A 400/500E race car tow car

[John Bicht]

When it turned out that we wanted to play with a dirt track sprint car, but didn't have a towing vehicle we pressed our hotrodded 400/500E into service. A Curt tow hitch and a light trailer and off to Grants New Mexico we went.

We did not measure fuel mileage, since it would have been a real downer to know about, but fuel stops did seem to come more frequently.

The car behaved really well with the trailer and even better on the way back with the sprint car on it. There was plenty of gusty wind in all directions at various times, and the car drove smoother than without a trailer. No weather cocking ever. Hold the wheel straight and keep on driving.

We could easily cruise at 80-85, but the fuel consumption was startling. You could seriously nearly watch the fuel gauge needle move! Every time we looked it had changed. We backed off to 65-70.

 

[Glen]

Very cool

 

[gsxr]

That's just awesome.

 

[sheward]

I'm curious... What was the outside air temp and what was your 500Es engine temp?

drew

 

[John Bicht]

I'm curious... What was the outside air temp and what was your 500Es engine temp?
drew

I think we went over Raton Pass - 10,000 ft. + - in the low seventies F, and got pretty high temps, maybe 1/8th inch plus from the top reading on the gauge. Sorry to be so imprecise. These passes are very long up hill runs at pretty high gradients. In the past summer we had to back speed down to even 65 mph going over not quite so severe a grade but very, very long - perhaps 15 minutes - to keep the gauge from pegging in 95-100 F ambient.