Drive your cars (they're not "too nice" to use)

People, we need to have a serious talk. We build cars for all sorts of reasons, and they can be cheap things we put together quickly or a huge undertaking we labour over for years (like my car WHICH YOU CAN SEE THE BACK STORY HERE). So I get why people are a bit gunshy to hop in their cars and drive them interstate on big adventures on the open road... but this is wrong.

Having spent a couple years and 3000km shaking down the Pontiac, learning its quirks and improving some parts that needed a bit of work, I finally got a chance to take it on its first big solo trip this past weekend. Driving a 2000km round-trip in a 61-year-old car, even one with a modern ECU and engine package, isn't particularly easy but then I have always believed that if your car has trim and licence plates then there's no real excuse for not taking it on a road trip whenever the trip presents itself.

I've driven through 50-degree-Celcius heat in 70-year-old cars with no A/C, and battled driving rain in hot rods with no wipers, and while it sucked at that time, all of it was character-building and has made for great stories since. So, why not drive you car? Are you scared of cleaning it?

The reason for my trip was Optima. I've been a fan of the Optima Street Car Challenge, a multi-discipline event which aims to find the best "street car" against a loose criteria, for over a decade. It's an American event so I figured I'd never get a chance to run my car at one, until they brought it to Australia a few years ago. This was my chance so even though my car way more of an over-powered classic cruiser rather than a track-attacking corner-carver, I was determined to go. 

The Australian event is held in Melbourne, at the aging Calder Park facility. This meant I'd have a drive of 986km each way, because you don't trailer your car to a street car event, right? Well, Benny did but that had more to do with the fact the supercharged VE ute he brought along isn't actually his and he'd just borrowed it for the event.

Before I set off I did some precautionary checks, like spanner-checking all the bolts on the car, changing the oil and oil filter, topping up the transmission fluid and diff oil, and checking my wheel bearings were ok. I'm glad i did the last one as one actually needed to be nipped up slightly. I also packed a bunch of spares and tools into the Pontiac, as the Hume Highway between Sydney and Melbourne is infamously rough.

The image below includes a trolley jack, two spare wheels and tyres, a spanner roll, two jack stands, a socket set and other hand tools, spare oil and coolant, jumper cables, AN spanners, blankets, rags, cleaning gear and more. As the scouts say, be prepared.

I hit the road at 6am on Thursday, Feb 13. I live right near the Sydney CBD so I only had a couple of sets of traffic lights before I was on the motorway that would take me almost right into Melbourne itself. It was forecast to be a warm day (mid-30-degrees-Celcius) and I wanted to avoid driving my car in Sydney's abysmal peak hour traffic, so getting an early start was key.

My car's windscreen wipers don't work so i also wanted to beat the forecast afternoon rain. With RainX on the screens I can actually drive in pretty heavy rain with no issues, but stop-start traffic is an issue. 

I met up with Benny and my father-in-law Robin at Sutton Forest, some 140km later. I wasn't sure my fuel tank calibration had worked so it's better to stop early and often until you have a handle on your fuel consumption. As it turned out, my fuel sender is faulty and so I had to rely on odometer readings rather than my fuel gauge. 

While this sounds stressful stopping on the road is actually part of the fun of a road trip. I wish we had a good fun reason for our detour through Canberra but unfortunately a fatal truck crash had closed the Hume southbound and while it was awesome to see Lake George full of water I feel for the truck driver's family. 

Australia is a weird place, and this lake is actually normally dry so it's not often we get to see it full of water. This is the kind of stuff you miss out on if you don't drive your cars on adventures.

We kept heading sounth, stopping in Gundagai and Albury, and basically making time. Despite some pre-trip nerves about how the big barge might go (and how rough the road might be) it was absolutely belting along at 110km/h - the Haltech never even saw 95 degrees Celcius coolant temp, despite the day heating up to over 37-degrees (Celcius) by the time we passed the Victorian border around 130pm.

