My ride is a 1969 Porsche 912, but just about any car can be thoughtfully set up to serve as a safe and efficient long-distance highway cruiser.
The total highway cruiser setup is a synergistic package of individually small things that, when properly combined, can change the character of the car and improve it for a new life on the open roads of America.
A personal favorite is an efficient exhaust system. Properly installed, a very efficient exhaust system requires only routine care or maintenance, and not much of that.
I live in California, so I prefer using a car built before 1973. That's when energy-sucking smog equipment and catalytic converters became mandatory. My 100% legal 1969 Porsche 912, for example, must only have an unrestricted crankcase breather tube.
Above: This view of my 912 engine from the bottom shows part of the Bursch tube header exhaust system. Tube length is carefully measured so exhaust pulses reach the muffler one at a time. At high engine speeds, gas dynamics take over and the result is what one would expect from these small but powerful race-bred engines.
While mandatory for race cars, your cruiser will benefit only slightly from headers. That's because, at normal cruising speeds, your engine just isn't working that hard. Headers might have some benefit, of course, and would give your engine compartment a completely different look. But for a highway cruiser, are they worth the cost or purchase, installation and maintenance when cracks start to appear? Probably not.
A pre-1973 American V-8 with factory manifolds (some of which are remarkably efficient) would have a two mufflers and tailpipes, each serving four cylinders - real dual exhausts!
Later engines equipped with catalytic converters may be factory equipped with two - one on each head pipe serving one bank of cylinders. My 1989 Lincoln Town Car's 302 Ford engine has such a setup.
Above: The '89 Town Car's "Y" connector aft of the dual catalytic converters cuts manufacturing costs and may save a bit of weight, but it's not very efficient. I didn't touch the converters but converted to real dual exhausts and picked up since nice benefits for the one-time cost.
Though it came from the factory with a "Y" connection behind the catalytic converters to force all that exhaust gas into a single tailpipe-muffler setup, I simply trashed everything behind the catalytic converters to keep the car legal and had dual glass-pack mufflers and oversize pipes (exiting below the rear doors).
Above: This is the new '89 Lincoln Town Car dual exhaust setup with glass-pack mufflers and oversize pipes exiting below the rear doors. The Town Car is hardly a "hot rod", but this setup is much more efficient. It also gives the car a very sweet sound "cruise-controlling" down the Interstate at a legal 65 or 70 miles per hour.
My Lincoln Town Car factory literature says dual exhausts alone produce 10 more horsepower at 3,400 rpm and another 10 lb-ft of torque at 2,200 rpm for a modest one-time installation cost. The other side of the performance coin, of course, is economy because the engine is simply more efficient.
I'm enjoying these benefits now on the 1989 Lincoln Town Car for one set of reasons. I also enjoy the same benefits on the '69 912 because it has the Bursch tube header exhaust system suitable for a Porsche race car.
Take a look at the exhaust system on your ride. You may very well enjoy a nice improvement in either performance or fuel economy (depending on what you want) with a fairly inexpensive upgrade to your exhaust system.
Remember, though, to keep everything legal.
For more ideas on how to create your own long-distance highway cruiser, please visit my web site Shopping Cart to order all eleven Installments (as PDF e-book, black & white printed booklet or deluxe full color printed booklet) of "Building Your Own Long-Distance Highway Cruiser?"
Michael "Mike" Newlon Retired in 2005 after a dual career in private sector corporate management and as a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army Reserve.
When he is not exploring current or former U.S. highways, like CA 99, in his Porsche 912 or Lincoln Town Car, Mike enjoys reading 20th Century history and popular action novels.
If you have questions about Michael "Mike" Newlon call him today: 760-636-5560
or visit his website http://www.highwaytripbooks.com/
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