I might be crazy, but I’m doing it! A weekend trip from Texas to the Pacific Coast of California in my 1991 GSX. For the preparations leading up to this trip, check out my build thread: https://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/9-clipsedohcs-1g-dsm-build.418713/post-153909252

My wife and I loaded up the DSM with tools, camping gear, a small Yeti, wetsuits, some clothes and headed west! We left west Texas this morning and drove across New Mexico, Arizona, and into California. Today was the longest drive of our road trip and we covered around 750 miles. We only needed to fuel up twice and averaged about 29 MPG on 91 Octane.

We are camping outside of Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California. Tomorrow we will be driving across LA, seeing some sights and then heading down the coast. Feel free to follow along on our journey!

That's some hella happiness in those pictures. Best of luck and safety on your journey! I wish I had the opportunity to cruise along side for a short bit.

Looks like a great time!! And the DSM hasn't broken down so all smiles from both people!

curt-s said:

That's some hella happiness in those pictures. Best of luck and safety on your journey! I wish I had the opportunity to cruise along side for a short bit.

Click to expand...

It was a great first day! Thank you very much!

twicks69 said:

Looks like a great time!! And the DSM hasn't broken down so all smiles from both people!

Click to expand...

No one was more surprised than me! The next two days have a lot less miles as we enjoy the SoCal sights and make our way down the coast and then another long drive back to Texas. Hopefully the DSM will keep it all together!

How fun.. Love when people post pics of their road trips

Safe Travels!

Whoo! We crammed a lot into a single day!

We woke up early and broke down camp. I cleaned all the bugs off the front bumper, checked the oil and coolant, and then we hit the road! We had a roughly 2 hour drive to our first stops in LA and it rained most of the way there. You might recognize a few of the these from the original The Fast and The Furious movie (Toretto Market, Toretto house, and Neptune’s Net).





I made this fun reel of my car in front of the Toretto house:

After a few stops in LA we headed up Mulholland Drive and down to the coast in Malibu. We had shrimp, scallops, clams, fish and calamari at the iconic Neptune’s net and got our feet wet in the Pacific Ocean. I wanted to get all the way in but it was very windy which made it feel even colder than it actually was.




Afterwards we headed down the Pacific Coast Highway with stops at Point Dume, the Santa Monica Pier, and Venice Beach. We ended our night in at a hotel in El Segundo with shrimp tacos and drinks!

What a great trip! Thanks for sharing the adventure with us. Great pics.

This morning we left El Segundo and headed south on the Pacific Coast Highway. Just south of LA we stopped at Laguna Beach and Victoria Beach. It was still pretty windy in the morning but the sun was shining and we had fun getting our legs wet in the Ocean.



After lunch we continued south to San Diego. We had booked a sea cave kayak tour in La Jolla but unfortunately it was cancelled due to the rough seas. Instead we drove down to Point Loma and spent the afternoon at Cabrillo National Monument. We hiked the Bayside Trail, Kelp Forest Overlook, and the Coastal Trail. We saw some Sea Lions and tons of Pelicans. It was a neat spot to spend the afternoon.




Then we jumped on Interstate 8 and headed east. There was a big storm on the mountains just outside of SD (they were calling for up to 8 inches of snow above 5,500’) that gave us some torrential rain and low visibility (we only got up to 4,200’ on the I-8 pass). Once we got over the mountains the weather cleared up (except for the wind) and we had a nice drive the rest of the way. We made a quick stop at the Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area for a few pictures and then ended our day just across the California border in Yuma, AZ. If you ever pass through Yuma, we highly recommend River City Grill, a little pricey but the food and service were amazing!

SixBolt_16G said:

How fun.. Love when people post pics of their road trips

Safe Travels!

Click to expand...

Thank you! It been an awesome trip and the 1G is still doing great!

DogWhistle said:

What a great trip! Thanks for sharing the adventure with us. Great pics.

Click to expand...

Thank you! We are having a blast!

man i really miss cruises and weekend trips like this. awesome!!

Just think of how much nostalgia you're triggering in people as you drive down the highway, too..
or just be flatout amazed that someone would risk straying that far from a garage

Incredible. This brings back great memories. Bucket list item for sure with my wife. I remember road tripping in my 91 Auto GSX from Pensacola, FL to Asheville, NC and back(something like 500+ miles, including a bunch of steep mountain climbs) and got like 30mpg and had so much fun ripping up and down the mountainside.

