PontiacBonnevilleClub.com

This past week, my buddy and I went on vacation which was taking a road trip to Key West. We both just graduated from college and decided to finally go somewhere since we have been too busy the previous years during spring break. This was the first time I have ever taken the car on a trip longer than 3 hours and I was very impressed with the car.

We left on Sunday Night (5/13) and drove 16 hours (957 miles) to Panama City. About every 5-6 hours, we swapped drivers and the other sleep. Reclining the passenger seat and adjusting the lumbar made sleeping rather comfortable for the most part. Constant adjustment of lumbar for the driver also eased driving.

We stayed in Panama City over night then set out for Key West which was another 10.5 hour drive and just over 700 miles. Once again, we drove non stop until reaching Key West Florida about 10 PM. We stayed on the island for two nights and basically participated in as many activities as possible. Here are some pictures..

Did some Snorkeling:







Thats me!



We also did some Parasailing..





I have many more pictures but dont want to bore you all. Since this is a Bonneville forum, heres some pics of the car during the trip...(I know its dirty, the car was driven at least 1500 miles prior to pics)

In Key West:







At Mammoth Cave in Kentucky:





One of the VERY FEW Pontiacs we saw in the south...was actually pretty clean.



Some pictures on the road











We left Key West on Thursday morning to head back to Michigan. Once again, we drove 28 hours (1766 miles) straight to reach the home land with stops for gas and food along the way. We also did some sight seeing but for the most part, the car was posted up in the fast lane with the cruise set between 75-80 MPH.

As I mentioned, I was VERY impressed with the car on the long trip. The car ran flawlessly and remained comfortable the entire way. I was also very impressed with the overall fuel efficiency. For each tank of gas, the DIC registered 32-33 MPG which was very impressive since we were running close to 80 with the cruise set and A/C on to bear the mid 90 degree weather. The only time the MPG dropped (29.5 MPG) was climbing the mountains through Kentucky and Tennessee. Each time I filled up, the "gallons used" in the DIC was usually about .5 gallons lower than what I put in, which would alter the average slightly, but still impressive with driving conditions. The total trip was just over 3500 miles and about 54.5 hours of driving.

This was also a good trip to challenge the external trans cooler. During our nonstop driving through the brutal heat, the trans never exceeded 177 degrees. For the heck of it, I turned the fan on using the Aeroforce, and the trans temp dropped to about 168 degrees. I was very pleased with these temperatures.

So all in all, this is by far the most comfortable, economical, and fun car I have ever driven. Another thumbs up to the Bonneville!

Looks great Eric! Makes me wish my Tuesday am departure to CA would come even quicker!

Yea, I bet! How many hours is that??

I never drove to Key West, but had many visits there while in the Navy.

Looks like it was a fun drive and even though we are a car forum, we still like pictures.

Nice! Glad to hear the trip went well! Driving to Key West is something I'd love to do one of these years.

We actually only planned on heading to Panama City Beach for our trip. However, once we got talking to others and people down in Florida, everyone said it would be worth the extra 10-11 hours of driving to head to Key West. Thats when we switch plans and headed out. It certainly was worth the drive. The island is beautiful and there's lots to do there. If I were to do it again, I would fly to southern Florida and rent a car for the week. But, since neither my buddy or I have seen much of the southern states, we figured a road trip would be best.

To say the least, we had a great time and could see myself visiting the Keys several more times in upcoming years!

Im flying to CA. Wish I was driving but I'm only going for two weeks and it would be a 30+ hr drive. Flight is 5 hours with one stopover in Denver.

SSEiMan01 wrote:Im flying to CA. Wish I was driving but I'm only going for two weeks and it would be a 30+ hr drive. Flight is 5 hours with one stopover in Denver.

Yea, I don't think I will be doing any really long road trips like that again...unless if I had three weeks off where one week is spent driving and the other two are actual vacation.

Me and a buddy did that in August of '97... had my 89 Beretta GT w/2.8 MPFI V6 & 5-Speed then...pulled a 2000# loaded pop-up camper with it ... from Greensboro to Key West ... 18 hrs. only stopping for gas, food and .

Had a blast despite the 95 degrees every afternoon and 85 degrees at night (thanks to A/C in the camper and pool at campground). Rode bikes all over town...and a lot of walking...historic sites...not a whole lot of beach though... 1st time watching sunset over west end of island...had a blast!

Hope you had as good a time as we did! (I'd like to do it again.....)

Very cool! That Bonnieville sign is in Kentucky. We drive by it whenever we head to Nashville.

Just last summer we drove to KW in our Suburban. I think that was the fifth or sixth time we did the drive. It's a haul, but a ton of fun! I think we're going to be doing it again this summer.

Safe travels back home!

It sure was a great time! Were got back Friday afternoon, have been recovering and tring to get back to reality since...

Nice trip! I'm so jelly of going parasailing!

Also, F-body brakes? lol

Looks like a great trip Eric!!! Now that we have our Passat and 40+ MPG, I think we're going to be doing more road-trips around here. We've already got 8k on it....


Carl, those are just painted stock calipers, you can see there's just one large cutout for the single piston.

00Beast wrote:Looks like a great trip Eric!!! Now that we have our Passat and 40+ MPG, I think we're going to be doing more road-trips around here. We've already got 8k on it....


Carl, those are just painted stock calipers, you can see there's just one large cutout for the single piston.

Ed is correct! Everything is stock, just painted!! I will be posting up better pics of recent mods when I get them done and car cleaned up!

Yeah, Key West is a great road trip destination. In Feb. '97, I bought a '98 Aurora on eBay, flew in to Ft. Lauderdale and picked the car up in Pompano Beach. Then I drove back up to West Palm and picked up my then-girlfriend at the airport there. We spent a week tooling around S. Florida in the 'Rora, including Valentine's Day in Key West. She had lived down there for more than 20 years, so we had lots of places to stay. No need for a hotel room. Put about 1,200 miles on the 'Rora by the time we got back to N.C. *dang*, I miss that car!

Looks like a blast! That picture out the sunroof with the sun setting is AWESOME.

2000CadillacSTS wrote:Looks like a blast! That picture out the sunroof with the sun setting is AWESOME.

That is my favorite picture as well. Surprisingly, that picture was taken from a GoPro camera!!

yonkerse wrote:

00Beast wrote:Looks like a great trip Eric!!! Now that we have our Passat and 40+ MPG, I think we're going to be doing more road-trips around here. We've already got 8k on it....


Carl, those are just painted stock calipers, you can see there's just one large cutout for the single piston.

Ed is correct! Everything is stock, just painted!! I will be posting up better pics of recent mods when I get them done and car cleaned up!

My bad guys. Either way, it looks really good! Really freshened her up. Nice job Eric!