My trip to Cruizin the Coast 2023

It was iffy for a while, but we did get to go to Cruizin the Coast after all. Mom was doing much better, so after arranging some folks to look in on her and feed our cat, we decided to give it a go.

We went in two cars this year. I drove the Healey and my wife took her daily for a couple of reasons. I wanted to do more Auto X stuff and she didn’t want to get stuck there all day. I also decided at the last minute to drop off a Ford 9” chunk that I wanted Quick Performance to do some work on. Saved a bunch of shipping, too. BTW – This chunk will be going into a 9” for the C10.

The trip down was uneventful and the weather was perfect for an open car. Knocked down about 20 MPG at interstate speed and that’s good enough to suit me. It was the only time I bothered to check it.

This CTC was a little different for us this year. I had to get the convertible top repaired and then get it back on while down there. That ate up some time. Registration at Cruise Central ate up a bunch more. Sat in bumper to bumper traffic for over 2 hours. The kind where you move up a car length, put it in neutral and just sit for several minutes before moving another car length. I’m happy to say that while the passengers definitely got hot, the car never got over 185 with the fans on override. The Power Tour used to be my test for a cooling system. CTC is now. Traffic was bad all week but got progressively worse toward the weekend. It always does, but this year seemed worse than usual.

The AutoX ate up a bunch more time, but I wouldn’t have missed it. I spent a little time there on Monday and a bunch more on Tuesday and Wednesday (the last day for it). And, I had a blast. My wife made a couple of passes before saying she had had enough. My first passes were not that good. My time was 52+ seconds. The semi-pro drivers with the sponsored cars and trucks were in the mid 30 second range. AutoX is mostly a you against the clock for personal best type thing when done for fun, but seeing what others do is a good way to judge how far you have to improve. I don’t think this car would ever be capable of the pro times (especially with me driving), but I was hoping for much better results.

However, after some nice couching by a fellow with a SBC swapped 260Z and another with a rather serious turbo BMW, my times started to improve, little by little. I think I found the cornering limits of the Cooper Cobra tires on the front. Avoiding hard understeer was a balancing act that made the correct line versus speed very important. There was simply no traction left in the front to pull you out of a bad decision. Acceleration out of the hard 180’s would also make the rear want to step out, so I was pretty much driving the rearend with the throttle. I had a definite feeling I was “on the edge” of what the tires had. All this makes me sound better than I actually am, for sure. I also found out that, on average, 2 hard passes were all the Coopers were capable of. The traction simply went away, especially in the front, when they were overheated. Also, the brakes take a little heat to work well. All this meant that it took one pass to heat everything up and then the second pass was going to be the best. A third attempt usually was much worse than the second. So, my days were spent making 3 passes and waiting for everything to cool. Then do it all over again. I tried firming the rear shocks up a bit in an effort to loosen the rear in the hairpins, but it seemed to make the car tail happy in the high-speed slalom section. I think the 2 best things I could do would be to add more front camber and swap to stickier tires, but that would shift more toward race car status and would have to be undone after every meet.

Still, my times steadily improved over the course of two and a half days. By Wednesday afternoon I had shaved over 7 seconds off my times. My best passes were in the mid 45 second range with one “miracle” pass coming in at 44.9! To say I was happy with that is an understatement. The car at it’s heart, after all, is just a high speed cruiser and this was only my second attempt at this. The only car there that was similar to mine was a Cobra. Same basic suspension layout, but with sticky Nitto tires that the owner said only lasted about 5000 miles before they were worn out. His times were 2-3 seconds better than mine. I’m perfectly satisfied with my results. To say I was sad to see the event end would also be a great understatement. The car acquitted itself well and gave no problems in spite of the beating I put it through. Just get in and go. Can’t ask for more. If I can figure out how to edit my GoPro videos, I will post up a short in car vid. Sorry, but all my videos of the car taken from the sidelines turned out to be unusable. I don’t even have a picture of the AutoX.

I did get a shot my mentors 260Z.

https://i.imgur.com/vr8Obr6.jpg

I spent 2 days at the swap meet. Delivered the 9” chunk and bought a set of disc brakes for the truck rearend from Quick Performance. Made a lot of contacts for parts and got some ideas.

Because of all the time spent on all these other activities, there wasn’t a lot of time left to go to the various venues and actually look at cars. We did spend some time sitting on the side of Highway 90 watching cool cars of all kinds go by. And a few odd ones too. CTC brings all kinds out. We did get to Ocean Springs on Saturday and made it to a C10 side show in Long Beach.

Here are some of the few pictures I did take.

The view from our table at Shaggy’s restaurant in Pass Christian.

https://i.imgur.com/1FNe7ur.jpg

Cars on Highway 90

https://i.imgur.com/JpQ23vG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dlH0PxB.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NZGrl9v.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/4v4IXfk.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/q9gkvvn.jpg

C10’s at Long Beach

https://i.imgur.com/a32xuiG.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/NJTNMZr.jpg

My score at the swap meet. Wife wasn’t too keen on hauling this is her 4-Runner, but I bought some cheap Harbor Freight moving blankets and padded it good.

https://i.imgur.com/3ZQCyen.jpg

These shots were posted on the CTC Facebook page by total strangers.

This one is on Monday at Cruise Central after sitting in traffic for 2 hours.

https://i.imgur.com/czR2r24.jpg

This one is just me once again stuck in Highway 90 traffic.

https://i.imgur.com/8I0xURc.jpg

Ocean Springs.

https://i.imgur.com/N77nnh2.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/InYFG5g.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tV3fgAX.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/tVQdXuO.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/M5wnIYF.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/cjyIwUA.jpg

There were over 10,000 registered cars this year and probably 5000 that were just there to cruise and didn’t bother registering. It is wild time for sure. Supposedly the biggest car event in the country. I’ve already put in for my vacation next year.

Thanks for sharing. We have been to CTC a few times and really enjoyed it. Every fall we go to the races at Talladega the week before so it became a real chore to try and do both events. Maybe next year we'll try to do both.

Thanks for the awesome update Mike. Sounds like you had a great time for sure. And thanks for all the pictures too.

Fun! That blue Jag is gorgeous.