Road trippin’!

Recently I decided to take my 1984 Carrera 3.2 for a couple of thousand cross country kilometres , simply because I could. Business took me to Mount Gambier, and rather than take the daily driver on a ‘there and back’, I added days to the itinerary and decided on a route home via Mildura.

Before any road trip in a classic car, experience tells me that you need to do a few things. First up – make sure that you’re in the RACV! You just never know when you might need their services or those of their interstate partners.

Next up, make sure that the car is good. Having recently converted my car back to a road car from track day car, Nineauto had replaced all brakes, rebuilt the front shockers, aligned the wheels and serviced the car. Driving it for the first time after that the car felt like new!

Finally, I put new road tyres on my 16” track wheels – simply because they look great!

Without boring you with a mile by mile, I can tell you that driving a classic car on a road trip is wonderful. The car felt like it could do this forever – overtaking was a breeze, and the lovely engine noise was a brilliant accompaniment – certainly better than local AM radio – it is an old car!

The drive from Mount Gambier north to Mildura via Bordertown is six hours of great fun. Lonely, good roads with enough lumps and bumps and bends to avoid boredom as the geology changes every 25km. Let’s just say that the drive wasn’t slow.

There is one big reason to road trip your classic, other than the drive itself – it is the people that you meet. It seems everyone wants to ask about the car. They’re curious and happy to hear the story.

Drop a classic Porsche in the main street of Sealake (an hour or so south of Mildura) on a Saturday morning coffee and cake stop, and the car becomes a celebrity. Photographed and ogled by so many people, and questions asked in the most lovely way.

Throughout the 5 day trip, the truckies waved, the cockies raised a finger from their steering wheel, schoolkids stopped and looked, and in general people just smiled and enjoyed the sight of a classic car out in it’s natural environment.

So, don’t hesitate. If you have a classic, let it breathe and have a loosening up run, and do a couple of thousand k’s in it, pretty much just for the heck of it!

By David James