Sam Veith
Let the Road Trip Begin!
We finally left home and have started our trip! We had a slow start after packing both cars full and had to repack a few times. We left...
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Sam and Alex Present
Not Your Average Road Trip
Albany, New York to San Diego California
Moving 3,700 miles in 15 days in two custom built cars?
No Problem!
In June 2021, our lease finished in Upstate New York and we needed to move an entire house of goods to San Diego, California. So we did what our American foremothers did and packed up the carriage and trekked west!
We traveled 3,700 miles from Saratoga Springs, New York to Solana Beach, California in 15 days. We traveled and explored beautiful American cities and the countryside by day. At night, we hang out with old friends or met new ones by the campfire.
Scroll down to read up on our journey, our breakdowns, and lessons learned!
The Cars
"The Nasty Nissan"
The Backstory
Back in August 2019, I (Sam) was looking for a new car. I was tired of the same, boring, reliable car. What I needed, was something eye-catching. Do you have a sappy story about that first time you met a significant other?
When I saw the ad for the Nissan, I knew that would be my next car.
The Nissan wasn't always smooth sailing; we hit our bumps in the road. The Nissan had terrible creature comforts. I ended up buying another reliable Volvo after 9 months of spine-busting speed-bump popping. Each time you had to start the engine, you had to smack the starter motor with a hammer.
In June 2020, I decided to fix the Nissan's starter by replacing the entire engine.
Today (2021)
The Nissan is now powered by General Motors' famous engine from the LS family. LS engines are different sized V8s placed in their performance cars and trucks. I wound up with the most powerful truck engine from the LS series: the 6.0L LQ9. The engine is paired with a 6-speed manual T-56 and sends twisting power to a Ford 9-inch differential (4.11s with Posi). All it needs is a road trip to test it all!
The BMW
The Bitchin BMW
The Backstory
The BMW might be the car us brothers have owned the longest. Purchased in 2017, the Bitchin' BMW was a crack pipe of a car. The previous owner wanted to create a "drift rocket" and stripped the car of anything that got in his way. Sun visors? Gone. Rear seat? Nope. Mirrors? Removed.
Thankfully, he kept everything in storage so we could convince ourselves to piece it back together.
The 1987 BMW 325is was the highest trim and received some performance modifications from the factory. The "i" in the model name denoted fuel injection (a recent development for the time) and the "s" for sport. It originally made 167 horsepower and weighed 2600 lbs. A cool piece of history, but we wanted to spice the car up to the modern day.
Today
The car has come a long way from when we first bought it, but is still a long way from it's former glory. While the interior remains in tatters, the powertrain has received a substantial upgrade with a next generation M3 engine. The late 90s era S52 engine is paired to the matching 5-speed manual gearbox and spitting 240 horsepower. Although it became the ultimate enthusiasts dream platform, the Bitchin BMW kept us on our toes with many breakdowns on the trip!
The Rest of the Story
Here's our blog where we documented each day of the journey!
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