Car: 96 GL (auto)
Tyres: Nitto NT650
Total distance: 1100 Km each way.
Terrain: from 700m altitude through 1,850m volcano zone then to the Pacific shoreline and tropical jungle.
Reliability: 100%
Max sustained speed: 100 mph
Only gripe: Can't use cruise control above 90 mph.
Counter measures: Bel Radar/laser detector\
Disclaimer: I have no commercial interest in any product named.

I have to say, first, that I had a certain amount of fear at subjecting my ageing 4th gen to this kind of trial. But the car made it there and back.

My wife and I set off from Monterrey in northern Mexico and drove continuously except for about three brief rest stops, for about 800 Km to Guadalajara. We prepared the car by changing any potentially bad tires to complete a set of new Nitto NT650. Ran the cold pressure at 32 psi.

About 35 Km out, the check engine light came on, probably an O2 sensor so I continued. The route went Monterrey-Saltillo, about 45 minutes at 85 mph on a pretty but dangerous dual carriageway. Then four hundred of ruler-straight two lane blacktop to Zacatecas. We maintained 85-90 over that stretch. The road rises through mountains after Saltillo up to the high altiplano plateau.

After an overnight at Guadalajara the road took us through Tequila and Tequilita, the heart of the Tequila production area, increasingly with long ascents and declines and through a volcano, with a most impressive jagged lava field. On the autopiste my wife drove at 85-90 and I managed some long stretches at 100, but at much above that I found my hands getting too sweaty on the steering wheel.
On that fast stretch doing 95 mph, the Bel Express 795 woke up with a strong K-band alarm and my wife immediately reduced to 110 Kph (65 mph), and 2.5 Km further on and round a curve we came across a patrol using a hand-held radar gun. This instrument has been pretty reliable over the last 6 months I have had it.

Eventually we came through 80 Km of fast mountain autopiste and descended to the Pacific coastline and so to Sayulita, a little town populated by a strange mix of expats, tourists, surfers, and locals. You can rent a single room on the beach for between $35 and $60 depending on the season.
Sayulita has steep dirt roads and big speed bumps, and I have to admit I grounded it rather a lot. Later on we tried taking it down something that was pretty much off road, and dropped a wheel into a ditch, requiring a stone packing exercise before we could extract it.

The return journey was the inverse of the inbound trip. We didn't experience any problems with the Max. Strangely, the rattling of the cobbled roads of Sayulita restored the Bose display to working order. Unfortunately the Bel radar unit died on the way back.

The car, on arrival home again, shows one fault: a droning sound has developed in the engine, getting loud and harsh; rev the engine and it makes a 'snatching' sound and more or less disappears. Timing chain tensioner, maybe? And suggestions?

Considering its age I think the car did really well. On the return trip we made 800 Km in 8.5 hours, which is pretty decent. The Nitto tires were quiet and gave a good feel, didn't get as hot as I expected cruising at high speed.

 

This is a sexy post, this sounds like a chapter out of some book i must have read back in school. Kudos to trusting the max on a long journey man. I wonder if this was just a driving trip, or your destination had some point to it. If it did not then this makes the story that much better. I love taking my max across the border to the US and into the state of New York or Michigan, but the drive is rather boring and nowhere near as exciting as you have put it.

I bet the CEL hurt your mpg, i wonder what it was did you check the code afterwards ? After all you do get better highway mileage on an automatic rather then the 5 speed. I should do something like this this summer with my girlfriend, across Canada and into the prairies, or take her all the way to the west coast into the mountains of British Columbia!!!

Great post...

 

I would never drive brand new tires on a long trip until I was sure they were mounted and balanced without leaks or balancing problems. I think you'll get much better reliability out of tires that have a couple thousand trouble-free miles than anything you just picked up from a tire shop.

Sounds like a nice trip. Was it particularly hot?

 

We only needed one sea-story...merged FTW.

 

Temps varied from 18C to around 27C, not too bad.
I didn't have much option but to change the remaining tires for new, b/c the old ones were some no-name crap and two had already blown out on previous high speed runs Mty-McAllen! I did have them balanced of course.

 

Thanks! The trip was to look at some land north of San Pancho on the Pacific coast. Terrific bargain for 1 hectare, (10000 sq m) - original owner, given the land way way back in history, it's an old hacienda from colonial days and we might even discover rotting ancient buildings within the jungle. This was *real* jungle! I had to forsake the Max in the nearby town since the jungle track would have wrecked it.
I'll be checking the code for the CEL shortly. Right now I am totally frazzed after driving so many Km at high speed. Such a damn fine car for long trips ... the few that passed me were all things like upmarket Beemers.