Driving in the USA

[Shaoxter]

More specifically, how likely is there to be cops waiting to catch you speeding?

Route is LA -> Vegas -> Grand Canyon -> Death Valley -> Yosemite -> San Francisco -> LA
There seem to be some nice twisty bits around Death Valley and Yosemite as well as lots of straights to vmax make good progress. We've hired a Camaro SS so hoping to put it to some good use

[Shaoxter]

Good points about the traffic and RVs, but we're not going in peak season so hopefully will be a bit better. Are there really cops who hang out in the middle of the desert? Must be a pretty stty job...

Badvok said:

Stu R said:

Get a data plan on your phone and use waze.

Don't go mental, you'll get reamed.

Or for £10.50 get the excellent Copilot USA and have the maps on your phone this not relying on data connection which driving where you're going you won't always get connected

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/copilot-premium-hd...

I'm gonna buy Copilot USA (the UK version is very good) and I've also got a 3 payg sim because they have that roaming abroad thing which charges you the same as home.

[Shaoxter]

Thanks guys for the advice, some good tips which I will keep in mind. Obviously I will drive sensibly around towns and heavier traffic but hopefully there will some stretches to test the car

Matt Harper said:

In the UK we are taught that a yellow light means stop or prepare to stop. In the US it seems to mean, put your boot down and try to beat the red.

Erm, I dunno where in the UK you were taught but that's definitely not the case from my experience!

[Shaoxter]

thetrash said:

When are you going? I've just returned and had to take my SS back as it had a loud and annoying heatshield rattle and they couldn't give me another Camaro as there is a big recall for the ignition switches on all Chevrolets. They gave me a Mustang GT as a replacement and it was so wallowy and soft I thought there was something wrong with it but they are all like it. Ended up with a Dodge Challenger which was as fun to drive as the SS.

Going on 3rd Oct, booked with Hertz Adrenalin collection at LAX.
I'm not expecting anything precise or refined (have even gone for a convertible), just something with a nice big V8 noise

[Shaoxter]

Which is why I went for the Adrenaline collection which guarantees the vehicle you book! I think the Mustang "or similar" are the V6 versions anyway.

[Shaoxter]

Update - got back from the trip and it was awesome. Didn't get pulled over once, but I was sticking to the limits around the built up areas.

Favourite roads were Artist's Drive in Death Valley (one way, twisty and big gradient changes) and Glacier point road (had a clear run up most of it).

The standard of driving however is poor - people just hog the outside lanes and RV snail racing seems to be a popular pastime. On the 5-6 lane highways in the cities, the quickest way is to just weave between the trucks in lanes 1-2. Having said that, they don't seem to have as much of a problem with being overtaken as they do here, only got beeped/flashed at once.

The Camaro SS was very disappointing. Noise was muted for such a big V8 and the power delivery was a bit diesel like - some torque around 3-4k rpm and then flat until the pretty low 6200rpm redline. Steering was the worst part of it though, vague with no feel and inspired no confidence to go quickly. The auto box was surprisingly good in manual mode (which I used all the time), shifts were responsive but sometimes shifted down one more gear than you wanted on the way down.