tyga11

We're driving from Phoenix to Lake Tahoe on Monday which is a 12 hour drive. It will be hot also - in excess of 105 degrees. Will I have any issues driving straight there? I've down 6-7 hours before straight but never 12...I guess my main concern is the engine overheating.

GuardianVA

Tahoe is so nice in the summer. Can't wait to go back. Anyhow...I've done several 12+ hour drives on the east coast, so the traffic made them a lot more tiring. I've also made similar drives in NV and UT. It's different just because I personally enjoyed the scenery driving in Nevada, the roads are generally less crowded once you get past Vegas (drove for almost a half hour without seeing another car in western NV past Tonopah, lol) and you can generally drive at a faster speed. You'll probably be worn down at the end of it for sure, no matter what.

As far as overheating, the cooling performance of the C43 for the trans, oil, and intercooler have been more robust than average from my experience. I would keep an eye on it, of course, but seriously doubt you will have any overheating issues, even if you did it cannonball-run style all the way.

Ramsino

I have driven about 9 hours straight in my C43 before with no issues at all. I don't think you should worry since you're probably going to spend most of those hours hovering around 2,000rpm or under if you're just cruising on the highway. It's only when you hard accelerate and maintaining high rpm do things really heat up. I don't think outside temperature really affects the engine all that much if you aren't pushing it too hard. Just drive in comfort and watch your coolant/oil temp from time to time.

tyga11

Thanks for your response! This calms my nerves a bit. We are very excited to go! We'll be there all next week - I haven't been to Tahoe in the summer and we're excited!!

LILBENZ230

Pretty much any modern car should handle this without issue. Have a good trip.

stockbmw

Just yolo it!

tyga11

Just an update in case anyone is interested! We left Monday morning from Phoenix around 5am. We arrived in Lake Tahoe around 5pm. As you indicated, once you get north of Vegas on the 95 the roads are dead. Averaged probably 95 for a solid 6 hours and didn't see one cop. The car was perfect. Not that I expected anything less but with the temps being so high this week I was a little concerned.

Arrived back in Phoenix a couple of hours ago. I have the performance seats and no issues at all. My girlfriend has a bad back and she was fine also.

C43HeartBoost

Glad to hear. What was the max oil temp you hit on the trip?

tyga11

The highest I observed was 225. I was constantly monitoring. With that said, I was pretty much cruising right above 2k RPM in 9th in comfort mode the entire trip. I didn't really push the car at all since it was so hot. Most of the time the oil temp was between 210-218...

Ramsino

Yeah, the oil temp in this car is very good as long as you are just cruising. I noticed on my long trips, as long as my RPM was consistently under 3,000, which it easily was due to 9 gears, my oil temp never got above 212. Yet, if I drive around the mountain in a "sporty" manner, keeping my rpm around 3-4k rpm for the corners, my oil temp easily hit 228-230.