I made sure I drove the car fully aired up on its airbag suspension because I'd heard horror stories of how rough the Hume was. I'd hit some big bumps in NSW but nothing prepared me for how bad the road was in Victoria. That said, driving carefully I was able to make it down to Wallan fine, where I took on the last load of fuel before we turned off and headed for our accommodation in Gisborne (45min North-West of Melbourne). 

Literally 5minutes after we arrived a huge storm rolled through and soaked the cars, but the light immediately afterwards was so nice I had to towel it off and get a snap. Again, I wouldn't have gotten a pic I'm pretty stoked with unless I'd driven my car, and all it cost me so far was a few tanks of fuel, a day's driving, and a bit of Rapid Detailer.

Benny, Robin and I enjoyed a great night discussing cars, racing, and all manner of topics before we turned in. As it happens driving an old car 11 hours does take it out of you but it really meant I enjoyed the sleep, while Robin took the opportunity to snap some pics.

Friday was our day off so we had a cruisey day before heading down the road to meet Michael from Hackshop Garage. I've followed their channel and builds for years so it was great to meet Michael, and he generously let me run a spanner over the Pontiac and knock another oil change out before the event. A pre-track-day ritual of mine is to change the engine oil, and I think that comes from my history with turbo Subarus.

We had an early night as there was a 30minute drive to Calder Park the following morning, ahead of 12-hours of track action at the Optima Street Car Challenge. We headed out at 630am for Calder and while the skies looked good at Gisborne, they weren't as friendly closer in to Melbourne.

Having signed on to the event and unpacked our vehicles in the pits, we queued up for scrutineering and the heavens opened on us. This was where the wheels fell off my Optima campaign as the scruitineers wouldn't pass my car for track use due to the non-latching bench seat, and the style of harness I was using. This stung, but not everything goes completely to plan when driving old cars halfway down the east coast of Australia.

That doesn't mean you can't still have a fat time, you just have to work a bit harder to find the good vibes. 

I spent the day hanging out and talking with people, many of whom couldn't believe I'd driven he big yacht all the way from Sydney. Hanging out with my mates from Street Machine magazine, seeing Ying from Nugget Nationals (you've seen her on MCM before), cuddling Bubba, high-fiving Heath (who'd got married the weekend before and delayed his honeymoon to fit in Optima), seeing the Hackshop guys and Mackie from XYNOT... there was stacks of good times, despite all the challenges the weather threw at us, and me not being allowed on the track.

It was also great to meet some homies I've known through the internet for years but never met like Shannon Heraud with his supercharged, methanod-fuelled Holden V8-powered Escort burnout car "TUF253". 

`We rolled out at 7pm to head back to the accommodation for a quiet dinner and a few warming ales. The weather finally cleared up and let me snap one of my favourite pics of the Pontiac that I've taken so far. I couldn't get this view or sunset if it was parked in my apartment carpark...

I headed home late on Sunday morning (8am), having accidentally slept through my alarm. Still the drive back went well, despite a little rain around Wallan, and I made it back to Sydney by 5:30pm, just in time to give my son dinner and tuck him into bed.

Despite some butterflies about how the car would go on a 2000km trip, it did incredibly well. I've got a bit of an oil leak from a pinched sensor O-ring at the back of the block, and some of the window trim on the car needs attention now, but the rest of it held up incredibly well. I averaged 13.7L/100km fuel economy, it never even looked like overheating, and the rain didn't trouble me as I had coated the windscreen in RainX so it simply beaded off.

I took two hours to clean the car a few days later, giving it a good vacuum, wiping down the seats and cleaning the engine bay and wheels, and it's all ready to go for the next time I want to take it out... which is another 500km road trip in a couple of weeks time. 

So people, please drive your cars. Enjoy the open road and have adventures. I promise you even the times you're being challenged you'll look back on with good vibes.

If you're keen to see more, here are some other images from the trip: