How often to do drive your coupe?

jhjacobs

jhjacobs

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Inspired by the "How often do you spot an E9" thread I am curious to know how often people here drive there coupes. I typically get Amelie out about 3 times each week. Normally it is for relatively short 10 mile drives to Potomac for coffee but sometime we make a more adventurous drives up to an hour or two.

The last road trip I took with Amelie was down to Tennessee (550 miles each way). My father had never seen her and I wanted him to take her for a spin. On the way home a truck threw and entire tread several cars ahead of me and I wound up hitting it. Ir disintegrated a vintage Hella fog light, smashed the panel under the bumper, and this pulled the driver side fender inward enough to break the paint. Bummer. After a spell in the shop she is as good as new again and we're back to our regular cruising.

I believe that if you have a running coupe that isn't ever going to be a museum piece that you should drive it and enjoy it (despite road hazards)! I know I do. I would also say that more that 75% of the times I go out I get "thumbs up" or a conversation with an intrigued person in a parking lot. What even more interesting is that the people who comment are totally random. ranging from car buffs to teenyboppers. Even stranger are the people who know what the coupe is. Many people to should (self proclaimed buffs) often think it's a Mercedes (lord!) and then sometimes a bum will tell me about the coupe he used to drive and then rant about the steering wheel of some general coupe topic known only to true owners.

I apologize for being a stranger the board lately. I've been swamped with work since quitting my day job and starting two new companies.

Keep your E9-Driven!
 
I drive mine about 2 to 3 times a week. (Until the slave cylinder gave way on Christmas day). Usually to work and some weekend trips. Just picked up an 88 528e to drive in the weather and it's amazing how much better the Coupe drives.

We took the coupe up Skyline drive to Bid Meadows this september, great mountain drive. Get a lot of "thumbs up" as well everytime.
 
I live in a part of the world where they salt the roads at winter and the climate in general is very humid because of the proximity to the sea - 'the rust belt'. In addition to this the winter is fairly long :(

This means that I don't drive the E9 at all from about November to March - give or take a few weeks :(

During the season however I drive the car as often as I can :D

I typically drive for at least an hour to make sure everything is well warmed up. When the weather is nice I also go on longer trips.
 
Wondering about driving our Coupes--

JJ--glad to hear from you again--long time very quiet from your corner--remember "all work and no play will make JJ a dull boy"-----seriously-----welcome back!!

I don't drive the BLUMAX nearly as much theses days as in years past but having piloted most of it's 410,000 miles in his drivers seat and another 150,000 or so in other E-9's I have owned or been entrusted to drive by other owners--believe it's safe to suggest that number of miles is unlikely to be equalled in the years remaining for this driver.

In the past 37 years, Blumax, his brother Silver Max and their sister Foxy BMW (don't laugh, that was my formers knick name--Foxy, not BMW) had traveled roads to the following and other destinations--

South of the border down Mexico way (wouldn't risk that anymore), North to Victoria and Vancouver, BC, Jasper and Edmonton in Alberta, Canada, East to Missouri & Illinois, North west through the Dakotas, Wyoming and Colorado, including countless miles of mountain roads, Southwest through Arkansas, Texas and New Mexico, many trips to Monterey, Palm Springs, San Diego, forgotten the number of trips up and down the Big Sur and across the Ortega and many, many other of our blue roads of the Wastern US etc, etc--.

Even today in jaded Newport Beach where seeing a new Lambo or Ferrari on the street is commonplace--when going to my favorite coffee shop in the neighborhood the Coupe frequently becomes the subject of attention and conversation.

Doubt that will lessen in the next decade--unless our "Messiah" and his Washington cohorts proclaim that all fossil fueled vehicles be re-cycled to make new Detroit "green cars"--that plug in each night and be limited to 45 mph and a range of 2 hours running time.
 
I live in Boston, so my driving season is limited in a couple of ways. First the coupe gets put away for storage in late November before the salt gets caked onto the roads, and snow falls. By mid April it's time to go for a drive! Second inhibitor is the fact I live in downtown Boston, which requires a 6th sense for potholes and a seventh sense for crap drivers over here.

