Is this a stupid idea?

So I bought an FD. No, wait, that's a statement not the question. :)

The FD is in North Carolina, I'm in California. I've been trying to setup transport to get it home, and I'm not getting straight answers out of the transport companies. I have a reservation with one of them, but they haven't given me a pickup date, and every week they say that they'll have more info for me in a week, but nothing's happening. The others aren't any more definite.

So... buy a plane ticket and drive it home? How stupid an idea is that? How likely is it to end with the newspaper headline "Apex seal explodes in desert, 1 dead" ?

Does it have a hurt motor already? If No, do it. If yes do it and don't beat on it.

Ah, hell. I've done stupider.

After all, it's a questionable condition, rotary powered 90s supercar. On the opposite coast. What can possibly go wrong?

60K miles, good compression numbers from the inspection, 100% stock. Cooling is supposed to be really marginal on these cars -- driving it through the desert is what concerns me.

Alternatively, I'm in North Carolina, and have a weeks vacation. I can offer to do the stupid for you. Kind of a drive and fly.

Time it so you drive through the desert in the night.

So pop on a fresh radiator cap and pack a few gallons of universal coolant? Drive the desert portion at night? What supposedly makes it so marginal?

If you have the time to do it (maybe Memorial day weekend?), I'd say fly and drive. 60k ain't much, so chances are it's in decent shape.

Is it a current driver? That would make me feel better about it. Florida's not exactly cold weather country. If you're really worried about it, you could fly in, pick it up, run it by a shop for a coolant flush and change, throw in an oil change while you're there, just to ease your mind.

Make sure to grab the GRM assist list when you do it.

And good internet on your phone to keep us up to date on the GRM Adventures sub.

-Rob

If the car dies on the way of a cross country drive, it's a serious POS.

Freeway driving is oh, so very easy on a car. Even given the age of the car, I can't fathom it being that bad.

Didn't you read about some of the cars the GRM staff have driven home?

I too say you should fly-n-drive. Consider it a shakedown cruise.

Keep us updated.

Fly and drive for sure.

If this had come up a week or two earlier I would have offered to drive it out on my way out there.

Daughter and I drove a 2002 Neon RT with 200,000 km to New Brunswick and back a couple of years ago, hauling a small utility trailer with all her worldy goods.

Are rotary Mazdas really that bad?

My impression is that rotary mazdas in general aren't that bad, but the FD is a special case. It's a turbo rotary engine stuffed under a hood with insufficient room for everything, which is what makes for the marginal cooling. I've never owned one before, so I dunno how bad it actually is. The forums are full of recommendations for aftermarket radiators, removal of pre-cat, replacement of plastic air separation tank, and a lot of other cooling system improvements, none of which have been done to this car.

Much of I-70 is likely to be 90-100F and there are no services in eastern UT between Green River and Salina, which is 106 miles, much of it with little-to-no cell phone coverage. It's basically a hundred miles of rocks, dirt, and the occasional lizard.

Last year my truck blew its water pump a few miles after leaving this part of UT, just before crossing the state line into CO on my way to Flyin' Miata's annual open house. Fortunately it was only 10 miles to Grand Junction from there, so I managed to limp it to a shop there, unload the trailer, and transfer everything to the Miata.

Like alfadriver said, 60-70mph level ground highway cruising is about as easy as you can get on a engine, and by extension, the cooling system. Its when the engine is burning a minimum amount of fuel (less fuel, less heat) with a ton of airflow through the rad.

In reply to codrus:

They may have a cooling problem, but look if those events are high performance events or just normal driving. Just cruising at 70mph, I doubt you will be using more than 40hp- so you should not be getting into boost, for one thing, and not generating enough energy to tax the cooling system for another.

Again, if it overheats on a 120F day at a 70mph cruise, it's a pretty bad car. It would never be able to deal with a track day at any temp.

Your truck was using far more energy, and a much higher percentage of it's rated power. Not that it should have died, but it was still working a lot harder.

