{FORGED?} Re: big Hornet trip

[AMC74Hornet@xxxxxxxxx]

On August 9, 2005 Tom Jennings wrote:

> Took a little 1000 mile jaunt this weekend in the Hornet, got back
> about 7pm today.
> 
> The nominal goal was to attend a han radio swap meet in Livermore
> with some friends and palm off junk I mean goods on unsuspecting
> fellow fools I mean never mind.
> 
> Friday, drove from Los Angeles to Oakland, via 99, through the
> Central Valley. Poor choice -- well over 100 and high humidity the
> whole way.  I have A/C, but it's in parts in boxes still. 70 - 74
> mph the whole way, got an easy 21+ mpg for this leg. This, with a
> trunk full of heavy junk, the car un-level from the weight in
> back.
> 
> Saturday, drove to Livermore, picked up friends, drove to SF to
> pick up an R390 (military radio) and surplus junk in Silicon
> Valley, in a nice air-conditioned SUV. Back to Livermore.
> 
> Sunday, 5am to the Livermore swapmeet, made only $80, not enough
> to break even for the trip (eh, nice, but not required :-), then
> headed to Carson City NV to a friends house. Over 100 again the
> whole time, the only car trouble was fairly heaving pinging around
> Placerville, 3000 ft altitude (and climbing towards 5000), 106
> degrees, water temp on the hot side of normal.
> 
> Monday, drove back home, down route 395, through Nevada and
> California, eastern side of the Sierra Nevadas. A spectacular
> drive, one of the best routes I've ever done, and I've done a lot
> of Western highways. 2/3rds of the way back to LA is well over
> 6000 feet (100 miles 7000 and up) so it's cool, mid 70's. Two to
> four lane open highway (not limited-access interstate), small
> towns every 5 - 50 miles, spectacular views, basically zero
> trucks.
> 
> I hate carburetors. All set for sea-level, it's rich at 7000 feet.
> I had some heat soak/vapor lock/gas boil issues after parking in
> the hot stuff, and flood at start, and poor idle, but the Weber
> was much better than the 4 bbl Holley, the last carburetor I did
> this highway in, damn thing had no power and stunk of gas the
> whole time.
> 
> Coming home I got 23-24 mpg (over 500 miles, two fillups), and I
> still have 250 lbs of unsold junk in the trunk!
> 
> Next time the A/C will be working!

Now that is what I call a great shake down cruise Tom, congrats. I am not familiar with the nose configuration of the pre-73 Hornet's but it sounds like you could use an electric cooling fan in front of the radiator for those higher elevation trips. I think I will have to modify the vertical hood latch brace in my 74 to have clearance for a fan and aux. tranny cooler, that is if I ever get the $%^&* interior done. 
"Doc"   










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