patrick66
Old Man with a Hat
I drove my '66 Coronet 500 on what's called the "Hot Rod Hundred" today - it's a rolling car show and reliability run that started in a park in Mustang, OK and wound its way along two-lane State highways (and a small part of the old Route 66) and county roads to a park in Enid, OK. The drive was actually 154.3 miles; about 30 miles further than last year. I drove the Imperial last year. Today was perfect ragtop weather, but I'm still working on the Imp. My goal was to put miles on the Coronet this year, as it got maybe 20 road miles for the whole of '16! Made up for last year, as the total mileage for the car was a whopping 322 miles! That's the most one-day mileage the car has had on it since at least 2010, when we were doing a film shoot. Overall fuel mileage was 13.667, which is pretty damn good, considering this included a few wide-open runs at 100+mph.
There were over 225 cars and pickups this year. The run was limited to 1972 and older, though there were about a dozen cars between 1980 and 2010 in the run, too. We made a stop in Ames, OK, whihch is the home of the Hajek Collection of very famous Ford drag cars, Bonneville runners and NA$CAR cars, along with a sprinkling of two Mopars and three Chevys. All racing, all the time!
Had to do a few last-minute thrashes to the Coronet that damn near kept me home! First was a broken exhaust hanger, which the parts store had last night and I fixed. Second was the battery, which went dead as a result of me leaving the radio powered on and the ignition in the ACC mode. Charged that overnight. Third was the dash problems. The speedo needs to be professionally restored in order to function. The odometer works and I have GPS on the phone, so I'll simply reinstall the cluster, right? Oh, it really didn't want to go back in the car at all! Then, three of the dash lights decided to take a vacation, along with my dash turn indicators. Oh, c'mon, already! And I thought I had the gas gauge problem fixed. Nope. can't get a good ground at the tank, so I'll work that later. So, check all the fluids and tire pressure...got my spares and cleaning crap in the trunk...got my drinks and phone...Cool! Set the alarm for 5:30am and wait for the morning!
There were over 225 cars and pickups this year. The run was limited to 1972 and older, though there were about a dozen cars between 1980 and 2010 in the run, too. We made a stop in Ames, OK, whihch is the home of the Hajek Collection of very famous Ford drag cars, Bonneville runners and NA$CAR cars, along with a sprinkling of two Mopars and three Chevys. All racing, all the time!
Had to do a few last-minute thrashes to the Coronet that damn near kept me home! First was a broken exhaust hanger, which the parts store had last night and I fixed. Second was the battery, which went dead as a result of me leaving the radio powered on and the ignition in the ACC mode. Charged that overnight. Third was the dash problems. The speedo needs to be professionally restored in order to function. The odometer works and I have GPS on the phone, so I'll simply reinstall the cluster, right? Oh, it really didn't want to go back in the car at all! Then, three of the dash lights decided to take a vacation, along with my dash turn indicators. Oh, c'mon, already! And I thought I had the gas gauge problem fixed. Nope. can't get a good ground at the tank, so I'll work that later. So, check all the fluids and tire pressure...got my spares and cleaning crap in the trunk...got my drinks and phone...Cool! Set the alarm for 5:30am and wait for the morning!
Last edited:
