My 2011 NSX Road Trip Thread

Just 2 days ago I completed yet another long road trip in my NSX. I once again drove from Florida to Kansas and back to hang out with my dad and sister and enter my car in an annual car show held in my old home town.

By the shortest possible route, it's just less than 1400 miles from here to there, but I wasn't traveling by the shortest route. This was my planned route:

http://g.co/maps/zfbv2

Just over 1700 miles and most of it not on the Interstate Highway System after the first day. My goal was to be in Tulsa early enough on Monday to hang with some friends before proceeding on to Kansas the next day.

I am happy to say the trip was a complete success! My NSX performed flawlessly and I spent many happy hours cutting around on the back roads of North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri. I first explored this route last year and perfected it this time. AWESOME WAY TO SPEND 2 DAYS!

How about some pics?

So I start Saturday morning just after daybreak. Car is clean clean clean, even though I know it won't be by the time I get to the motel that night.


Traffic on I75 before Atlanta sucked ass in a major way. Stopped for the night in Blue Ridge, Georgia (which isn't really close to Blue Ridge, Anywhere Else) and was greeted by this welcoming sight on Sunday morning.


Soon enough I found myself on the Cherohala Skyway where you'll see such vistas as this.


Kinda boring, isn't it? I thought so, so I turned around and took some pictures of my car.






Gotta love how pictures can lie. Car looks good above, but if you get close and take a picture, it's a different story!


Holed up for the night just on the other side of the Mississippi River. Woke up to rain.


Anyway, the next day found me in Nowhere Southern Missouri, home of The Ultimate Strip Joint. I was really sorry to find this at 8:00 AM instead of 8:00 PM. Love my reflection in the door.


The roads aren't as curvy, but there is a lot more elevation changes and it's faster and the locals are largely batshit crazy drivers too! I had fun there, but didn't stop to take pictures until I found myself on CR551 for a 2nd year in a row. Less water this year, just as much gravel. I tell myself, just drive slow...






So I make it to Kansas. That's Ar-Kansas City. The old Hometown...


And spend the week hanging with family and put my car in the big car show (about 600 cars this year) called "The Last Run" that they have every year at this time. A fun time is had by all. Here I am (on the right) with some high school friends that happened by.


One sad note, the greasy spoon breakfast joint downtown that I frequent when I'm home won't be there next year. Bummer.


Oh, here's a 7 minute cockpit video of my NSX on The Dragon. Okay, I was taking it easy but it was day 2 of a 10 day vacation. I wasn't inclined to take a lot of chances. Turn your speakers up!

http://vimeo.com/29494556

That's it for now. I also stopped for a visit at the Don Garlits Museum of Drag Racing and I have a bunch of pictures from the car show. Those will follow - more to come!

:biggrin: thanks for sharing!

FWIW, Here are my fuel stats.

2011/09/16 133,246.8 miles

2011/09/17 133,631.4 miles - 26.059 MPG

2011/09/17 133,842.7 miles - 28.248 MPG

2011/09/18 134,154.4 miles - 24.956 MPG

2011/09/19 134,488.3 miles - 28.148 MPG

2011/09/19 134,903.1 miles - 26.629 MPG

2011/09/25 135,269.0 miles - 24.292 MPG

2011/09/25 135,639.2 miles - 29.109 MPG

2011/09/26 136,032.8 miles - 27.124 MPG

2011/09/26 136,301.9 miles - 27.686 MPG

Sweet trip, enjoyed reading this very much. Thanks.

heySkippy said:

Gotta love how pictures can lie. Car looks good above, but if you get close and take a picture, it's a different story!

The roads aren't as curvy, but there is a lot more elevation changes and it's faster and the locals are largely batshit crazy drivers too! I had fun there, but didn't stop to take pictures until I found myself on CR551 for a 2nd year in a row. Less water this year, just as much gravel. I tell myself, just drive slow...

Click to expand...

Thank you for your fun post! I've never seen a photo of the green that looks so good. The one of the stream, you drove across that?

Very nice fuel stats and pix Skippy:smile:

That's awesome!!!

Kyras said:

Thank you for your fun post! I've never seen a photo of the green that looks so good. The one of the stream, you drove across that?

Click to expand...

Thanks!

The stream was too low to be flowing over the road both this time and last year. I'm sure it does in the spring though. The picture right after that was the road across the stream.

I have been through one low water bridge with water over it, in Turner Falls OK a few years ago. No biggie.

Great pix. Jealous of your fuel stats, I can't seem to crack 24mpg.

Skippy is your NSX an automatic? wondering about the MPG you posted

I couldnt even compare to that I get like 10 MPG the way I drive it

redline from stop sign to stop sign.

nice pics though, when my son is grown I will be doing the same thing

wake up one day and say Im gonna drive to Alaska or Canada fun fun fun.

