RX-7Liter on Power Tour 2000

This year, the crew at Hot Rod magazine set the route for Power Tour starting in San Bernadino, California and eastward to Panama City, Florida. Due to personal schedule limitations (vacation time) and a personal goal to visit the town where I built the car, I chose to go to further south to Central Texas (Austin), then head up to Elk City, Oklahoma to meet up with the Power Tour. I missed the kick off party in San Bernadino, the strip action at Phoenix International Raceway, and the Alberquerque stop, but was able to fill in sufficient memories during the ride in to meet up with the tour.

RX-7Liter stats for Power Tour 2000

15.3 MPG for the trip (was 14.7 last year), mileage increase due to headers made during winter of ‘99.
Drove through the capital city for the majority of states along the way.

+ Best straitaways were found in Oklahoma.
- Worse rainstorm was in Denton, Tx. (one inch per hour, flash floods, really bad)

Here is the day-by-day to meet up with the Power Tour 2000 crowd

Thursday June1: Kingston, NY to Jackson, Tn. 1,000 miles

Saw some hot rods up in Pennsylvania, and my hopes were soaring for about an hour as I thought that I may have some company for the ride southwest, but those guys were all headed to the Carlisle Pa. fairgrounds for an early start on the weekend. There wer no other cool cars sighted after passing the Carlisle failrgrounds... The car (RX-7Liter) was running good. Weather was fair with no rain and mild temperatures. Drove from 8:15 AM until around 12:45 AM, stopped west of Nashville, Tennessee.

Friday June2: Jackson, Tn. to Waco, Tx. 950 miles

Started out with coffee and a McBreakfast to go. As the morning turned to mid-day, I started to feel the heat, and had a thirst for a few gallons of water. Stopped at Browns Country Store and Buffet in Arkansas for a great country style buffet. Too bad I was on the road and eating light. High temperature for the day was around 93, and the engine ran no hotter than 210 degrees, but I had to adjust the electric fan thermostat to keep the fans from running while on the highway. This is hottest weather the car has seen so far, since living in Massachusetts and Power Tour East was in October (mild climate). I had reached the Texas state line late before sundown, but was really tired by the time I reached Waco, so I stopped there at a Motel 6.

I found that the official hotel of the Power Tour did not give price breaks if the hotel was not on the main route. (an bummer for people driving in to meet the tour)

Saturday June 3: Waco Tx to Round Rock, Tx.

It rained overnight. I took some extra time for breakfast at the Cracker Barrel (a favorite) and hit the road around 9:30. Along the way, I met up with a guy in a hopped up Chevy pickup from a racing shop in Austin. We traded exhaust tones and took turns leading traffic for a bit, then pulled over to chat. I noticed that the drivers side of my car appeared to be sitting a little lower than the rest of the car. Once in Round Rock, I did some sight seeing and visited some friends from my old neighborhood. As a precaution, I planned some creeper time to check out the suspension and found the driver side shock mount had fatigued and bent to a 45 degree angle. This had to be repaired, or I would not be able to meet up with the Power Tour in Elk City.

Thanks to some my adopted pit crew Jeremy and Daniel Fell, we were able to pull the rear out and take it to a local muffler shop for a repair and get the car back together by 6:30 PM for the Round Rock cruise night.

I parked the car with the other "local" Texas rodders.

To be continued…