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Yesterday the daytime temperatures hit 109 (f) in Austin Texas. After a leisurely Sunday lunch as we left the air conditioned restaurant I asked my gf if she wanted to cruise River Road in New Braunfels and gawk at the river ‘rats’. She was up for it, I put the top down, swapped seats with her, I wanted to take some photos as we passed through and off we went.
The road is curvy, parallels the river for many miles and is mostly covered by a canopy of trees. One aspect to consider is that during the summer ‘high’ season the speed limits are enforced to an extreme and they are posted as 20mph (7+ miles).
I should mention that she drives fast when possible and for some reason seems to tailgate rather than pass.
We quickly came upon 20mph traffic, her constant gas then brake was getting on my nerves so I put the transmission in s, this increased engine braking and smoothed out her gas/brake thing quite a bit.
After we exited the beautiful River Road we continued home (in S). She was going along at a pretty good clip and all was good. When we got closer to home we picked up a slower driver, maybe 40mph, and there we were tailgating again for 5 more miles. They pulled into their subdivision and my gf hit the throttle, the car exploded forward and at that moment I realized she had inadvertently pulled the downshift paddle and we had been driving in 2nd for far too long.
Long story right? Well I then turned on the AUD and the coolant temp was reading 227 and flashing (I think I set it to warn @220) I quickly pulled the selector over to D and the revs dropped, the temps also dropped rather quickly but only down to 218.
Nothing blew up, the second stage of fan cooling had not come on and the OEM idiot warning light did not come on but I will be very careful going forward into this heat wave.
In my younger years, I used to have a bad habit of tailgating. Broke me of it real quick when I realized the paint chips it was causing. I mean, among other problems.
her constant gas then brake
My dad calls this "driving like a pedal car"
(gas brake gas brake gas brake)
As an aside, I'm not from Texas, but in the months I've spent there, New Braunfels seems to be about the dividing line between barbecue country (further north) and TexMex country (further south). That big Buc-ee's must be the DMZ
Last edited by equatorial; Jun 19, 2023 at 03:48 PM.
I had picked up an old Triumph Spitfire shortly after moving to Texas and had just got it going again when my gf popped by. I had driven it all of a mile at that point. She wanted to drive, so why not? She promptly wrapped it to redline in 1st and 2nd with me white knuckled and cringing the whole time. Go girlfriends!
Our cars seem to bring out unexpected responses from girlfriends and spouses. My wife normally drives very carefully and at exactly the speed limit. She's had the same Lexus for years. Zero interest in any of the various X100's I've had. On her first test drive of the newly acquired XKR, she floored it on the highway entrance ramp and drove way higher than the speed limit. Big smile. She's taken pictures of it to show friends and brag about it. Now is asking to borrow it on a regular basis so she can take those friends for a ride. Maybe this should be her car so I can justify buying a 5.0
Too hot to handle!
