I just bought Sarcux's 1978 classic Mini. Minor issue, I'm in Las Vegas, the car is just outside of Cleveland.

So I took 2 days off work (1 rest/emergency day) and booked a 1-way flight to Cleveland.

The plan was this:
Work Friday.
Fly out at 10:45pm Friday night direct to Cleveland, sleeping on the 4 hour flight.
Arrive at 6:45am local time, get picked up by Sarcux and get on the road in the Mini by about 7:30am.
Stop at a BMV and get temporary tags from Ohio.
Drive to Omaha, arriving about 7pm, crash at my sister-in-law's house.
Sunday, drive to Denver or beyond, as far as I felt like driving past Denver.
Monday, drive to Las Vegas.
Tuesday, sleep, relax and recover.

Here's what happened:
The plan was to catch a red-eye flight from Vegas to Cleveland, get picked up by Sarcux, get in the Mini by about 7am and drive it home to Vegas over 3 days.

So...what actually happened?

Plane was an hour late leaving Vegas, making us almost an hour late arriving. Why the hell was an 11pm flight OUT of Las Vegas for Cleveland on a Friday night completely full? Weird as eggs.

Anyway, I get to the Mini after a ride in Sarcux's "flag car" MCS. It's a full car Union Jack like the one in Austin Powers. Very cool. I definitely don't want a Magnaflow on my MCS though. I get moving about 9am. Only 2 hours late.

I was planning on driving about 1 1/2 hours then stopping at a BMV (Ohio has a Bureau of Motor Vehicles, not a Department) to get my temporary tags. I find the BMV, but their computers are down. 45 mins later they finally come up, and after about another 30 mins I get to the front of the line. "No, we can't give you temp tags because when the seller signed the title, he didn't get the signature notarised". Bastards.
So I ate and got back on the road, another 1 1/2 hours behind schedule.

I80 through Ohio and Indiana is a toll road. I spent about $15 in tolls which was fine, the painful bit was having to lean across the car to pay the toll-people. Stupid seat belt!

I got lots of smiles and waves on the road and every time I stopped for petrol. A real attention grabber!

I was going great until I got to the middle of Iowa when the car started losing power and heating up. I pulled over and checked the oil. About 3mm on the bottom of the dipstick. Crap. Sarcux told me he'd just had an oil change done. Crap, crap, crap. So I nurse it to the next town and find a Casey's that sold oil. Bought 4 quarts. Put 1 quart in and the level was above the Max line. Bizarre. Got back on the road, another 1/2 hour or so behind.

A little while later, I noticed that every time I hit a bump, I was seeing sparks in my mirror. That's never a good sign. So I pull over at the next exit, the rear exhaust mount has given way and the exhaust is scraping the road every time I hit a slight bump. 3 gas stations at the exit, and not one of them had any wire. Not even a wire hanger holding up any of the "I filled up in Iowa" t-shirts. So I grabbed the extension cord out of my laptop bag and used it to tie the exhaust up to the car. Ate again. Another lost 45 mins.

Got back on the road, it's about 9:30pm by this time, and I have been on the go for about 40 hours with about 3 hours dozing on the plane my only rest. A while later, I'm about 30 minutes (40 miles) from my sister-in-law's house in Omaha. Flashing lights appear in my mirror. Bugger!!!! Cop pulls me over and walks to the wrong side of the car. I guess he wasn't expecting a RHD car. Told me I was doing 81 in a 65 zone. When I explained why I didn't have registration papers, and showed him the title and explained about the Ohio BMV and everything, he took pity on my and gave me a warning on the speeding, and a $70 non-moving violation for a non-registered car for the unregistered car. Well, I had given him my Australian license, so as long as I never get pulled over again in Iowa, I should be fine.

Another 30 mins burned before I got back on the road. I finally got to Omaha, had a shower and collapsed in a large heap for the night. End of Day 1.

Day 2.
Played with the baby for a while, not just my nephew, also my godson. Got on the road about 9am. Somewhere between Omaha and Kearney, I hit a bump and I discovered that the rear subframe had been heavily rusted by the salt that Ohio puts on their roads in winter, because it broke on 1 side. The rear driver's side wheel was now rubbing on the wheel arch any time I made a left turn. The outside edge of the tire was visibly melting. [img]images/smilies/eek.gif[/img] Oh well, nothing I can do about it, I'll just try to avoid lefts.
At this point, I didn't know it was the subframe. I assumed it was the nylon cup which wears out in classic Mini dual cone suspension that had gone. I had that happen on 1 of my old Minis in Australia.

The rest of day 2 was pretty uneventful, driving through Nebraska and Colorado. I saw the only MINI for the whole trip (PW/checkerboard) just after leaving Denver. Stayed the night in Vail. Never again. $69 for a room that you would walk out of for $39 in Vegas. And no air conditioning!

