Hope everyone had a great 4th... We took the drive down to Galveston Island (TX) from North Texas on Saturday (drove back Tuesday) and both times it was an enjoyable 6-hour drive. I got to drive plenty fast, especially on the way back, and on the way down there got the most miles I've had so far on a single tank. I think I made 400 miles on a single tank, so ~20+ mpg. And I certainly wasn't babying it either (not that I ever do)

For some background info, my 2004 Silver Sedan has around 30,000 miles on her, I got her in late January of 2004, I'm riding on Eagle F1-GSD3's and have an AEM CAI.

Some things I noticed:

Even with the better tires which DID improve high speed stability with side-winds substantially, this car (non-aero) really picks up the side winds. This car MAY have a great coefficient of drag when going forward but from the sides it's like a 5 foot sail. At high speed you tend to get blown around a fair bit. At VERY high speed it's quite scary. I'm wondering if this is ANY different with the aero package or spoiler.

At VERY high speed (I won't say how fast 'cos I don't want to get flamed) my hood starting visibily flapping around. It was closed properly; the flapping was on the left hand side of the trunk (could have been right side too but I was trying to watch at the road instead of my car) and it just looked a little... scary. Going that fast and the thought of the hood flapping open made me feel a little sick. ...and no, of COURSE it didn't make me slow down.

All in all it was a lot of fun. Thankfully there was a handy well-maintained car wash down there so I was able to get all the sand off of the carpets before I drove my sunburned self back to North Texas. Had a great time down there, swam in the sea (avoided the stingrays), drank lots of beer, watched fireworks, ate smores, and generally had a riot. - My 8th Independence Day in the US, my 1st Independence day as a US citizen.

This car made the 6 hour drive both ways a LOT more enjoyable I'm just glad I got my clicking seat fixed before I went. Man I'd have come back ready to strangle someone if that thing had still been clicking

 

The hood can be adjusted by turning the black leveling feet on the underside of the hood.

 

Yeah... I know what you mean about side winds.

Once I was following a minivan doing about 100. I was a good 3 second distance away, but I could still feel turbulance the van was causing. I tried to stay in the middle of the lane, but the minivan driver was kinda terrible, so it was "swaying" in the lane from side to side. Eventually, I gave up and followed that pattern because that was the path of least turbulance. I could have let go of the steering wheel and the car would have still followed that pattern.

 

My own road trip observations:

I went to L.A. for the 4th and put on a good 1000 + miles on the car.
1) I now see what everyone complains about (seat controls). My right leg still hurts
2) My hood was flopping like mad (come on, the car has 8000 miles)...
3) My sunroof developed a clicking noise when music is above volume 20, and bass -1 or higher
4) Even with the Tanabe springs, car rode great on the sickening freeways L.A. has
5) Wind noise wasn't a big deal, road noise=insane....time for Dynamat. A lot of it.
6) Taking the curves around Indio/Palm Springs I-10 freeway was a lot of fun at high speeds. A lot of fun.
7) I love the car very much, but I felt a ton of brake fade after some decent amount of braking around L.A.

 

Ok, I'll share mine too. I recently went to a town called St. Hippolyte. It's about an hour north of Montreal. It was about a 6.5 hour drive.

1.) Car was absolutely rock solid at highway speeds.

2.) Didn't notice any seat discomfort (and I was really trying to look for it too). The only discomfort was in my lower back, and that's because I have a degenerative disc between L2 and L3 and can't sit for long periods at a time.

3.) The Navigation Disc has limited coverage in Canada. Once you get about 30 miles north of Montreal, it is nothing but white space. It was kind of funny watching my car (arrow) go up Rt 15 and then seem to fall off the face of the earth.

4.) The Nav came in super-handy cruising through the streets of Montreal. The streets were displayed in French too (with the accents and all) which was kind of neat.

 

Hey, doogie. Great to see someone from Denton!! I just moved up here to the Midwest from Denton a year ago...and it's great. I thought I would live the rest of my life in Texas, but a fiance tore me away. Are you a native Dentonian, or are you going to North Texas?

BTW...there is NO Mexican food in Missouri. Bummer.

 

I'm actually in Corinth which is just South of Denton. I'm from the UK originally, came here to be with my girlfriend (now wife) 9 years ago who was at UNT at the time, so my first US destination was Denton. Loved it, and have been around there ever since (Aside from a horribly failed attempt to move to Denver in 2001 - No [decent] mexican food there either ) and have worked all across the metroplex.

You won't stay away long. Everyone comes back

 

I know a lot about Corinth. I worked at Bill Utter Ford for a long time there on I35. I kind of miss Texas already, but will probably be here for awhile. Met my fiance in Ft. Worth, but she was born/raised here in Springfield...and you know the rest of the story. I'll be down soon for a vacation soon though!!

 

Hey there neighbors..I'm in Flower Mound and was at UNT from 94-98. Lots of good roads out here between Flower Mound, Corinth, Copper Canyon, Denton. Plus I-35W is a nice smooth run since it's been repaved - and very little traffic compared to I-35E. Just be mindful of the occasional DPS trooper.

 

Small world, I live off of Post Oak Dr.

 

I used to FLY down alot of those roads a couple of years ago in my yellow 1998 M3 sedan!! Lots of fun. Is there an Infiniti dealer in Denton yet?