We got back home on Saturday after our wonderful road trip around the country.
6,910 kms of sheer driving bliss
For us 60+ wrinklies who suffer from aches and pains on long trips, the 86 proved to be surprisingly comfortable.
It's as comfy as any other car I've owned including two 7-series Beemers and a Jag.
And yes, I openly compare them - huh??
The big and powerful luxury cars are great in one way, and the 86 in another way.
You just gotta decide which way gives you a h*rd-on. And I've worked that out...
It was a hoot. The 86 is just so much fun to drive!!
And of course, it's great to see so many people rubbernecking - not sure if that's because 86 or because orange...?
The Cape locals are so expressive. Love 'em!!
Compliments galore, and even some wanting their pics taken with the car. The funniest was a young lady at a remote farmstall near Hanover in the Karoo who had her friend take several posed pics of her and my car. She said they'll drive her boyfriend crazy because he's a car nut and he's never seen an 86 in the flesh. Wow, she was so hyped, I think she's more of a car nut than him!!
Packing space needed some planning, and especially finding the right sized containers and luggage to fit properly. But we'd prepared well so it was easy. We had packing down to a fine art - two plastic crates of groceries/food/kitchen stuff. Two suitcases, two big togbags, an enormous 48lt coolerbox
, a bag of charcoal, braai grill and firelighters, and a bucket full of odds and ends. The bucket also came in handy to wash the car which I did whenever I could, and was important for the "feel good" factor when on the road.
We had serious doubts about how suitable the 86 would be for geocaching (which is what we do)
http://www.geocaching.com
And it was great. Obviously, there are limitations with off-road capability (LOL), but that aside, it was baie lekker. We thought that our old knees wouldn't like the in-and-out, in-and-out that geocaching requires, but having learnt the tricks of getting in-and-out of a very low car with wonky knees, it was a piece of cake. We found 363 geocaches on our trip and about 50 trig beacons (we also hunt trig beacons), and despite doing only easy ones, we found some really amazing geocaches, saw some amazing sights, and did some amazing things!!
We also found our 3,000th milestone geocache in KZN. An incredibly well camo'd geocache in a historical cemetary. <warm-and-furry-smiley-here>
The weather was stunning, and we managed to (just) miss the floods in the Cape. My heart goes out to the folks affected. I've seen pics which make me believe that the damage and impact is much greater than most think.
The only negative - friggin' speedbumps!!
Hate 'em with a passion
And I nearly fitted lowering springs - what a
BIG MISTAKE that would have been.
They're everywhere (that's speedbumps, not lowering springs), but especially in coastal towns, especially in the Eastern Cape and KZN. The only good thing about speedbumps is they give you a frustration outlet to see how fast you can go between them - which is fun. But really crap for fuel consumption and tyres.
Talking about fuel consumption - I got 8.0 to 8.5 L/100 on the open road. But in urban areas, which means speedbumps and stop-start geocaching, that dropped to 10.5 L/100. Average for the whole trip about 9 L/100 which is cool. We'd normally do a trip like this in my Fozzie and that would get about 13 L/100.
I'm thrilled that I got home OK on my tyres which I wasn't sure would make the distance.
But they did - and they're still looking good for some more abuse.
Getting much better kms from them than I expected for semi-slicks.
(Federal 595 RS-R 235/40-17) I think they're over 20k already.
A really wonderful trip, and we'll do another as soon as we can.
But for now, we'll settle for a few days next week in Magalies, geocaching and chilling out while my baby gets Vortech'd in Randburg
<profound statement ahead...>
An 86 is the best cure for ageing...