Classic Hifi Care

Tonight I rolled the ’86 Mustang out for the first extended drive of the season, 140 miles SE to the Lake Huron side of Michigan. It’s a bit nerve-wracking each year. The car is 37 years old, after all, and has 153K on the meter. When I graduated from high school, a car that old would have been built in 1928, and I can assure you that NOBODY was driving 1928 vehicles in Michigan then. 10-year-old cars were really old if they had survived rust. But what the heck, I’ve got Hagerty towing, so I packed up and shoved off.

Before we could buy rec gas, I learned to expect the engine to stumble at about 30 miles down the road. It would die for about a second as it passed water, and then give a few more shudders. My heart always skipped a few beats when that happened. I learned to dose it heavily with dry-gas products to take up the water that the ethanol had gathered. Now I just fill the tank with real gas and all is well come spring.

Tonight there were no problems. Except maybe the bugs on the windshield; they always hit just where my eyes are searching for the deer. But bug populations are way down as we experience climate change, so I could find some clear sections to peer through.

Chris Campbell

We have no-alky gas in many locations here and in VT due to all the lakes and boaters around. I use it in everything except our 2 "new" daily driver cars: 2005 and 2011. Mowers, boats, chain saws, trimmers, vintage cars, '07 Mustang convert, all get the "good" stuff.
It's hard to imagine that my '69 is 54 years old... crazy! But it has a high-ish compression engine and runs great on the no-ethanol stuff, lately selling for $4.39 a gallon.

I guess we're spoiled gas-wise here: yesterday a guy came from S. Jersey to pick up the '71 Kawa 2-stroke parts bike I bought last year to scrounge stuff off of, for one that I'm restoring. He said good Hi-Test no-alky gas was unobtainium there except at places that sell 93 racing gas for $12 a gallon. When I told him about the gas that's available here he went and bought gas cans to fill up and take home!