Post by: Fierofool on May 14, 2020, 02:48:33 pm
Our meeting point will be at the McDonald's parking lot at 50 GA-400, Dawsonville, GA 30534 at the intersection of Ga. Hwy. 53. We will depart by 9AM.
We will be traveling Ga. 400 to Hwy 60 and through Dahlonega, Suches, Morganton, Mayesville, Copperhill, Tn. You may join us along the way but please email us at GeorgiaFieroClub@Gmail.Com if you plan to do so.
This is a one day event, solely for planning purposes.
Post by: scottb on May 15, 2020, 06:52:44 pm
Post by: Fierofool on May 15, 2020, 07:21:24 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on May 15, 2020, 07:25:24 pm
There was a landslide with a bunch of big rocks south of the dragon. About 3 miles south of the Dragons Den. Even if its not open, we won't be going that way. We will be coming around Hwy 28 to The Dragon.
Likely not open now, but did you mean, "even if it is open"?
Post by: Fierofool on May 15, 2020, 07:33:13 pm
Post by: tiretread on May 23, 2020, 09:35:48 pm
Post by: Fierofool on May 29, 2020, 12:15:01 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on May 29, 2020, 06:06:09 pm
At first, I thought it was something else. In other countries, it's a computer lab.
Post by: TopNotch on May 29, 2020, 08:28:57 pm
Post by: Fierofool on June 02, 2020, 04:16:39 pm
Post by: MikeMac on June 02, 2020, 06:37:31 pm
Post by: scottb on June 02, 2020, 07:25:39 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 02, 2020, 09:34:22 pm
Are there available passenger seats that will be returning to the starting point after the run?
It'd be awesome to have you participate.
Post by: pgackerman on June 03, 2020, 05:18:51 pm
Outside my 100-mile leash. Have fun y'all.
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 03, 2020, 06:11:37 pm
Post by: MikeMac on June 04, 2020, 02:35:01 am
I will be, I live 10 minutes or less from there
I would like to park a car somewhere and go along.
Post by: scottb on June 04, 2020, 07:06:15 am
Post by: The Art Doctor on June 04, 2020, 03:32:59 pm
Post by: Fierofool on June 04, 2020, 04:37:04 pm
It looks like Scott has a passenger (MikeMac) so you might check with Pat. Don't know if Jason and Jordan are going. Haven't heard from them in a while.
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 04, 2020, 06:41:28 pm
Post by: tiretread on June 09, 2020, 09:35:16 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 14, 2020, 07:42:20 pm
1. Tennessee appears to have mostly put COVID behind it. They are going through the legal motions, but are so over COVID.
2. Restaurants in Tennessee are open, but the hours are reduced.
3. Waiting in line in Tennessee seems to be a way of life.
4. Fried apple pies seem to be a big thing in Tennessee. After sampling several, not a very good thing.
5. Customer service in Tennessee seems to be hit and miss.
6. Hotels in Tennessee are open, but pricey. They are also filthy, and haven't been kept up. Cabins are even more pricey, but are maintained somewhat better.
7. The water in Tennessee is HEAVILY chlorinated. This extends to sodas, teas, lemonades, etc. Milk and alcohol seem to be the only safe drinks.
8. The roads are OK, but people crawl along at jogging speeds. Also, although there are great bike trails, the bicyclists all seem to insist on riding on the car roads.
9. The only places that are closed are the ones that get tax dollars whether they are open or closed. Not all. You can get into the parks, but most of the facilities are closed. The visitor centers are half-open.
10. We tried food at more than 20 places. I would rate the food as poor to OK. None of it was actually good. None was terrible, either, but the pulled pork was sub-par. The best was a smoked chicken salad sandwich. Not so much the salad as the croissant. We tried some other salads, but the salads just did not taste good. I'm not sure if it was the water or lacking freshness. We tried desserts, also. Not a fan of the aftertaste in the ice cream. The blackberry cobbler was rather poor. The fudge was...passable. The chilli was mostly grease. The toast was tasteless. Not sure what that bread was. We tried the fresh applebutter. To be fair, good applebutter is rare, anymore. The pancakes and waffles were OK, as was the syrup. I was going to try the apple cider, but had had enough chlorine. About the only things we didn't try were the wine and fish.