My car is a 5 speed. The fuel stats are especially good considering I spent much of the 18th and 19th in 2nd and 3rd gear.

I've been keeping a database of my mileage for a little over 3 years now and average 21 mpg in day to day use.

Great story and pix. I'd love to do the same some day.

Thanks for posting the story of your trip and the pictures.

It is always fun to read your exploits!

I don't formally track my MPG, but I do calculate it when I fill up and I normally average 24 - 26 MPG on a roadtrip like this.

Love that you keep a database for your mileage. I do the same but only for maintenance expense. Great pictures! Nothing like the open road in a nice car. Looks like you really enjoyed yourself - the NSX was a car meant to be driven, so I applaud you for not being afraid to do so.

nice pictures btw am i the only one that thinks the nsx looks naked without the front emblem....

Nice trip, I'm planning a trip like this myself

heySkippy said:

Thanks!

The stream was too low to be flowing over the road both this time and last year. I'm sure it does in the spring though. The picture right after that was the road across the stream.

I have been through one low water bridge with water over it, in Turner Falls OK a few years ago. No biggie.

Click to expand...

reminds me of my water crossing with my noisy Tiens..

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/aHq15Aauge0?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/aHq15Aauge0?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>

<object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bqfFpfmlXN4?version=3"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bqfFpfmlXN4?version=3" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>

great trip and pictures,and great-looking color choice on that car :wink:

Green is Great!!!!And so is the Cherohola!!!

Thanks everyone!

Here are a few pics from The Last Run. It's a big car show for a town this size, about 600 entries this year. Nearly all hot rod and antiques, very little in the exotic category. Still, it's a great chance for me to catch up with people I haven't seen in years and this year was better for that than ever thanks to Facebook and the work I'd done for months before the trip to get people there.

Needless to say, my NSX was the only NSX. In fact, it might have been the only Asian car. As with almost everywhere I go, the car got a LOT of attention. I sat next to it most of the day and answered questions and just generally jabbered with passersby.


Totally unplanned, ran into a high school classmate (in the background of the pic) who was here with her restored MG Midget. Nice to see you again!


One of the scant few cars that wasn't an old hot rod. At once a beautiful car and also a weirdly proportioned car. I'll bet it was a handful to drive.


I'm totally stealing this idea. Not sure how I'll present it on my car, but it's a message too good to pass on.


This truck confused me greatly. In the front were these pipes and a tanks labeled "Hydrogen" with a bunch of weird injector looking things.


But in the back, underneath the bed which lifted up, was a transverse mounted V8.


I didn't get a picture of the whole truck, but it also had a heavy duty wheelie bar on the back. I saw it later that night cruising downtown. Very strange.

At last year's show I reconnected with my girlfriend from high school so this year I made sure to park close so I could chat with her and her husband. She is a breast cancer survivor of 30 years now and has a special edition Mustang that I'd never seen the likes of before.


I didn't get a picture of her at the show, so here's a picture of her in 1974 at 16 years old posing with my car at the time, a 1968 Mercury Cyclone. She still looks much the same!


That's enough of that for now. If you want to see all the pics from the car show, go here.

http://techquarium.com/gallery2z/v/2011KS/2011lastrun/?g2_page=1

If you want to see all the pics from the road trip, go here.

http://techquarium.com/gallery2z/v/2011KS/

I still have a mess of pictures from the Garlits Museum, but I'll probably make a separate thread for that in Off Topic. Stay tuned!

Skippy, thanks for posting -- this makes me want to jump into my /94 and do a road trip before MI winter takes hold! As for the fuel consumption you and I are just about same -- day to day for me is usually somewhere between 21 and 23 and hwy is usually around 26 when cruising at reasonable speeds (anywhere between 70-80). If you ever get as far as MI drop me a line -- a nice little NSX community up here in the greater Detroit area and we'd be happy to buy you dinner.

Best,
Jeff

Just did a 1,672 mile road trip in 2 days this week, so it appears we both have been on the road quite a bit. Remember to swing back up through Indy. We still have that spot in the yard for your car, and the extra room upstairs ready for you.

^^ I'll be back Mitch, just waiting on a good reason to get the company to pay for the gas.

Thanks Skippy.

What is this road trip post # 6?

Every year you post your trip, and I enjoy it.
Keep up the good work.

heathbar0 said:

Thanks Skippy.

What is this road trip post # 6?

Every year you post your trip, and I enjoy it.
Keep up the good work.

Click to expand...

Thanks! This was trip #5 to Kansas. I've also been to Maine, Indiana and Maryland/DC plus several trips to North Carolina.