I just crossed fifty miles on the car tonight. I got the car drivable late enough in the season that there is no way I’m going to get a few hundred on it before getting it painted, as my original planning was. Its still got the oil leak, and trying to communicate via e-mail, I’ve just not had enough time lately to deal with arranging to get it back to Fortes to get the leak taken care of. That said, the leak (while awfully messy under the car) isn’t bad, the oil level isn’t dropping noticeably, so I’ve still be driving it.

A couple weeks ago, I had finally gotten an inspection sticker on the car. I had expected this to be more of a hassle than it was — it took an hour for the shop to figure out what they needed to do, but at the end, I drove away with my sticker.

After I had the sticker, I took the car around the block to see how it held up, mostly to verify the coolant leak problem I had with the degas tank was resolved. It seemed to be, so I took the car out with Aimee and did the speedometer calibration. I screwed it up the first time, so it took two five mile roundtrip loops to get it finally calibrated, and then I decided to take the long way home, putting about another ten on the car after that. Between the first ill-fated drive and the couple trips around the block, I was at around 30 miles at that point.

Things have been beyond busy the last couple of weeks and I literally had no time to even think about driving the car since then. Today, however, I had to run into work for a while and decided since it was close to 50, sunny, and there wasn’t any commuting traffic, I decided to take the Cobra instead of one of my other cars.

The drive down was great — this was my first time getting the car on a highway, and it ran like a champ. The car is definitely still too low, and I need to raise and re-align it. I also think I may have screwed up the steering adjustment, as I seem to be able to turn sharper to the left than to the right. Another thing to look at this winter.

When leaving work, it was dark, and was the first time I had the car out at night. The dash looked great, the headlights were actually adjusted properly, and the drive was nice, if freezing. Holy crap it was cold out. I may have to not do that again without the switch for the heater blower hooked up. The glass was foggy, too, which just figures on my second real drive. My “I don’t need defrosters” decision may not have been the right one. Another thing to debate before getting the car painted.

Other than being cold, the only other problem I had on the drive home was noticing my highbeams aren’t working. The HIDs keep the low beams on with the highs, so it didn’t impact my driving. The dash light comes on, and I tested them in the past, so I’m guessing either the fuse is blown (or not installed) or I miswired something when I wired up the indicator light on the dash. Another thing to check when I pull the dash off before getting it painted.

I’m starting the process of figuring out where I want to do the body work, I’ll post more as I make progress with that. I may also, since I need to raise the suspension yet again, pull the oil pan and replace the gasket before then — its possible the oil leak is just the pan gasket. That’d save a drive down to Framingham.

So the first fifty miles are down. I suppose thats a milestone!