11. Some pools are open, but other pools look like the one from Last Man on Earth.
12. We found people from 36 different states there.
13. Tennessee was fairly busy, but the restaurants have reduced capacity. The hotels, resorts, and cabins seem to be at less than half capacity. The touring places seemed to be about 20% capacity. Of course, that is based on my efficiency standards. Several of the places seemed to have found less than efficient ways to operate. For example, one restaurant had 14 wait staff members with whom we were required to interface. The tourist places had staff waiting for other staff, who were themselves waiting on other staff...which would explain their prices. We found a place that processed us faster than we could have been waited on, in the other place.
14. People park just anywhere. They stop in the road, rather than use the nearby pull-off.
15. Just about every business on the Parkway seems to be hosting a daily car show. The cars park wherever, intermixed with the business' patrons.
16. Fuel was generally about $1.89/gal.
Post by: scottb on June 14, 2020, 08:52:14 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 14, 2020, 08:57:47 pm
Post by: scottb on June 14, 2020, 09:12:48 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 14, 2020, 09:58:43 pm
Maybe expectations are different.
Post by: Slyp on June 15, 2020, 10:01:07 am
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 15, 2020, 05:56:12 pm
I was trying to give people an idea of what to expect. Since I don't know people's individual circumstances or expectations, I can only relate my experiences. Part of the experience is sampling the local food. Tastes vary.
The states are very different. Being that I have been to 19 states since the COVID thing started, I figured I had some perspective. I have spent time in 48 of the 50 states, prior to COVID, and have been to many countries across 5 continents. On this trip, we covered the Eastern half of Tennessee, and part of Western North Carolina. I have eaten many different foods, although I don't eat certain types of food. But maybe other people have more current experience.
My parents had cancelled their long-planned vacation to Ohio, because they heard how strict the rules were, there. We found that things on the ground were nothing like the news described them. Basically, facts in evidence are not necessarily as advertised. Even restaurant web sites are incorrect. One place in particular showed that it closed at 5pm, so we went somewhere else for dinner that night, but I called and they were open until 8pm, so we ate dinner there the following night.
Post by: scottb on June 16, 2020, 07:28:58 pm
Post by: Fierofool on June 16, 2020, 09:31:11 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 19, 2020, 06:13:31 pm
Post by: scottb on June 19, 2020, 06:59:24 pm
Post by: scottb on June 19, 2020, 07:00:16 pm
Post by: TopNotch on June 20, 2020, 06:54:51 pm
So I left the trial and headed for home. Charlie said that the brake fluid might be boiling, and that's probably correct, because the brakes came back after a bit of more gentle driving. I'm going to flush them out completely, and I have to deal with the leaking transmission.
Here's a picture from the trial...
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 20, 2020, 07:30:52 pm
Just goes to show that everyone should give their RFTH vehicle a good shakedown.
Post by: Raydar on June 20, 2020, 07:33:19 pm
...I noticed my brake pedal getting lower than normal, and after getting gas, it was even lower.
So I left the trial and headed for home. Charlie said that the brake fluid might be boiling, and that's probably correct, because the brakes came back after a bit of more gentle driving.
That sounds like the same thing that my car was doing. (I described it as a "spongy pedal", but it sounds very familiar.)
I ended up replacing both front calipers and pads (from Calipersonline), chasing another problem, and flushed the system to a fare-thee-well. After all that, the situation seemed to be much better, although the pads that came with my "loaded" calipers seem to dust worse than any pads I've ever used.
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 20, 2020, 07:39:12 pm
Not sure whose yellow/black Fiero that is. Tiretread?
Post by: Raydar on June 20, 2020, 09:44:07 pm
MikeMac, did you enjoy the ride?
Not sure ehose yellow/black Fiero that is. Tiretread?
That's Jason's.
Post by: Fierofool on June 22, 2020, 09:00:47 am
All of the cars performed very well. At least, when we could let them perform. We were occasionally held up by other vehicle traffic. The picture above was at a pullover to allow some distance between vehicles that were holding us back.
There was one special moment that I'm sure brought smiles to all. Budgetman was in the lead and we encountered a new Corvette. Jason said he just couldn't contain himself. It didn't take very long in the Hare and Hound chase with Jason sniffing the exhaust pipe of the 'Vette that it decided to pull over and let us all pass.
