I protoured the *bleep* out of Optima COTA (Roadtrip!)

[Chad-1stGen]

I'm still feeling the excitement of the craziness and success that was this past weekend and wanted to share. I debated for way to long if I really wanted to take my car all the way from Southern California to Texas to compete. I love autocross and track days but I loathe long distance driving. However, I began to think about actually driving my 1968 Camaro to compete there and back rather than trying to trailer it and something about adventure of it combined with running my pro-touring car on an F1 track sealed the deal. Now that I'm back home I have a greater appreciation for just how big of an undertaking this event was! Yes I successfully drove my Camaro from SoCal to Austin TX and back while beating on it pretty hard all weekend.


Here are some pics and video of the experience.


Over 100 miles of rain in eastern New Mexico (still about 100* out though)



Chris D in an S197 Mustang met up with me the end of day 1. He was also nuts enough to drive his car the whole way to optima. We drove the rest of the way to Austin together but drove home separately.



Crossing into Texas



Loving the 80mph speedlimits in Texas.



However, after passing the very first 80mph speed limit sign in TX, Chris and I passed a state trooper with radar gun out and he quickly chased us down. I was panicking about weather I really saw an 80 mph sign or yet another 60 mph sign (the speed all through El Paso). After getting tailed and I'm sure both our plates ran the trooper pulled up alongside me and both cops in the car gave me the thumbs out. :thumbsup:


Finally made it to COTA. In the tech line watching the sunrise.



COTA!



Awesome pic Dusty Nixon got of my car on the autocross



After autocross and speedstop I needed to change all 4 brake pads to ones that will handle the heat and abuse of the COTA road course. I waited until dark to do the swap in the Marriot parking lot. Mistake, it was far more humid and zero breeze once the sun set. I sweated more in the one hour brake pad swap than I did all afternoon autocrossing in the sun.



Getting some media love from the optima guys on Sunday



Here is video of my fastest runs from each of the three driving events.



My wife met me in Austin Friday night and was a HUGE help all weekend. She really made it much easier to bear the sweltering heat all weekend by helping unload and load the car, monitor tire pressures, hold an umbrella to shade me in the staging lanes etc. Plus she drove probably 900 of the 1,400 return miles. She was my MVP for sure.


Collecting the boarder crossings on the way home.









Yeah it was hot along this drive. Thank goodness for air conditioning!

[Protour_Pinto]

Nice! Finally A car that has been Pro-TOURED and not Pro-Trailered.

[Tomswheels]

Pro-Touring Godliness....

[68Cuda440]

Very nice. That is quite a few miles on I-10. SoCal to Austin, that means about 1/2 your trip was in Texas. I lived 17 years in El Paso, 13 in Austin, and now 10 in Dallas. If you truly want to suffer in the heat you have to go to Houston, Brownsville, San Antonio or El Paso. Austin is pleasant in comparison. When mine is finished I plan on attending a COTA event ASAP. I also plan to drive to one particular event in Ohio, do some Power Tour, and drive to California for an annual Mopar event at WSIR. The WSIR event would be the reverse of the trip you just did. Driving I-10 in July is pretty brutal - props for that leap of faith!

By the way - owned my '68 Barracuda since '88 and never a ticket in Texas. I have had plenty of cops check the car out in a positive sense and even had one help me push the car into a gas station when I ran out of gas once. I have a friend in the Austin area that is a Sherriff's deputy, I promised him I would give him the 1st opportunity to write me a ticket. He has a GT500, thinks that is a pretty funny proposition, got a good laugh out of it.

[icemanrd19]

badass car man.

Will we see in at goodguys in fort worth in 2 months?

[Chad-1stGen]

Nice! Finally A car that has been Pro-TOURED and not Pro-Trailered.

Thanks. I don't have anything against guys trailering long distance if they are running on a road course. I am happy to prove its possible to do it without a trailer and support crew though.

Pro-Touring Godliness....

Ha, thanks Tom

Very nice. That is quite a few miles on I-10. SoCal to Austin, that means about 1/2 your trip was in Texas. I lived 17 years in El Paso, 13 in Austin, and now 10 in Dallas. If you truly want to suffer in the heat you have to go to Houston, Brownsville, San Antonio or El Paso. Austin is pleasant in comparison. When mine is finished I plan on attending a COTA event ASAP. I also plan to drive to one particular event in Ohio, do some Power Tour, and drive to California for an annual Mopar event at WSIR. The WSIR event would be the reverse of the trip you just did. Driving I-10 in July is pretty brutal - props for that leap of faith!

By the way - owned my '68 Barracuda since '88 and never a ticket in Texas. I have had plenty of cops check the car out in a positive sense and even had one help me push the car into a gas station when I ran out of gas once. I have a friend in the Austin area that is a Sherriff's deputy, I promised him I would give him the 1st opportunity to write me a ticket. He has a GT500, thinks that is a pretty funny proposition, got a good laugh out of it.

If Austing at 100*+ and 85% humidity is the pleasant part of Texas then I don't know how you do it! Yeah about half the trip was in Texas. That is one wide state! Also there is nothing between El Paso and Ft Stockton. I can't imagine what I would of done in a break down situation there.

badass car man.

Will we see in at goodguys in fort worth in 2 months?

Thanks. Hope I won't be returning to Texas anytime soon. As much fun as GoodGuys can be I need stronger motivation to make a drive like that again anytime soon!

[68Cuda440]

If Austing at 100*+ and 85% humidity is the pleasant part of Texas then I don't know how you do it! Yeah about half the trip was in Texas. That is one wide state! Also there is nothing between El Paso and Ft Stockton. I can't imagine what I would of done in a break down situation there.

Houston / Brownsville live at 100*+ and well over 90% humidity for large parts of the summer. El Paso regularly exceeds 110* and sometimes 115*, but it is pretty dry. You become accustomed to the heat and you do your outside activities before noon or after 6pm. I have a friend from Pittsburgh, by 9am he is drenched and I haven't even broken a sweat... funny.



Texas is 880+ miles from border to border on I-10, so you only went a little over 1/2 way when you turned off on 290 to get to Austin! You definitely have to fill up in El Paso and plan your gas stops. 20+ years ago there were not many gas stations between El Paso and Austin that were open at night, so you had to plan that trip accordingly. When I drove my Barracuda from El Paso to Austin in 1994 I put a full five gallon can in the trunk and came pretty close to using it. I prefer driving that leg of any trip at night.