The longest drive I have taken is 'only' the 2.5hours from Boston to Lime Rock motor racing circuit for the Rolex Vintage Racing Festival (the East Coast U.S' attempt at Goodwood or 1/4 what you lucky folks out the West Coast have with the Monterey Historics).

Hope to arrange some longer coupe cruises in 2009!
 
I live in Carmichael, California, a suburb of Sacramento. This is my 10 year anniversary of driving my 1971 coupe as my daily driver. I have used my 2800CS to commute to work, which has been an average of 30 miles a day, 5 days a week and weekend duties. My coupe is garage kept at night, and wiped off in the garage after being out on rainy days.
I bought a 2003 Mini Cooper for my son, and I would gladly choose the coupe over the Mini any day. I only wish my coupe had heated seats on some cold mornings.
 
How far vs how often

Winter/ugly weather usually hits here by the end of October and doesn't become reliably dry until the end of April. I spend this time taking things apart and trying to reassemble in equal or better condition.

Assuming the weather is dry I try to use the coupe to do all of my distance driving to the city for business (150 miles round trip) plus the odd local jaunt. My classic insurance gives me 3000 miles a year and most of this gets burned up this way. For an additional $25 I can add a "holiday package" that gives me unlimited mileage within a specific but not restricted period of time. Go figure the economics of this for an insurance company. So I do an annual long distance trip.

Last year it was out to Vancouver Island and back for 1500 miles in a week. This year I'm planning on driving my elderly dog to our cottage in Quebec while my wife flies. Round trip of 4600 miles. Should be a 3 week trip.

I don't worry about driving on every sunny day as long as I can get lots of mileage overall. For me, it's more about how far I drive then how often. I'm trying to catch Murray and Bluemax but I'm not sure there is enough gas left on the planet to do it.

Added a picture of last road trip to Waterton National Park in October.

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Doug
 
usage

I'm in year 9 of ownership and live 20 minutes south of Boston so my driving season is very similar to Duane's. I managed to put ~1500 miles on my coupe last year mainly from weekend "exercise" drives and then the drive out to Limerock in September. Leaving at 5 AM and blasting over an empty MA pike is more fun than the actual show day itself. I do enjoy motoring by the other muscle car entries trudging along. With all of that HP, you would think they could do better than 50.

Despite the weber 38s and a regular heavy foot, the coupe gets about 17 MPG. I respect the fact that I can thrash it (especially the M30 motor) and it just keeps asking for more. Driving my coupe is like therapy for me.
 
Like Duane, I live in the northeast. From November to April my coupe sits snug in her garage connected to a battery tender.
In the good weather I will drive the coupe at every opportunity; daily to the gym, about 20 miles round trip (all twisty NH back roads!), occasionally to the grocery store (always parking away from all cars) and to visit family.
Every other weekend I take her out for a long cruise into the lakes region of NH where my family has a small cottage. The spacious trunk make the coupe more useful than my Infiniti G Coupe,
Last year the White Shark was the vehicle of choice for one week of vacation again in NH. We also try to get to at least one car show and a fun rallye!
It always impresses me when these young kids with the hat on sideways, a goatee, in a hopped up Jetta give me the the thumbs up and a big grin!
I hope to join a group of e9 enthusiasts at Lime Rock in '09!
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Drove mine all day yesterday in cold but beautifully clear London. I usually go for a drive about once a week if its dry out.

Did a 2,000 mile road trip from London to Frankfurt and back this summer, including about six laps on the Nurburgring. Got caught in a gnarly hailstorm on the autobahn. Had to drive ten km to the nearest overpass for shelter. Not looking forward to that nightmare again, but now happy to confirm that marble-sized chunks of ice do not dent thin CSL roofs or alloy hoods!
 
I'm glad to see lot's of other folks driving their coupes. Road hazards aside, the real joy of owning a coupe is sitting behind the wheel. It doesn't matter if you are in traffic or slaloming around twisties in the mountains, it's hard not to have a big stupid grin on your face when you're behind the wheel.

