800+ Mile Road Trip - Drive Report & Pics

[Matticus91]

Had my bachelor party out in West Virginia this weekend at ACE Adventure Resort - stayed in a cabin Friday, did the Gauley whitewater rafting trip Sat, cabin overnight, and headed back home Sunday after hanging out/recovering from a long night of drinking! Highly recommend the trip for anyone in the area looking to try whitewater, it's a world-class river and one people travel from all over the world to do.

On to the car stuff - The drive is about 350miles from DC to Oak Hill, WV. We left DC around 4pm Friday and took 66 out to 81 to get into WV, this took us primarily through VA, which I am now convinced is the worst state in the country for anyone who likes to drive. A lot of these roads have "variable speed limits" which are posted via big electronic signs. For about 1.5-2hrs of our journey through VA these speed limits were between 45mph and 55mph.... on MAJOR highways, again we're talking about RTE 66 and 81 here!! And no, there was no construction. So that sucked major balls. Once we were out of the more populated areas I was able to open up a bit and the traffic was flowing around 65-70. We made it to ACE by 930pm which was overall pretty damn good considering the traffic getting out of DC and the ridiculous speed limits. No pics from that drive, just because it sucked and then was dark out lol.

On Sunday we packed up the cars and headed to checkout. Immediately I was greeted by the wonderful "oh shit" chime from my BMW and a big red notification on my cluster and iDrive display - all four tires were low on air. Ok, if it's all four I'm either the least fortunate person on the planet or it's a temperature/air density change that's lost me a few psi on all corners. Checked my left front tire and it was at 29psi, not bad, pretty typical for a temp/density change. Next was back left, 15psi... That's excessive... Filled them up and after a day I was back down another 10-15 psi on that tire so there's definitely a leak

The drive home took us past a car wash so we all stopped and hosed down the rides, i got a little carried away since the place was only charging $5 for a nearly unlimited manual wash lol. By me the same wash would be $15+

20170910_110212 by Matt Steele, on Flickr
20170910_110246 by Matt Steele, on Flickr

Hit the road with moderately clean vehicles and decided to take a different route. The route we took the first day is the lower one, 66 > 81 > 64. I was very much interested in avoiding VA this time so we took the "northern" option and boy was it a good one!

cap1 by Matt Steele, on Flickr

The route was full of scenic overlooks (none of which we stopped at lol) and wonderful views. The entire 5.5hr drive netted us two officers, neither of which was even on our side of the road. We were rolling just a tad faster than traffic and averaging near triple digits for 80% of the drive.

My friends in their Dodge Magnum RT, a very surprisingly fast car, even with 4 people + gear!

20170910_140122 by Matt Steele, on Flickr

20170910_142547 by Matt Steele, on Flickr

And my other DC buddy in his Mustang, he had to drive solo just because we didn't have enough room in the other cars lol

20170910_135842 by Matt Steele, on Flickr

20170910_135939(0) by Matt Steele, on Flickr

We avoided stopping too much since my crew in the Magnum were all headed back to my Motherland (NJ) and had a 10hr drive ahead of them.

20170910_124619 by Matt Steele, on Flickr

And a rare picture of me driving a reasonable speed in the right lane:
IMG_4077 by Matt Steele, on Flickr

Over the course of the 800+ mile trip we had quite a few "blasts" down open highways, with large amounts of highway cruising in between. The 1er performed flawlessly and I had zero issues the whole trip (other than the tire). I was running in Map 1 on the JB4 and averaged 27.6mpg for the duration, which I think is pretty freaking good considering I was not trying to optimize mileage. We also made it back to DC on just one tank, so no mid-trip fill-ups were required.

My poor car is completely caked with bugs, dirt, and road grime - inside and out lol. I plan to do a massive detailing this Wednesday, followed by some much needed high-quality pictures. We're now at 74k miles on the clock, this One get's driven!!

[Esteban]

Glad you had a good time and happy your car ran well, except for the low air, but that's no big deal. Here's hoping all your luck will be good from now on.

[Yeineken]

Looks like you had a fun time!

[Matticus91]

Originally Posted by Esteban

Glad you had a good time and happy your car ran well, except for the low air, but that's no big deal. Here's hoping all your luck will be good from now on.

Originally Posted by Yeineken

Looks like you had a fun time!

Definitely had a good time!

More bad news though, light came back on for the back right tire when I left work, so both back tires have a leak. I checked the front two and they are totally fine. Not sure what the cause is yet so need to get them into the shop to get the diag.

However I did have some luck and found out they're both still under warranty with Tire Rack! I thought the term was only a year for road hazard, which would have been up last month, but it's two years!!! They're going to pay for two new tires shipped to my door as long as the cause is listed as something they cover, which is essentially anything other than "negligence" or off-roading lol. Will never buy from anywhere except Tire Rack.

[Gray_Panther]

Looks like a blast! Wish I could take a 800mile road trip!

Good fortunes to you and your future wife.

[Matticus91]

Originally Posted by Gray_Panther

Looks like a blast! Wish I could take a 800mile road trip!

Good fortunes to you and your future wife.

Thanks! It was a great time

[ianc]

Before you get into it with tire rack, take an 11mm deep well and make sure the fill stems are tight on the TPMS sensors on each rim. I've had this cause a slow leak on me.

Looks like a great trip! I hope it only gets better for you down the road...

ianc

[mike@x-ph.com]

Nice and congrats!

[Matticus91]

Originally Posted by ianc

Before you get into it with tire rack, take an 11mm deep well and make sure the fill stems are tight on the TPMS sensors on each rim. I've had this cause a slow leak on me.

Looks like a great trip! I hope it only gets better for you down the road...

ianc

Yeah I had checked that, no dice. Good thing to check for sure though!

Originally Posted by mike@x-ph.com

Nice and congrats!

Thanks!