Road Trip In My Stag

[DaveB]

Well done - you did it! Got the shot of the stagea in front of Ayer's Rock/Uluru (whatever it is called these days). Pity about the front bar damage but I can't really see it in the photos? Probably need to clean some bugs off first

Stag's are awesome for road trips - all that space comes in handy, and power is never lacking for overtaking, driving up hills at over 100km/h etc. Fuel is a bit of a problem eh with only a 60lt tank; mine is an RS Four (4WD) and auto and I manage not much better than you - probably 11-12L/100km. However I have a hi-flow turbo and exhaust, tuned to ~180rwkw on bp ultimate.

[BIT SUS]

Agreed. Stageas are great for road trips!

Glad all has gone safe and they are some great photos there mate!! They would make an awesome calendar or something!

I picked my RS260 up from brisbane, and drove it all the way home to adelaide. Only issue i had was hitting a pile of dolomite in the middle of the road at 110kmh, small mark on the bumper, but didnt hit any animals thank god.

drove it home unregistered, but with permits.

4 states in 23 hours, no plates, and i saw ONE cop car, 35kms from home.

Got some funny looks whilst fanging it past trucks etc with no plates on.

Nigel.

[pixel8r]

Well my holiday in Adelaide went pretty well. Got back to Brisbane last tuesday. No dramas on the road other than driving through a locust plague and getting locusts stuck in the radiator etc...mostly all cleaned off now though...(didn't cause any problem either - just a pain to clean out later).

Fuel economy was around 11L/100km on the way there but on the way back I figured out that if I stick it in 5th using the tiptronic the torque converter locks and stays locked, which holds the revs around 2000rpm at 100km/h. When in Drive it is too sensitive and keeps revving back up to 2700rpm with even the slightest movement of the throttle. So yeah, now I use the tiptronic all the time on long trips. Even when its in tiptronic it will still drop down gears as needed ie. if you stop or if you put your foot to the floor it will drop to whatever gear it needs, but with the M35 it will always work its way back to the gear you have it set at. (I remember with the s2 when you stop it drops back to 1st and you have to manually change back up to 4th).

My fuel economy then dropped to 9.8L/100km and given that the road was fairly hilly by the time I used the tiptronic, I reckon I could've got better still on a flatter stretch. I was very happy to see the M35 give this result since it revs lower than the previous models at 100km/h and with a newer engine etc I expected it to do better than 11L/100km. Weird that it was less economical in Drive than using tiptronic.

One of these days I'd like to head up to North QLD somewhere...that'd be a good drive methinks not in summer though...

+1 for stageas and road trips - perfect combination!!

Edited January 11, 2009 by pixel8r

[Silhouette31]

Started cleaning it today. 45 minutes with the vacuum/chamois/airgun on the interior to get the mud/dirt and dust out of everything. Started on the paint and it's going to be a huge task. I have no idea what we drove through but there's just black dots over the entire sides and rear of the car. Will come off with a buff, I did 1/4 the bonnet and a front guard and gave up.

The bugs aren't moving either so I'm opting to get the bumper resprayed (Needs it anyway as there's a few nasty scrapes from before I bought it.). Spent about an hour just on the bar, headlights and bonnet with dishwashing detergent and a bug sponge and felt like I achieved nothing so meh.

Driving my skyline now till I can be stuffed buffing the entire car (again, only did it a few weeks before we left)

I've got a few more photos too which I'm uploading at the moment. We took about 700 over the 2 weeks.

Edited January 11, 2009 by Silhouette31

[oldie]

Did you Take any scenic pics of Elliot on the way through

[Silhouette31]

hahahaha. I didnt even slow down for that place. Went through there about 3am I think.

I accidently went into the town center of Coober Pedy too. Eww.

Uploaded alot more pictures.

(and still felt almost too cold inside the car )

If anyones interested in scenery/wild life pictures or for some strange reason, pictures of me and my housemate enjoying the holiday, the link to my photobucket is

http://s78.photobucket.com/albums/j85/Silh...31/Darwin08-09/

Edited January 11, 2009 by Silhouette31

[mr_infamy]

Agreed. Stageas are great for road trips!

Got some funny looks whilst fanging it past trucks etc with no plates on.

Stageas are definitely great fun on the open road, especially on passing lanes. I was only passing on those, so I made the most of it and just stayed in them when I got to them.

getting stones in your brakes is annoying though.