Day 3.
Stopped at the bottom of the mountain because the rubbing on the tire was getting worse. Went to a Big O to see if they could bodge up something to keep the wheel arch off the tire. That was when I discovered that it was actually the subframe that was the issue. Oh well, nothing for it but to keep driving and avoid bumps. With the wheel rubbing, I was still getting about 35mpg at 80mph. Not bad at all for a car that is almost as aerodynamic as a housebrick.

So I kept going, but every time I hit a bump I could tell it was getting worse, and I was getting worried that the tire was going to blow out on me at 80mph. Not fun at all. I was almost out of Utah when I hit a huge bump in a construction zone and the tire started audibly rubbing constantly. Scared me enough that I decided to give up and drop to my backup plan. U-Haul. So I limped to the next exit at Cedar City and found the U-Haul office. It closed at 7pm and it was 7:30. Damn!!!!
Found a hotel and collapsed.

Day 4 (not in the original plan)
Went back to U-Haul and rented a 14' truck. The guy told me that putting a car inside a truck voided the rental contract, then offered to let me use his ramps (for $10) to get the car in the truck. After some manipulation, and the use of a loading dock, I got the car in the truck and headed off for the last 170 miles of the 2100+ mile trip. An uneventful trip back to Vegas where I unloaded the car (rented much better ramps from Home Depot for $8), then returned the truck and ramps and collapsed in a large heap for the night.

The flight to Cleveland was $79, I spent about $100 on fuel in the Mini, $70 for the hotel in Vail, and about $100 on food, oil and other crap.
The hotel in Cedar City was $43, the truck rental was $225, $60 for fuel, $18 for ramps. The last 170 miles cost me about 1 1/2 times the entire rest of the trip.
But I made it back, and now I have to get the car back on the road.

 

Wow. That sounds like quite an adventure.


How was the Mini going over Loveland Pass (Eisenhower Tunnel) and Vail Pass?

 

hey, it's a classic mini, what did you expect!

i'm taking my classic on a rallye this weekend for a total of 225 miles. i'm packing all my tools, spare belts and cables, my cell phone and AAA card.

wish me luck!

 

Going uphill, I kept having to drop to 3rd gear (it's only a 4-speed), but other than that, no worries. In 3rd, and on the flatter or downhill areas in 4th, I was passing much newer and bigger cars.

 

Good luck.
The entire trip, according to Streets and Trips was a little over 2100 miles, not allowing for detours for sleeping/fuel/meals/repairs/BMV/etc.
The Mini made over 1900 before I lost confidence in his ability to finish the trip. It's possible that he MIGHT have made it all the way home, but it would have really sucked to have not quite made it and been stuck on the interstate, unable to get it to a U-Haul, or into a truck once I got it there.

 

Well, despite the drawbacks, I do hope you enjoyed the adventure. I was scared to death for you knowing that you were driving a car not made for highways across the country - I do hope the little guy is treating you well, I miss it more every day.

Hopefully you've gotten everything sorted out. I imagine its loss of power was simply from running so hard - it did that to me in a parade once, but was fine once I let it sit for 10 minutes.

 

You are a brave soul. I was amazed you intended to drive it so far. I'm also amazed you made it the whole way with no plates and only a minor non-moving violation. A pretty face will get you everywhere, I guess

 

A pretty face? http://www.livejournal.com/users/agro42/
I used to drive my old classics on long trips in Australia without a second thought. The only difference was that Mini parts are much easier to obtain in Aus than in the US. The car was delivered to me with a UK plate still on the back. Maybe that had something to do with it?

It was tiring the 1st day (as expected) and worrying the 3rd day, but otherwise fine and fun. Not made for highways? Of course it is! It's a touring car! Happily sat on 80mph all day. All it needed was the twin tanks to give longer range, and I wouldn't have needed to stop almost at all!

I think the loss of power thing was due to the oil situation. And I think I know what the issue was there. You told me you got an oil change just before I got there. I assume Jiffy didn't have the engine in their system? That means they didn't know how much oil to put in. My guess is that they filled it till the dipstick read "max". Then, when the engine was started, the oil filter filled up, taking out 1/4 of the oil in the system, making it so low. That's why, when I added a quart, it went to above "max".

Anyway, I have to get back under the car and get that subframe off.

 

Closest thing they had was an MG 1275 I believe... but that doesn't account for the tranny.

80 mph? Worked it hard! I think I've had it going around 88... surprisingly stable at those speeds. I usually would let it purr around 70.

 

When I got pulled over, the cop told me I was doing 81. And the speedo was sitting right on the 60mph mark. I didn't accelerate hard to get to 80, but once I was there I was just cruising at about 3500 revs (during the day, don't know what the revs were at night ).

 

Sounds about right. You got lucky with that nonmoving violation.

 

Yes I did, but it still wouldn't affect my insurance due to "accidently" giving my Aussie license.