Just took my first road trip in the X with the family from the Dallas area to the San Antonio area (Sea World). This drive should take around 4.5-5 hours.

The drive down there took about 8 hours between traffic, stops and our scenic routing (helped by the Nav).

The drive back was all interstate, with a computer indicated average speed of 71 mph and 24.5 mpg. I didn't use the cruise control at all (which is a feat for me).

Good things:
- Fun to take on the back roads
- Didn't see any other Evos!
- The Nav is super helpful when a) traffic back up and b) you're on a twisty road you know what to expect My father in law was trailing us in his Camry and about went off the road trying to keep up in some areas.

Bad things:
- the 80mph wife indicator exhaust. My wife quickly figured out that between 78 and 80 mph (79?) that the exhaust note changed. So, um. I wish she'd gone to sleep sometimes But the drone kind of goes away at 85 or so.
- the seats caused a bit of a back spasm on my middle right side. Part of it was my seating position (a bit too upright since I ride close to the wheel for in town) and part of it is my back (I'm prone to back spasms).
- small fuel tank. 350 mile trip = fill up and then fill up again on the road. I had to stop for the wife, kid and inlaws anyway, but I'd imagine that on long trips the frequent fill ups would get very tiresome.

Non Evo notes:
- using a rabbit when speeding is really a good idea. Your rabbit having a rabbit is even better
- The Brewmasters Club at Seaworld should be required for all dads as the first and last stop of the day. Well worth the hour or so you're there (away from the 2 year old!)
- Ethanol in gas = 1-1.5mpg less. Power is noticably different, but pulling in I was at 24.5. I reset the trip and over the next hour, I was only able to pull out 23.3. Same driving style (if anything, actually slower since it was in an area where I know the patrols are higher). Ethanol FTL.

Best part of the driving for me was a sequence of back roads when my wife said "wow that was fun" and I think she finally realized why I wanted the Evo. I totally wish that there were about 10 other evos there on a cruise to enjoy the road... except that a HiPo and Sheriff were patrolling it (I think the Sheriff was trying to catch me since I pulled into a middle of nowhere church parking lot to talk to my father in law and the sheriff came hauling around the curve about a minute later.

 

Did you get a taste of the "Skunky" beer at Sea World. I heard it's foul...

SA is in the non attainment region so we don't have E10 in our fuel.

 

The beer at sea world is fresh. In fact they carry flavors that AB doesn't really sell to the public.

Did you have an aftermarket exhaust or was the stock exhaust dronning?

 

stock exhaust. The drone wasn't all that bad, just thought it was interesting that at 79mph it goes from lexus to noticeable.

Some riced out saturn kept bugging us and his exhaust/fart can was so loud you could seriously hear it from 1/4mile away at 80mph!

 

Lol maybe I always hear that noticeable exhaust with mine because I like to cruise right at 80...and I'm catless...you'll have to hear it at the meet on Tuesday with the Buschur on.

Looks like your mileage was about the same as I get on the way to San Antonio typically, ~23mpg depending on how many people want to play

 

Sounds like fun. I hope to join the Evo family soon, but I am just curious where some of you DFW X owners are located? I just saw my second new STI on the road last night. Haven't seen any X's in Fort Worth yet, though.

 

I used to live in fort worth near Heritage/I-35 area. Now I reside in Plano. I can count with one hand how many Evo X's I've seen in the last 4 months. And half of that was probably the same owner.

The whole exhaust thing gets on my nerves as well. I either drive extremely slow (55-65mph) or extremely fast just to avoid hearing the droning of the exhaust.

 

There's an NTEC meeting tomorrow in Irving. We honestly are spread out all over the metro-mess. Check out the South forum below. We're decently active.

 

I also just took my new X on it's first road trip, so I figured I'd share, too . I live in Buffalo, NY and we drove about 270 miles into Canada (about an hour north of Belleville, Ontario if anyone is familiar with that area).

I used cruised control probably 80% of the trip and averaged an indicated 70mph and an even 26mpg.

The navigation helped a lot when there were a couple closed road detours due to construction. I also still have the stock exhaust and I didn't notice any drone at all, but I rarely took it over 80mph, and my girlfriend liked to turn the music up.

The car got a lot of looks just about everywhere we went and even a few guys who made it a point to match speed with me to check out the car, and give a thumbs up as they drove away.

 

I almost got hit multiple times by people gawking.

Take a picture people!