Austin to Indy--1150 miles in a day with a hot rod

Joe Kerr and I decided to leave Austin on the Sunday morning following the Lone Star Roundup. We really would have preferred to stay for Sunday's activities but we both have our own businesses and needed to get back to work. If our trip down was somewhat leisurely this was going to be the exact opposite. All of the weather forecasts had rain and possibly a tornado in the mix with the worst predicted weather being to the south so we decided to run north to Oklahoma City and then up the turnpike through Missouri.
We rolled out of the motel on the south side of Austin at 5.09 am and pulled up at Joe's shop at 12.59 am (Eastern) making it a 19 hour ride. We were both happy to finally be done with riding in a buggy sprung Model A with only a windshield but I have to say that the car is great. It never missed a beat and did not burn a drop of oil over the whole trip. Joe used less than a quart of oil to top up what tends to get pushed out of the valve cover breathers and apart from that all we did was feed it gas about every two hours--the tank only holds 12 gallons and a couple of times we put in 11.5 gallons of 93 octane when we stopped. We did not eat on the road, actually sitting down and relaxing a bit rather than making it a banzai run.
Even with that proviso and the fact that we took a side trip to the Texas Motor Speedway we still averaged right at 60 mph for the trip.
Anyway here are some pix of our trip.

It was o' dark 30 when we left the motel and although we ran into one of the Rolling Bones cars in I-35 and ran with him for a while it was still too dark for effective photography


We rolled around the west side of Dallas on I-35W and when we saw this sign and realized that the track location would coincide with a fuel stop we decided to have a look


They do everything big in Texas and Bruton Smith's track is no exception


Obligatory arty shot of the coupe


They don't just do tracks big in Texas--this was one of two of these trailers that we passed just north of Fort Worth


Even the go-kart tracks are a good size with nice amenities


The only time that we spent time in traffic was at the toll plaza on the turnpike


Once we got through that we were up to speed again


We passed these guys in Joplin, MO


I don't know if they don't have this sort of stuff in Oklahoma but as we rolled into Missouri just about every exit for quite a distance from the border had at least one if not more "adult" store


Missouri is a little different too--never saw a vacuum cleaner museum before. They also have the world's largest rocking chair.

 

A normal stop for us, gas up and make sure that not too much oil has made it out of the breathers


The previous pic was taken right on old Route 66


Besides sex shops, vacuum cleaner museums, etc, Missouri also has less than imaginative road names


My drag racing mate Les Turilli has more billboards for his Meramec Caverns than we could count


We grabbed the cameras on the roll to get shots of this cool collection of "petrolinia"


With megaphone collector open headers an i-pod is your best friend


Note the cool cup holder


Some more arty shots, this time as the sun dropped low in the sky. We had taken the top insert off once the sun was not overhead where it could bake us and that allowed me to shoot over the windshield header for the second photo




These guys were going somewhere faster than us but I doubt that they were having as much fun.


Late in the day we finally relented and hauled out the seat cushions for the final stages of the trip. They had been tucked behind the seat since we left Indy a week prior and until the prolonged trip home we had never felt the need to use them


In closing I have to thank Joe for giving me the opportunity to make the trip with him in what is definitely one of the baddest hot rods on the planet. Despite its bare bones race car style, buggy springs and bias ply tires it really is a great open road car. Even running at over 80 mph it was getting 13-14 miles per gallon. More importantly, due to Joe's excellent construction and also his thorough preparation for the trip we had zero problems while putting over 2500 miles on the car.

Roo

 

very cool pics, looks like quite an advneture.

we stopped at the rocking chair and the vacuum museum. rocking chair was legit, but the vacuum 'museum' was a heavy sales push.

 

Sounds like a great time. I am not sure i could do 19 hours in any car let alone the hot rod but I would be willing to try

 

Very cool, Rooman. Nice to see a real hot rod getting driven. It's truly a testament to Joe's build quality.

 

Wow. Sounds like an adventure. Thanks for sharing the story.

 

cool trip man nice ride too.
I made the trip last year in my henry J in 34 hours but I stopped in memphis for a few hours to rest .It is amazing the sites america has just off the road to funny

 

Those pics don't do Joe's car justice.. It really is a top notch ride, from the BSM chop, to some of Joe's expert machine worked parts.. To the Perfect STANCE its is by far one of the baddest A's around........

 

...and the kool boots!!!

Note the cool cup holder

 

Great story, and fantastic car. I enjoyed the pictorial/write-up of this car in the March 2011 Street Rodder, and keep going back to the photos for ideas on my coupe. What a perfect hot rod! Maybe you could post some pics and info on the roll bar installed in this car as I will be adding one to my coupe and I would like to see the lower floor plates and gussets (if any) to the frame, as well as seat belt installation. I also wondered about the seat, looks comfortable, but 19 hours without a pad, whoo-wee......Anyway, thanks for the pics of the trip in the "perfect hot rod"!

Outlaw

 

Great, love the shots along with the story.

 

Saw your GREEN truck in the photo coverage of the LSRU ...
Did you and the boy get to go ??
or did he leave you at home

 

Roman good to see you and Joe made the trip home, told the wife that you had to get the cushions out, she said "well they aren't as bad ass as they think". Loved the ride home pics, see you guys around Indy soon, some place.

 

That's a long trip in a bitchin' hot rod! That coupe looks even better in person.

 

I figured that if I was going to be in Texas I should wear cowboy boots. No stetson though, just my aussie stockman's hat.

Roo

 

Great pictures, Thanks for posting

 

Roo\Joe great story, great coverage again ... You build the best dragsters, and joe is building the badass hotrods,,,Brownsburg is so lucky..

 

I stopped in at that goofy vacuum cleaner museum once. It sucked.

 

That car rules and the fact you did that trip in one day in that car makes you both Rulers!!!!

 

You guys rock. Sorry we missed ya Roo. That little coupe is badass. Gary

 

Animal

 

Both of you, AND the "A" are totally bad ass!!. Loved the pics going and coming home. Thanks a bunch for posting.....Don.

 

great road trip story, glad everything went well

 

WOW...cool trip...

 

Roo, was that you on my missed call from a Indiana number today?

 

Really great story, pictures, and car !!
I love to see neat ol' "iron" that is driven, not just hauled around...
Congrats on a trip I truely envy...
Cheers

 

Bad ass story !! Love the pics and sweet ass coupe!

 

I love road trips, thanks for sharing.

 

Beat ya we did 1435 miles in 24 hours, Austin to Canyon Lale, Ca.