I recently took a cross country trip (for work) and decided to make a little thread about my journey.

I daily drive (only car I have) a 97 Integra Type R (#104). I've been DD'ing the car since I bought it in October of 09. Keep in mind my R had just under 147,000 miles on her before I left for this journey. The previous owners and I have meticulously kept up with maintenance and have always taken great care of this car. My R has a Mugen (gen1) bucket for a driver's seat, a 4.7 final drive (at 85mph in 5th, its SCREAMING at approx 5000 rpm), and no cruise control... not exactly a great long distance car, but its all I have and I really wanted to have a car while at school for 8 weeks.

September 24th, I left Edwards AFB, California at 330am for some Air Force training to become a Paralegal. The training course was going to be about 8 weeks so having my car was worth the drive. My destination was Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama. The first day on the road, I drove from Edwards AFB, CA to Witchita Falls, Texas. It was a miserable 17 hours on the road. (approximartely 1250 miles) September 25th, I left Witchita Falls determined to reach my final destination at Maxwell AFB (Montgomery Alabama... another 790 miles) In less than 2 days, I managed to put over 2060 miles on my ITR... without any mechanical issues! Keep in mind this R had under 147,000 miles on her when I left california!

Every weekend for 7 weeks I drove from Maxwell AFB to Meridian, Mississippi to visit old friends (I went to high school in Meridian MS). So every weekend (for 7 weeks) I was putting about 350-450 miles on my car! I graduated Paralegal school November 17th, and that night I drove to Meridian, MS to have a little Corona celebration! I stayed in Meridian MS for about a week and did 2 autocross events! Thanksgiving was right around the corner so I headed to Dallas, TX to eat at the family's house! November 23, I left Meridian, MS and made it to my parent's house in under 7 hours. (Meridian, MS to Dallas, TX... over 500 miles)

After a few days of drinking, visiting, eating and more drinking with the family... it was time to head back to Cali. November 26, I left my parent's house at 500am determined to do a minimum of 1000 miles towards Cali! I made it from Dallas to Needles, CA in approx 15 hours (approx 1170 miles in a day). Next morning, November 27, I drove to see some family in Sherman Oaks, CA (LA area) approx 290 miles from Needles, CA. Today I'm finally headed back to Edwards AFB the last 75 miles of my journey.

After the entire trip I added it up and I drove over 7000 miles at 85 MPH (5000 rpm)! I dont know how many car makers can build a car to last well over 100,000 miles and cruise across the country and back at over 5000 rpm! Talk about ABUSE!!! And on top of that I autocrossed the car twice in between the big stretches of the trip! This just goes to show what a well taken care of Honda is capable of doing. I'll continue to autocross, track, canyon drive, and dailly drive my Integra Type R until the doors fall off! A lot of people question why I would drive a Honda... if this isn't a proof of reliability and strength, then I don't know what is. Glad to be back in Cali and can't wait for the ITR track day... see you guys there!

Leaving Edwards AFB, CA at 330am

First gas stop 290 miles from Edwards...
















Finally on Maxwell AFB

First autox event

Second autox event

 

nice write up, props on doing such a good job of planning out your trip down to the T. congrats on graduating paralegal school and nice pics. How did it feel driving for so long on the bucket seat?

A honda is capable of anything!!

 

cool pics man. thanks for sharing!!

 

Thanks! School was definitely a challenge but well worth it! Honestly the Mugen bucket is amazing but after 700 miles it gets rough! You just can't slouch and really relax you just have to sit in it upright and make the best of it!

 

I enjoy taking the R on long trips. Cruise control would come in handy though. I don't know how you did it in those seats. Congratulations on graduating.

 

Nice trip! Reminds me of when I moved from salt lake city Utah to niagara falls Ny I drove my eg hatch sumthin like 2200 or so miles with the old b16 in it at 85-90 miles a hr I tried to max it out at one point lol got up to somewhere around the 140 range Before I backed off I couldn't really read the speedometer at that point. An the b16 ran great for the few yrs I ran it I pulle it a few weeks back still in running condition just to start the jswap. Man Honda does live up to reliability!

 

i love the way your R is set up but...... put the wing back on dammit!

driving and taking pics is dangerous **** man! great drive! i could never drive x-country in my R. something about it having low mileage. curse my purchase!

daily driven and kept so clean...how do you do it golseth?!

 

What RPM are you at @ 70mph? 5k seems rough lol

 

i know there's math for this (and i've seen it somewhere before) but IIRC, it should be like 4500? i could be wrong by maybe 200rpm or so. isn't 70 in stock f/d around 4300?

 

very nice!

 

Why own a car then if you don't drive it? It's like having a c*ck an never useing it cause it has low miles are you gonna do that to. R's are ment to be driven if it has low miles when you get it the more miles you can enjoy it. Unless you like having a life size model car...

 

^^ Love taking mine on trips. I put over 10k every summer depending on where expo is at. Love every mile.

6x,xxx really isn't that low though. I just put over 1500 last weekend for the turkey meat.

 

Nice pics and a cool write up! Congrats on finishing (all while workin' hard a DRIVING that R )

 

But see your R is your DD. I've got a 200k+ '96 Audi a6 as my DD. And my R wouldn't be so clean if it got more miles washing it once a month is enough already. Fun fact: since we got it in august, we've put a combined 1,1xx miles on it. At this rate we'll hit the allotted yearly limit our insurance gave us before it resets

 

Congrats sir!

 

Always wanted to take my R on a roadtrip like that, nice write up, and congrats; Oh, and keep heR safe!

 

I wish I could take my R on a trip like that. Question is, did you burn any oil on those 7k miles? If so, how much?

 

Stock USIM ITR in fifth gear:
70 mph 3722 RPM
85 mph 4544 RPM

With 4.7 FD like his:
70 mph 3950 RPM
85 mph 4870 RPM

He said that he's going around 5000 RPM at 85 mph, not 70 mph, and these numbers back him up.

 

Been through about ~7,000 miles of road trips in my 97 this year I believe.. 4500 expo, 1,500 when I bought the car in Omaha, ~1,000 between FL-SC trips and other trips.

I think I put around 13k on it total since late Jan..

I still plan on driving it cross country with 200k+ without concern.

 

Its a car... its meant to be driven... the more miles means more fun! And NO, call me captain sacrelige, the wing will remain a house ornament! How do i do it??? its not easy being me as ron burgandy would say it "I'm kind of a big deal." ROR


Thanks holmes!

I burnt a little oil... didnt care to measure how much... not more than half a quart though.

 

High RPM doesn't hurt the engines when you're cruising with low gearing. coolhandluke has the MFactory 1.000 5th and 4.05 FD and has put over 10k on that car now. I've put over 20k on my Z6 (interstate only) with the MFactory 1.000 5th and OEM 4.058 FD.

Maintain it and it will last a long time.

 

Well put! I dnt Evan count miles in my cars I count maintance the only time I really watch the miles is on heavy driving just to see how far I went. If you don't drive it you don't enjoy it.

 

im really surprised about gas mileage on these cars as well. i started with a full tank before i drove from central NJ down to the turkey meet in MD. when I got there, i'd only used up a little more than half tank. and that trip was close to 190 miles. that's like 30mpg highway, and i'm not the greatest "mpg driver"

 

Thanks for posting the pics!

 

Mugen FD, Mugen bucket seat, low profile tires, and an ITR tranny on a road trip? FYL!!