trust your speedo, get a cheap dashtop GPS one. The number of speed cameras around nowadays makes this an essential for me.

Other than that, as said above - trust the engineering. Cars were designed to do this sort of stuff. The fact that it's XX years old shouldn't change that, or put you off, but make allowances for wear and tear and reduce the risk as far as possible with the correct servicing, maintenance and spares.

[Elderly]

Slowboathome said:

Hmm. We used to get our Mark 2 Cortina serviced before we went on holiday in the '70s.

Dad figured the car would need to be checked and serviced before such a long trip. The trip in question was 75 miles from Essex to the Kent coast.

The very competent mechanic who owned a small garage where we took our cars in the 70s,
always advised against getting a car serviced just before a long ( holiday ) trip.

[mac96]

I used to have an old MGBGT. I regularly drove from South London to North Wales or the Wirral. It never left me at the roadside. Which is more than I can say for the Golf which replaced it.

Really noone can answer the question as it depends upon the condition of your car, but my general experience of old cars was that faults developed gradually, so if you sorted them when you first noticed, you didn't breakdown!

[Riley Blue]

Turbobanana said:

Something else I just remembered: unless you 100% trust your speedo, get a cheap dashtop GPS one. The number of speed cameras around nowadays makes this an essential for me.

Or use a speedometer phone app, there are plenty of them, all free.

[aeropilot]

rob07 said:

I drive my 63 Austin Healey Sprite usually less than 5 miles once or twice a month,on rare occasions maybe up to 30 or 40 miles.
I am considering a 3 &1/2 to 4 hour long distance drive each way this weekend,is this unwise,or likely to give me problems.the car is reasonable condition and fairly reliable,but has some clutch judder and overheats in traffic.

That last point would have me questioning do the journey, especially if your intended journey this weekend is to Goodwood Revival?

[Turbobanana]

aeropilot said:

rob07 said:

I drive my 63 Austin Healey Sprite usually less than 5 miles once or twice a month,on rare occasions maybe up to 30 or 40 miles.
I am considering a 3 &1/2 to 4 hour long distance drive each way this weekend,is this unwise,or likely to give me problems.the car is reasonable condition and fairly reliable,but has some clutch judder and overheats in traffic.

That last point would have me questioning do the journey, especially if your intended journey this weekend is to Goodwood Revival?

This is a good point. The cooling system of a 50 year old car was designed to be efficient in a time when progress could reliably be made on roads, that is - you could keep moving. Electric fans and efficient radiators on modern cars take up the slack in todays levels of traffic.

[mac96]

Turbobanana said:

aeropilot said:

rob07 said:

I drive my 63 Austin Healey Sprite usually less than 5 miles once or twice a month,on rare occasions maybe up to 30 or 40 miles.
I am considering a 3 &1/2 to 4 hour long distance drive each way this weekend,is this unwise,or likely to give me problems.the car is reasonable condition and fairly reliable,but has some clutch judder and overheats in traffic.

That last point would have me questioning do the journey, especially if your intended journey this weekend is to Goodwood Revival?

This is a good point. The cooling system of a 50 year old car was designed to be efficient in a time when progress could reliably be made on roads, that is - you could keep moving. Electric fans and efficient radiators on modern cars take up the slack in todays levels of traffic.

Some truth in that ! Still, after 50 years the cooling system is often not at its best. I thought overheating was an inevitable part of MGB ownership, but flushing out the sludge and replacing a worn water pump made a big improvement.
Plenty of traffic jams in the 60s and 70s too!

[Rumdoodle]

mac96 said:

Turbobanana said:

aeropilot said:

rob07 said:

I drive my 63 Austin Healey Sprite usually less than 5 miles once or twice a month,on rare occasions maybe up to 30 or 40 miles.
I am considering a 3 &1/2 to 4 hour long distance drive each way this weekend,is this unwise,or likely to give me problems.the car is reasonable condition and fairly reliable,but has some clutch judder and overheats in traffic.

That last point would have me questioning do the journey, especially if your intended journey this weekend is to Goodwood Revival?

This is a good point. The cooling system of a 50 year old car was designed to be efficient in a time when progress could reliably be made on roads, that is - you could keep moving. Electric fans and efficient radiators on modern cars take up the slack in todays levels of traffic.

Some truth in that ! Still, after 50 years the cooling system is often not at its best. I thought overheating was an inevitable part of MGB ownership, but flushing out the sludge and replacing a worn water pump made a big improvement.
Plenty of traffic jams in the 60s and 70s too!

I use my full mileage allowance (I think 5k) and send my car to a specialist at least twice a year for routine maintenance and to check if anything is about to fall off. But, I still plan my trips to avoid heavy traffic wherever possible. On the way back from France a few months ago, I was queuing for about 15 minutes to get out of the ferry terminal and when I got to the immigration booth, the chap in there commented on "the heat coming off that." It's just uncomfortable. Otherwise, make sure you've got breakdown cover and get stuck in.

"Trust in God. But tie your camel."