I also had a "Vette owner riding along with me. As we were on the return trip home, we were talking about the cars and what had been modified to make them perform the way they did. When I told him that at least 3 of us were running unmodified suspension with only 2 having little or no engin upgrades, he told me that there was no way that his 'Vette could have kept up with us.
Post by: TopNotch on June 22, 2020, 10:52:36 am
I gave it a bath to clean off the soot from the burned trans fluid, and will do other work later.
Post by: Fierofool on June 22, 2020, 01:43:18 pm
Post by: Slyp on June 22, 2020, 03:42:41 pm
Post by: TopNotch on June 22, 2020, 04:08:15 pm
And on the open road you are doing a constant speedNot really constant with the curves, but also no stopping.
Post by: Fierofool on June 22, 2020, 04:12:35 pm
Post by: Fierofool on June 22, 2020, 04:15:05 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 22, 2020, 05:45:42 pm
Pat was able to make a little better than half of the run, but had to tap out just before The Dragon. I had just the opposite situation of Pat's. My brake pedal height improved from about a half pedal engagement to about 3/4 pedal engagement.
I'm a bit confused. Is this engaging halfway down, 3/4th of the way down...?
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 22, 2020, 05:49:19 pm
There was one special moment that I'm sure brought smiles to all. Budgetman was in the lead and we encountered a new Corvette. Jason said he just couldn't contain himself. It didn't take very long in the Hare and Hound chase with Jason sniffing the exhaust pipe of the 'Vette that it decided to pull over and let us all pass.
This is humorous. Of course, the driver couldn't have been pushing the C8, if that's what it was.
Jason and Pat both have 3800's, I believe. Surely the suspension on Jason's is not stock, and Pat has an added sway bar.
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 22, 2020, 05:50:09 pm
I looked under my car yesterday, and found that the transmission leak must have been there for a while. There is a makeshift shield over the exhaust pipe under the right axle, but it is far from adequate. There was quite a lot of burned trans fluid on the exhaust pipe.
I gave it a bath to clean off the soot from the burned trans fluid, and will do other work later.
I wonder where it's leaking.
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 22, 2020, 05:52:48 pm
I just calculated my fuel mileage from the start to the last fuel stop before Gatlinburg, and I found something that seems to always happen on these runs. I get better gas mileage doing all-out driving than I do in around town local driving. I averaged just over 25 mpg on the trial run, while everyday driving only yields about 20 mpg. This has been the case with every Fiero I've owned, so it's not something particular to my 87. Has anyone else had the same result?
I got excellent MPG running through with my truck. I suspect that I'm out of the throttle a lot. Downhills and such.
Post by: Fierofool on June 22, 2020, 06:40:17 pm
The 'Vette wasn't a C8. Of course, driver ability was a factor. Jason has added a rear sway bar to his, too.
Post by: TopNotch on June 22, 2020, 07:02:46 pm
I wonder where it's leaking.At the output shaft seal. I have both sides on order. The parts store says the two side seals are different from each other on that transmission.
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 22, 2020, 08:03:49 pm
The brake pedal was engaging at about 1/4 from the top. Nearly a full pedal. It had been more toward half pedal. I even checked to see if my ebrake was partially engaged.
The 'Vette wasn't a C8. Of course, driver ability was a factor. Jason has added a rear sway bar to his, too.
I have no explanation for the improvement in where the brakes engage.
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 23, 2020, 06:20:58 pm
Post by: scottb on June 24, 2020, 04:15:59 pm
Post by: NoMad on June 24, 2020, 10:04:57 pm
Post by: scottb on June 25, 2020, 03:38:59 pm
Boyles is pressure/volume.
Which law is pressure/temperature?
Post by: NoMad on June 26, 2020, 02:38:53 pm
Post by: scottb on June 26, 2020, 03:45:53 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 26, 2020, 04:13:40 pm
Post by: Fierofool on June 26, 2020, 06:36:10 pm
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 26, 2020, 06:40:49 pm
It worked, last RFTH, I think it was.
Post by: Fierofool on June 26, 2020, 06:50:49 pm
Roger lives very close to Cracker Barrel and he said I could bring it there and leave it if needed. It had quit raining when we were leaving so no accessories were needed. My daughter followed me home. I realized I had made it there from Asheville on one charge, so I could proably make it 10 miles home.
Post by: GTRS Fiero on June 26, 2020, 07:10:33 pm
Post by: Fierofool on June 26, 2020, 09:19:52 pm