I wrote up our road trip from Syracuse, NY to the outer banks of North Carolina some months ago. Turns out that 11 straight hours of driving in the car one-way wasn't enough for us, so this past weekend we headed out to Baton Rouge to visit my son and daughter-in-law. The trip was about 22 hours each way, not taking the one-hour time zone difference into account. Except for gas stops about every four or five hours and stopping for 45 minutes for an actual "sit down" dinner on the way home, we did both trips non-stop. Left our home Wed night at about 8pm, and got back home on Sunday at about noon. A lot of driving; I did most of the 44 hours, but my wife spelled me for a total of about 10 of the hours.
Some more observations..
1. The visibility, assuming the side mirrors are adjusted properly, is absolutely top notch. Cars flowed from the rear-view to the side-views to direct sight-lines without a gap anywhere, and you can change lanes and avoid oncoming and apporaching traffic with complete confidence while always facing forward; zero, and I mean ZERO, blindspots.
2. No snow, very little rain, temps above 40 deg F in SYR up to upper 80s in BTR. Referencing the other thread re/ snow vs summer tires for this trip, we went with the summer tires and, thankfully, it paid off.
3. Hit one bad stretch of extreme fog. Fortunately, the state it was in (don't remember, to be honest.. sometime during the wee hours of the night somewhere) takes fog seriously and had installed those incredibly AWESOME raised reflectors between lanes and along the fog lines. It was like playing the world's easiest video game or flying a HITS. How come NYS can't figure out how to install those? Yeah, OK... they can't be raised because our snowplows would dig'em up on the first snow fall.. but still.... there's gotta be SOME way to get some serious reflecting material embedded flush in the roadway. LOVED'em. How is this related to driving an FR-S? WHO CARES! I LOVED the darn things..
4. Back on topic - driving position. This car must have been designed for me; I don't sit in it, I WEAR it. The car feels like an extension of me, almost like some futuristic form of enhanced capability. I hate to sit still, and almost never sit down at home or work during the day except when playing piano (my profession). Yet, in this car, 22 hours sitting in pretty much exactly the same position didn't really bother me; stretched out at each gas stop a bit, but after the weekend trip I still felt great.. no soreness or other physical issues except for just being a little tired. From the standpoint of sheer driveability, I have found no better car so far.
5. Here's a negative that really made itself known and more obvious after doing a trip of this length. This car is LOUD (ours is completely stock), and 44 hours of loud road, wind, and engine noise really did detract from the joy of driving the car. Around town or on short hops (five hours or so), it never really bothered me. However, I found myself not listening to the radio or the flashdrive mp3s onboard simply because my ears had been assaulted enough. Conversations between my wife and I were reminiscent of those comedic greeting cards depicting chronologically enhanced folks attempting communication.. "It's Thursday..." "I'm thirsty, too"... "I thought you were 34.." etc. We both said "What?" and "Huh?" more than anything else. We're both jazz and classical musicians who've babied our hearing throughout our lives; upper 50s in age, but our hearing is still quite good. We want/NEED to keep it that way, and the car worries me a bit.
6. Gas mileage, while still excellent, suffers significantly as speed goes aboe 65mph. On our trips to NC, there's some 70 mph zones, but there's also long stretches where the limit is 50 mph (Delaware, I'm talking to YOU.. what the heck is WRONG with you?!!?). On those trips, we average 38-40 mpg. Down to LA, the limits are usually 70mph, and almost never below 65mp. I do about 4 over, and my wife goes about 7 over. We only averaged 34.5 computed by hand or 36 indicated by the car this time.
7. Although I pretend to not care about it much, it really is pretty fun to own a fairly rare car; we only saw one other twin on the entire trip. I tooted my horn and waved, and was totally ignored. So much for the fraternity...
8. People suck. OK, most don't. The ones that do, however, suck so much that it ruins my enjoyment of people as a whole. I've gotta work on that. What am I talking about? There are FAR too many reckless, inconsiderate idiots behind the wheel. The sheer number of folks driving well over 100 mph, weaving in and out of traffic that was already going 10-15 over and making it look it was standing still, riding literally 6" off my back bumper at times... for WHAT?!?!? Fun?!? You know, if someone has a deathwish, I tend to want to talk them out of it so they can enjoy a long life, but hey, if I'm unsuccessful, at least I tried and if they die, it's their choice. HOWEVER... these @#$# are definitely going to take a few innocents down with them eventually, and that is totally inexcusable. I've lost people (as I'm sure most of us have who've been on the planet a while, and many who haven't yet, too), and preventable deaths are so difficult to accept. STOP DRIVING SO SELFISHLY, whoever you are. I drive like I preach.. it's a team sport. Stay out of the passing lane unless you're passing. Move over to allow merging traffic to get onto the highway before the merge lane disappears. Move over for stopped cars and emergency folks. Use signals. DON'T pass someone in such a way that would prevent them from getting out of merging traffic's path or moving over for stopped vehicles (THIS IS A BIGGIE). Common sense.. yet it seems to evade most folks. The worst offenders? (ALERT.. ALERT... GENERALITY AHEAD) Pickup trucks, especially white ones, beat up minivans, Acuras, and small tuned up Japanese cars in general. Fortunately, given the visibility pluses of the FR-S detailed earlier coupled with it's great handling and decent quickness, we didn't have any close calls. I DID have to delete some untoward language that escaped our lips from the dashcam footage, but that was about the extent of the damage.
9. On a more positive note, major KUDOS to our brothers and sisters behind the wheels of all the transport vehicles and 18-wheelers in general. Without exception, these guys/gals were all pros this trip. THEY drove like we're all supposed.. as a team. I stayed out of their way down hills, they helped me out similarly on steep uphills, and they reminded me that yes, Virginia, there ARE folks who are considerate out there. One of the main reason I love to drive through the night; most of the folks on the highways at 3 AM are pros. Yes, there are exceptions.
10. I love, Love, LOVE the electric steering in this car. It tracks straight like it's on rails effortlessly, and pointing it down the road is virtually effortless. Great feedback on turns, just the right amount of resistance.. I can't say enough good things about the steering.
11. I never noticed it before, but I miss the lack of handgrips above the door windows. They're nice to use an alternate arm position for a while, or to help stretch occasionally.
12. I know there's no room, but I still miss having a sunroof/moonroof.
I guess that's about it. After a year and half and 27,000 miles of driving (close to 50,000 on the car now), I can say that this car is the most enjoyable to drive of any car I've ever owned, and that's saying something. I'll probably buy another one when this one dies, if I'm still alive.. I tend to keep cars until they completely fall apart. I DO wish it was quieter, had handgrips, and a sunroof. Guess there's no such thing as a perfect car. This one is about as close as I've found.
Best to all..
Barry