Here in Maryland we are fortunate to have many "no salt" dry winter days; I get shut down only 2-4 weeks each year. I just replaced my thermostat last night.

Last weekend I noticed my temp ran up close to the red mark at stop lights and then cooled quickly when moving. It has always run cool (9 blade fan and heavy duty radiator) so I was shocked. The next time I took if out it never warmed up and I nearly froze. Fortunately I had a new thermostat and gasket in my box of "just in case I need them" goodies. It fixed the problem and I warm as a summer day in the coupe now.

The notion of heated seats is interesting. This, and a heated steering wheel, are the only features of my 540i that I prefer over my coupe! This summer I plan to put in new leather upholstery. I think I'll look around for heating pads to incorporate. Since I now have an 80A alternator I think I can spare the power for them. 8)

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How often

Like my countryman Doug of Alberta, I carry "classic" plates on my car. There are a ton of rules involved, especially about modifications. The car must be kept as original as possible. But, this knocked the annual rate to about $400 with an agreed value rider. Hard to complain about that. In Canada, you get your plates and tabs at the insurance broker. No insurance,no tabs. Much more sensible than the US way, I am sorry to say. Virtually eliminates the uninsured motorist scenario. Yes, this still happens, but pretty much only with cars that are stolen, or a driver willing to tool around with expired tabs. That said, we are having a near record winter here on Vancouver Island, Vancouver, and the whole of the N.W. The bimmer is no snow queen, quite scary in fact, with street tires. They do use salt here. Safe to say that "Sienna" will stay put in the shop for a while.
 
I don't use mycoupe in the winter months either due to the salt on the roads. I try to use the winter months to gey a few jobs done.
 
shamefully only once last year, due to bad weather and too much bloody work! I'm hoping to get a lot more use out of it this year though, before (hopefully) starting a ground up resto next winter.
 
I drive my CSL a lot less than I used to drive my CS, now in Doug's loving care. I've always maintained that the E9 is a great modern classic, a car quite capable in daily use. They certainly have grace and pace, they're nimble yet not so light that you feel super unsafe, and they have the power to merge on to a modern freeway without fear of a bird strike from the rear. My main complaints about them are lack of ventilation from the side, excessive wind noise from the frameless windows, and on my CSL, less than stellar seat belts. With the recent increase in value and the addition of the M635CSI I've been driving the CSL less. Having said that, it's no garage queen and I'm happy to thrash it good and hard (as PJ, Shanon an the rest of the contestants in the first annual Rallye Monte-Diablo can attest). It's a driver. It has nicks and scratches and is far from perfect. I love that car with an extra white hot flamey passion to quote a friend of mine. I do worry about her meeting the business end of Range Rover or Excusion though. I should probably increase the insurance coverage on her.
 
Here in NY... I guess I must be stir crazy with multiple image posts in one sitting.

Between family issues, sorting out coupe odd's/ends, upgrades, while having one our ace NY mechanics (Pierre) retire....I haven't driven my coupe much in 2008, and not at all since I drove it to NH 3 months ago.

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Needless to say, I'll be psyched at the prospect of seeing more of the East Coast Coupsters (JJ, Stan,Stefan, etc.)

LimeRock '08 had 6 of us...so we've got a lot to look forward to.

Be well.
 
BLUMAX was out today in SoCal--with Chris from HB

as my co-pilot--for the second run.

We had a beautiful SoCal winter day--a nice break from the gloom, fog and cold rainy days we had been having recently. First, a quick run to an adjoining town for a brief meeting with a business associate and then a run to another nearby town to have a look at a completely original, one owner 1970 car from a very private man that i looked at 5 years ago-- has just finally become available to me--very low miles--unmarked with all docs--including its original window sales sticker.

More later.
 
Not often enough. It hides from the road salt for 6 months of the year.

I put a total of 19,000 miles on it in the last 27 years.
 
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