Seven Cites in Seven Days, 2624 miles

[ross22]

The event I planned for since last fall, has come and gone. Hot Rod Power Tour 2016 is behind me now, bugs are washed off the car and I can reflect on just what an awesome car the M4 really is. I ordered the car specifically with this event in mind in late January. The car had roughly 1100 miles at the beginning of the tour. The M4 surpassed my expectations.

According to the trip computer, my best friend and I spent about 49 hours behind the wheel, average speed was 55.6 MPH, 23.3 MPG over the course of the 7 day tour which took us from Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri.

This is a great road car, I can say that having spent at least 4 hours daily and over 11 hours on the road on Saturday (from Kansas City to Houston straight shot) I don’t feel as beat up as I did in my 94 Mustang Cobra or my buddy’s 2013 Mustang GT (previous tour cars). The trunk had enough space for tools, gear, and even an ice chest. Inside, the tunes were goings, and the lines on the road just passed like spots.

This is a fast car. In the wide open desolate roads I was able to experience the joy of my mods (thank you Pure Turbos, Eurocharged, and RK Tunes). Find the right gear and you’ll be rewarded with a torque curve that feels more like a large displacement motor than a Euro coupe. On several occasions after a good run, we would stop for fuel and people would ask what was in the M4, they couldn’t believe it was a turbo’d six. Short of a modded 2015 Viper, there was nothing I encountered that posed a serious threat from a roll. I’ll add that the car is tuned for 91 fuel, since there are several states which I drove through that did not carry 93. I ask myself “what if”, what if I had added E85 or got it tuned for 93, regardless this car is fast and it was pure fun rolling on the open road.

The car feels at home on the road. Regardless of whether it was pouring rain in Lousiana or over 100 degrees in Oklahoma, the car just loves the open road. Oil temps were consistent, boost never seemed to be impacted by the 100+ days in the Midwest last week.

The car needs seat time. It seemed that every day I got in the car I learned something else about it over the course of last week. From the right gear to pass, or setting the M buttons from maximum effect, the little things seemed to make a big difference in feeling better about being in the drivers seat. I’m no expert but I’m getting there with over 3K on the odometer now.

I know it's a long post, but I can't stop thinking about the road trip or bragging about this car.

I’ve got a ton of pics with various road buddies I’ll work on imbedding those on this thread.

[KevinM]

Sounds like a cool trip! Anything specific you learned that you care to share? Waiting for my car to get back from my ED, so living vicariously through posts currently.