(Words and Photos by Tommy Lee Byrd) – Last week, we posted a tech article regarding the cooling system and charging system for a hot rodded ’64 Corvette. The goal was to finish the car in time for the Hot Rod Reunion in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and of course enjoy the awesome display of hot rods, gassers, drag cars and such at the beautiful Beech Bend Raceway Park. If you’re wondering about the car, it has an aluminum-headed 350, a Tremec TKO-600 five-speed transmission, 4.11 gears, manual drum brakes and M&H slicks out back. No A/C, no windshield wipers, no radio. Sounds like a great car for a road trip, right? Here’s how it  all shook out:

I woke up my neighbors bright and early Friday morning when I left the house in the Corvette. Oil checked, coolant checked, tires checked—let’s go. A few miles later, I picked up my dad and we found plenty of stuff to talk about in the first leg of our trip. Here are some examples of our conversations: I sure hope it doesn’t rain; Sure does look like it’s gonna rain; It’s definitely about to rain. I didn’t even look at the weather forecast because I knew that would discourage me from driving the car. One hour into our fourhour journey to Bowling Green and we’re going about 35 miles per hour on the interstate because it’s pouring down rain.

So, we pull off the interstate, and wait out the storm cell. The storm slacked off, so we hopped back on the highway and upped our speed to about 40 miles per hour (roads were still soaked). We stopped for a fresh bottle of Rain-X and gave the windshield a good coating, while the roads continued to dry. When we hit the road again, it was mostly dry, so I put the hammer down, until we ran upon some serious traffic caused by a very bad crash (probably caused the storm that we drove through). About an hour of inching along made for a tired clutch leg, and I noticed my first issue with the car’s new cooling system. During long stints in traffic, the temperature gauge would creep past 180 to around 200 degrees. That tells me I need a stronger electric fan, so that’ll be on my checklist for future projects.

We finally made it out of the traffic jam, and we had dry roads beneath us, so the hammer was placed in the downward position once again until we drove into another black cloud full of rain. Even at a slow speed, the car made a sketchy, involuntary right turn, but it worked out ok, as the maneuver sent me onto an exit ramp, where we parked at a gas station until the storm passed. At this point, I’m dreading the rest of the trip, as we’re only about halfway there. Luckily, despite my concern, the weather straightened up and we pressed on through the towns of Lebanon, Westmoreland, Scottsville and so on, until we reached Bowling Green.

The remainder of the trip was uneventful, and the drive home was very pleasant. We had to do a little bit of parking lot spark plug maintenance, but didn’t have to break out the toolbox for any other repairs. It was a great trip, and I hope to make it again next year, but I’m sure I’ll come up with another last minute project to tackle the week before the trip to make things a little more exciting.

My intention was to stop at cool places (like this shop with a ’55 Chevy for a billboard) and take pictures along the way. The rain, traffic and drama sort of soured my mood for the fun stuff, and my goal was eventually to just get there.

This was our view for a couple hours of the trip to Bowling Green. Driving on slicks (on the interstate [in a raging storm]) is not a good idea. Don’t do it, ever. On the bright side, the car ran cool.

The only issue that we had during the course of the event was keeping the engine cleared out during long stints in traffic. We ended up fouling a plug, but we cleaned it up
in the hotel parking lot and made a couple of carb adjustments to keep it from happening again.