BrokenYugo wrote: Like alfadriver said, 60-70mph level ground highway cruising is about as easy as you can get on a engine, and by extension, the cooling system. Its when the engine is burning a minimum amount of fuel (less fuel, less heat) with a ton of airflow through the rad.

It's not level. The highest point on I-70 is 11,128 feet!

Yes, I could take the 40 instead, but it'll likely be 10 degrees warmer that much farther south, and there are plenty of mountains in NM and AZ as well.

codrus wrote: I've been trying to setup transport to get it home, and I'm not getting straight answers out of the transport companies. I have a reservation with one of them, but they haven't given me a pickup date, and every week they say that they'll have more info for me in a week, but nothing's happening. The others aren't any more definite.

Just this week I went onto Uship.com and did a "name your own price" to have a car shipped from FL to OH about 944 miles. I did a price of $475 or about 50 cents per mile. In one hour I had a taker. That was Friday. The car will be picked up Weds or Thurs and be here Fri or Sat (one week later.)

From what you wrote, it sounds like you are working with a broker. The broker will charge you X and then he will try to get someone to take the load for less than X leaving that extra for the Broker.

On Uship, the website is the Broker. They get a fee from the truck and a fee from the buyer ($35 from me.) My listing went up on the website and a trucker jumped on it. I have since then spoke with and emailed the trucker himself.

This is the third car I have shipped nearly 1,000 miles in the past 12 months.

Your situation is likely closer to 3k miles. I'd probably find a way to drive it if you can spare the time. If not, and if you are not in a hurry, I bet you could get it delivered for $1k. But, by the sound of it you are already caught in the waiting game.

JohnRW1621 wrote: From what you wrote, it sounds like you are working with a broker. The broker will charge you X and then he will try to get someone to take the load for less than X leaving that extra for the Broker.

No, I've been trying to go through one of the big enclosed transport companies.

In reply to codrus:

If your car is nicer than the cars I buy then I understand that you may want it enclosed.

Eh, fly and drive. Theres enough grmers.

JohnRW1621 wrote: In reply to codrus: If your car is nicer than the cars I buy then I understand that you may want it enclosed.

It's a semi-unicorn. Stock, unmolested, one-owner FD with low-ish miles, clean paint and interior, etc. So yeah, I don't want it sitting on an 8-car open transport trailer for 3000 miles.

insert picture of roadkill driving a vehicle with the hood on the roof because it got to hot.

scope out the on the road help thread, email or message every GRM guy on the selected route, and buy a ticket. I bet that if worst case happens and then engine dies you could do a series of GRM car haulers and get you home.

codrus wrote:

BrokenYugo wrote: Like alfadriver said, 60-70mph level ground highway cruising is about as easy as you can get on a engine, and by extension, the cooling system. Its when the engine is burning a minimum amount of fuel (less fuel, less heat) with a ton of airflow through the rad.

It's not level. The highest point on I-70 is 11,128 feet! Yes, I could take the 40 instead, but it'll likely be 10 degrees warmer that much farther south, and there are plenty of mountains in NM and AZ as well.

Fair enough, still, how many poorly maintained crapcans with unsympathetic drivers survive getting up to the Eisenhower tunnel every year? And you're concerned about you carefully driving a low mile and presumably well maintained performance car that will be using much less of it's total available power (and by extension, cooling system capacity) to make the climb.

I have found that by monitoring my disco carefully with a OBD2 interface and torque, that a constant 50mph will cool my truck the best.. running at that constant speed will keep my engine running at approximately 84 degrees Celsius. Yes, that seems low, but I also run a "desert" thermostat that opens at 80 degrees instead of 90. Running at 70mph, it creeps up to 87.

What I am leading up to with this.. get a cheap ebay codereader/interface with Bluetooth and get torque for your phone or tablet of your choice and keep a close eye on the engine temps. Find a speed that seems to keep the engine coolest, and run as close to that speed as you can. Also be ready to pull off and shut down if you start seeing the temps rise unexpectedly. Most stock temp gages are only good for telling you when the engine is cold, sorta-running temperature, and completely toasted.