Rain, Rain, So What
I took my 2006 Tungsten Gray Ghost on road trip#1. Eleven days on the road. A total of 3,838 miles. Each mile better than the one before it.
Itinerary went like this: leave home - Seattle, drive to Eastern Washington- Wenatchee - had lunch with my friend Gary. Continued east on I-90 to Spokane to see my son and show him my new car. He loved it. Then drove S.E through Washington wine & wheat country towards Eastern Oregon. Continued on to Boise, Idaho to visit my cousin. He liked the car. From there I went to Salt Lake City, Utah. Headed south so I could visit the new Miller Motor Sports Park in Tooello. (If not the nicest race track facility in the US it ranks right up with the best of the best.) From Tooello I headed south to Las Vegas to visit another cousin. She liked the car. Although we had a "Portico Car" didn't go down to the Strip. Left Lost Wages about noon. My sister called from Florida and gave me route instructions to the Mojave Desert route to Palm Springs. Got to Palm Springs in 3:25. Not too bad for a 300 mile drive.Left Palm Springs and went to Sonoma. The Gray Ghost turned over 4,000 about 10 miles north of the top of the Grapevine. I love the new power.
Met my friend Gary, who I had lunch with on day one, for dinner. Continued north on U.S. 101 along the California coast to Cresent City. From there east to I-5 then north to Portland. Took my insurance lady for a ride and out to lunch. She liked the car. That afternoon I drove back home to Seattle.
A few observations from Road Trip #1. The GT is one Superior Car. Never did turn on the radio, the music was behind me. At 90 the wind noise from a half rolled down window was about the same as 35. About one camera phone picture for every 100 miles traveled. Every other block when in town. The truckers like the car. 2nd gear is great for passing on a two lane road. Start at 35 and merge back into the right lane at 100 keeping it in second gear. All in the space of a semi with two trailers. Stay in the right lane and open your window and smile for the photo oportunities of the passing cars. If you don't, they tend to get erratic and unpredictable. Was nearly ran off the road a couple of times by kids trying to get a picture. They All Liked The Car.
Now back to the title of this missive. Rain, Rain, So What. Of the eleven days of driving, 9 were in rain, hail and snow. Went over four moutain passes that ranged from 3,500' to 6,000' all with snow on the road. No problems what so ever. At freeway legal speeds the glass engine cover stays absolutely dry. I was just amazed at that. Engine compartment got a little wet, and had a slight leak from the engine hatch in very heavy rain. The rear window never got a drop on it. The car stayed real clean. The aero work Ford did on the GT's is amazing. The tops of the rear fenders had dirt streaks on them, as did the rear, but the rest of the car was wet but not dirsty. The wipers and washers work just fine. The front splitter can push up to 5-6" of snow without a problem. I did stop and remove some accumulated snow from the air ducts on the front at a rest stop. The defroster works better than any car I've even owned.
Now for the two dry days of my trip. If you want a fun ride go from Primm, Nevada to Scion. Two lane blacktop, decent shape this year. It crosses the Mojave. The only time I checked my gas mileage on this trip. Averaged 23.5 across the desert.From Scion you head to 29 Palms. Familiar if you were a Marine. The down the mountain to the low desert, and a visit with my golf clubs. Suuny all the way. Managed to go 108 knots for 45 minutes straight. Fun Stuff. Also it was sunny from Portland to Seattle . I-5 is boring but I had to get home.
Moral to the story - these cars were meant and designed to be driven. In all types of weather. I expect to be over the mileage limits for the warrantee period by this October.
A dirty car can always be cleaned up but a clean car is just growing dust in your garage. Not much fun just looking at your GT. Well that's not quite true, fun to look at but more fun to drive.
I hope to have 100,000 miles on the Gray Ghost with in 4 years. Kept clean, maintained well and driven. Lots of smiles per mile. Earlier this year someone suggested a bag full of 100's as the perfect traveling accesory. I concur. I was alone on this trip. The right seat held a small overnighter and a soft duffell. The Trunk held some cleaning rags, two pairs of tennis shoes and a fleece pullover.
Road trip #1 was a shakedown cruise. Road Trip #2 is to the Gala Rally in Detroit. That will be a month long and about 10,000 miles, give or take a few miles. Bad weather be damned.
Get er out of the garage and on the road.
Reagrds to all
PL510*Jeff
P.S. At about 120 on a wet road the spray nearly all goes under the car. Very little to the side. Watch out for truck and studded tire ruts that are full of water, duh, the car gets a little light then. The areodynamics that went into this vehicle is amazing. Some truckers came up to me a rest stop and said that they were watching and the spray from under the car goes through the splitters and tends to merge together about 25' behind the car. They said it looks like a roo :rofl :cheers ster tail from a hydroplane. Next time I'll have a rear facing camera to capture this myself.
