So we didn't get a Mustang after all!

[Dave Brand]

Just back from Texas - 2,700 miles in 19 days.

Avis has some "interesting" cars available at some of its bigger locations, but as we booked rather late, the "best" they had available to reserve was a Mustang Coupe. I accepted that 305 bhp would probably be adequate fro our needs - 55bhp up on the Charger we rented two years ago. However, when we went to pick up the car the very nice man on the rental desk informed me that for a few dollars more they now had a Dodge Challenger available . . . an R/T with the 5.7 litre Hemi engine. I thought long & hard about his offer (must have been all of five seconds!) & decided to accept!

So, what's it like from a British perspective? Looks-wise, in my opinion better than Mustang or Camaro - not so "over-styled". The dash I found rather disappointing - a "down-market" look to it & poor quality plastics. However, for me this car's all about the engine. . . no disappointment there! Driven gently there's that lovely V8 rumble; push that little pedal all the way to the floor & there's a glorious howl accompanied by acceleration to match! Handling's pretty good too, for such a big (by my standards!) car - maybe initial steering response could be better & there's a bit of understeer, but with all that power going to the rear wheels that problem can be easily solved! I certainly had loads of fun on what are now very high on my list of favourite driving roads - 118 north of Fort Davis & 170 between Presidio & Terlingua.

Everywhere we went the car attracted compliments - one the better moments was the driver of an old Buick who walked up to me at a rest area & said in a heavy Texan drawl "is it fayust?", spotted the "Hemi" badge & said "yup, it's fayust"; just how "fayust" I ain't saying . . .

Apart from the uninspiring dash the only other criticism I'd make is that the thick C pillars create a sizeable blind spot, which can make merging at junctions difficult.

The bottom line is, I loved it!

[swamprat]

Dave - Sounds like you had fun. Did you get to try an of our 80 mph roads? I haven't gotten near them yet. Too far away for me. I did drive on a 75 mph section of I-35 south of San Antonio. I noticed no real difference between it and the 70 mph zones speed wise.

I will have to look at a Challenger, although there is no way I could afford it.

Do you have any pictures? We would all like to see them.

[Ken]

Dave - Sounds like you had fun. Did you get to try an of our 80 mph roads? I haven't gotten near them yet. Too far away for me. I did drive on a 75 mph section of I-35 south of San Antonio. I noticed no real difference between it and the 70 mph zones speed wise.

I will have to look at a Challenger, although there is no way I could afford it.

Do you have any pictures? We would all like to see them.

Until Dave gets back with his 'live' piccies, here's an SRT8 to be going on with.

Ken.

[Dave Brand]

Dave - Sounds like you had fun. Did you get to try an of our 80 mph roads? I haven't gotten near them yet. Too far away for me. I did drive on a 75 mph section of I-35 south of San Antonio. I noticed no real difference between it and the 70 mph zones speed wise.

I will have to look at a Challenger, although there is no way I could afford it.

Do you have any pictures? We would all like to see them.

We drove a lot of 80mph sections on 1-20 - to me, 80 does feel like you're making better progress than at 70. Trucks are still limited to 70, but we didn't really find that to be much of a problem as the 80 limit seems to be applied only where traffic levels are relatively low.

I'll post some pictures soon - I need to resize them first.

[swamprat]

We drove a lot of 80mph sections on 1-20 - to me, 80 does feel like you're making better progress than at 70. Trucks are still limited to 70, but we didn't really find that to be much of a problem as the 80 limit seems to be applied only where traffic levels are relatively low.

I'll post some pictures soon - I need to resize them first.

80 is a better than 70 for sure. My overall cruising speed in rural areas is between 80 and 85. On urban highways, I like to do about 70.

The truck speed limit no longer applies on Texas highways, although it is still posted. I think that it is no accident that it is taking them this long to remove the signs. The night and truck speed limits are the same as cars as of 9/1/11.

[chiph]

You should have sent me a PM with your location. I could have shown you around Austin.

They won't let you drive on the new F1 track yet, but they'll let you look at it.

Chip H.

[Dave Brand]

The truck speed limit no longer applies on Texas highways, although it is still posted. I think that it is no accident that it is taking them this long to remove the signs. The night and truck speed limits are the same as cars as of 9/1/11.

Trucks did seem to be keeping to 70 where 80 was posted - either they don't know the truck speed limit no longer applies or they have found that the time saved by doing 80 is outweighed by higher fuel consumption?

As promised, I've attached a few photos.

[Dave Brand]

You should have sent me a PM with your location. I could have shown you around Austin.

That's something we should have done two years ago! We didn't go anywhere near Austin this time - we did the northern & western bits of Texas.