2005: Carefree Driving
2005 began in a rather special fashion: the birth of my second son. The month of March was
partly spent in the garage waiting for the birth to happen, and part of it spent enjoying his
company. As such, April saw some effort spent in charging up the original battery (7 years old!)
and changing the oil in preparation for the season. And also playing around with some
trick photography.
We had a pretty mild spring... I had the GTA on the road fairly early, taking
advantage of the cooler air because the A/C was still non-functional. By early May, I
finally got around to plating this one and had that on the road as well. With my wife
home with our second son, I did not have to commute as far with our oldest boy. Lots of
easy-going driving to and from work. In all honesty, the Marauder had gone beyond getting
on my nerves and so the WS6 was the preferred commuter.
Rain or shine...
As usual, the car continued to deliver a rock solid driving experience. Even after
7 years and over 80000 km on the road in all driving scenarios possible, the engine continues
to amaze me with the flexibility and incredible power band. There really is no best range in
which to operate that motor... you can cruise at 2600 RPM for fun:
... or lug it down to just off idle (idle is 900-1000 RPM) when gently gliding around
the neighborhood. In both cases, the motor runs just fine and keeps delivering clean and
efficient power: look at the odometer reading and fuel gage... almost 100 km on that tankful
and the needle hasn't even budged!
Sure the gage sweep isn't as linear as it used to be before the fuel level sender was
swapped out under warranty in 2000, but consider the following photo showing the fuel level
after almost 400 km of driving (mostly highway on this particular tankful).
In fact, if I don't get over 500 km on an average regular tankful of commuting to
and from work without really paying close attention to economical driving, I think I'd have
something to worry about. Can't ask for any better than that from a 350 hp monster that
can rip off 30+ MPG on highway trips and still abuse any Mustang of its choice.
