Pagoda SL Group
W113 Pagoda SL Group => General Discussion => Topic started by: Woodstock on July 05, 2019, 20:42:30
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We drove our 1971 280 SL from Tulsa, OK to Riverside, CA (approx. 1,400 miles) to participate in the 2019 Great Race for pre 1973 vintage automobiles. The actual Great Race event traveled from Riverside, CA to Tacoma, WA in 9 days (approx. 2,300 miles) and the event is a timed distance speed rally which calls for precision driving. As a rookie our performance in the event was acceptable but there were numerous teams that were far more precise than my spouse and I. After the event we drove home to Tulsa (approx. 2,000 miles). Our total trip was around 5,600 miles.
The car's modifications from original condition consist of the following:
1) Replaced the original steering wheel with a Nardi wood wheels so I can easily enter and exit the driver seat.
2) Replace the original rims with factory original aluminum wheels which greatly improved the handling and steering feel.
3) Replaced the stock springs and shocks with stiffer springs and new shocks for a firmer ride with less body roll.
4). Replaced the four speed transmission (which needed rebuilding) with a 5 speed conversion kit from Bud Benz. Made it a much better highway car because it allowed me to cruise at 80+mph in Idaho and Wyoming at 3000-3200 rpm. It is like the original transmission except the 5th gear is like an overdrive.
5) Replaced the stock distributor with a 123 Ignition Electronic distributor due to points issues I experienced in the past on extended drives.
The car performed flawlessly on the trip. Prior to leaving Tacoma I purchased a set of spark plugs and replaced them more as a preventative measure than as something that was absolutely required. I noticed that occasionally there would be an intermittent miss at low rpms when accelerating and when I had experienced this in the past, a simple change of plugs cured the problem. Again after replacing the plugs ($15 and 15 minutes worth of time) the intermittent miss was gone and the car ran perfectly the last 2,000 miles. At the end of the trip the car was only down by a half quart of oil ... quite surprising how little oil was used.
Interesting to see the difference in fuel costs across the US. Record for highest cost fuel at $5.40 per gallon goes to a small California town.
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Great story, great experience Woodstock. Congrats on your participation!
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What an awesome road trip!
Did you upgrade the radio as well? I figure long road trips would need a decent stereo to listen on.
Stiffer springs and shocks? What are they and where'd you get them? Ride height the same?
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Impressive journey! Gary has begun his epic journey also. Hope to see him later this summer.
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Sounds like a great trip.
I’m here in CA but car still off the coast of northern USA at the moment. Arriving late next week in LA. I worked out i will have travelled 25,000 miles by aeroplane and driving, the car will have travelled 35,000 miles by ship and driven and i will have driven it 8,000 miles within that 35,000 miles by October. Nice little Sunday drive for a three day car gathering.
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Sounds like a fantastic trip, would love to read more and see more pics. I’ve started seeing my (her) car as a way to have experiences to remember and yours sounds just st like that (as does Garry’s, should it ever start ;))
+1 on the stereo upgrade
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What a nice trip!! You probably cruised right past me (near San Francisco) heading North. Did you calculate your fuel mileage?
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Since I own a number of vintage cars which have substandard stereos, rather than replace the existing stereos I simply take along my own stereo system in the car. The Bose speaker connects to my iPhone and will play all the music from my phone. Sound is much better than the original Becker radio sound and allows me to keep the car looking original yet listen to music on a great speaker. Charge the rechargeable battery in the hotel overnight and it lasts all day while driving.
In regards to the updated springs, they were purchased from John Olson and are the sport springs. You can search the forum for discussions on his springs. In regards to the ride height I did not experience any change in ride height, but I would assume that would be a function of how weak/worn your original springs are at this point.
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Fuel mileage seemed to run around 20MPG.
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Fantastic Story. If you have more pictures, could be fodder for a Pagoda World article for Jon Bernardi.
Congrats and nice to hear about you.
Mike Mizesko
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Seem to be having a problem uploading photos ...
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Make sure you reduce the size of your photo's first...