Gonna 100% do it again someday, but in the meantime I'll live vicariously through you. Awesome stuff.

This is awesome!! I'm glad to see you got it back on the road and just immediately took it on a massive road trip. Looks like you both are having a blast and how could you not with some of those iconic stops and views.

It does make me want to make a run out west to Vancouver islands through the Rockies with mine too .. but that's a tad far.
With my luck that's when someone will kick up a rock and destroy my windshield

nataku80 said:

man i really miss cruises and weekend trips like this. awesome!!

Click to expand...

I’m just wondering why I waited so long to do something like this in this car! I’ve ridden my Harley across the country several times, taken the Humvee all over the southwest and Rocky Mountains, drove my old Evo VIII to Vegas and back, and taken a bunch of cross-country trips in our Sequoia. This was long overdue in the 1G!

curt-s said:

Just think of how much nostalgia you're triggering in people as you drive down the highway, too..
or just be flatout amazed that someone would risk straying that far from a garage

Click to expand...

Very true! I did catch one person recording it as we passed, but I don’t think most people even know what it is anymore. We haven’t seen another DSM this whole trip.

CrackedDSM said:

Incredible. This brings back great memories. Bucket list item for sure with my wife. I remember road tripping in my 91 Auto GSX from Pensacola, FL to Asheville, NC and back(something like 500+ miles, including a bunch of steep mountain climbs) and got like 30mpg and had so much fun ripping up and down the mountainside.

Gonna 100% do it again someday, but in the meantime I'll live vicariously through you. Awesome stuff.

Click to expand...

That’s awesome! It’s been perfect for a two person road trip! Tons of fun to drive and pretty good on gas.

snowborder714 said:

This is awesome!! I'm glad to see you got it back on the road and just immediately took it on a massive road trip. Looks like you both are having a blast and how could you not with some of those iconic stops and views.

Click to expand...

Thanks Brian! We got some inspiration watching some of the Gears and Gasoline road trips on YouTube. I was a little apprehensive taking on such a long trip without doing some shorter ones first to build up confidence but I’m really glad we decided to pull the trigger and do it!

curt-s said:

It does make me want to make a run out west to Vancouver islands through the Rockies with mine too .. but that's a tad far.
With my luck that's when someone will kick up a rock and destroy my windshield

Click to expand...

So I literally just had the windshield replaced before we started this trip (lots of scratches from the wipers moving sand and rocks during the RallyX days) and have been concerned about it eating a rock but so far so good and we only have about 570 miles left on this trip.

We didn’t take many pictures today, it was just an 8 hour drive on I-8 and I-10 from Yuma across the southwest states of Arizona, New Mexico, and back into Texas! Once again, the DSM did amazing! We have a few little things we want to work on to make it better for future trips but overall I’m super happy and impressed with the results, especially after it sat for so long. Thanks for following along on our adventure and don’t forget to check out my build thread for everything still to come with this car!

How did it do with temps underhood? Was your radiator and fan setup enough to keep it happy on this trip? Love the updates and photos so far, very inspiring.

Thanks for sharing i really love the views reminds me of my trip to big sky, montana, and, boise to yellowstone, and the cabins up there. Who said these cars are unreliable shame on them.

Love it, I've done MOD in IL once and I want to do MOD in CA one time in my 1G before I die.

LaserRS92 said:

How did it do with temps underhood? Was your radiator and fan setup enough to keep it happy on this trip? Love the updates and photos so far, very inspiring.

Click to expand...

On day one driving across western Arizona I had the check engine light come on a couple of times for what I presume was coolant temps. However the gauge only moved up a barely imperceivable amount. I’m not sure if the gauge is malfunctioning and not reading higher or if the warning light sensor is coming on too soon. I didn’t have my laptop with me but I plan to replace both sensors and maybe add an aftermarket temp gauge. Both fans were working great and I didn’t have any other temp issues, even stop and go and stuck in traffic.

92AWDHX40 said:

Thanks for sharing i really love the views reminds me of my trip to big sky, montana, and, boise to yellowstone, and the cabins up there. Who said these cars are unreliable shame on them.

Click to expand...

The views were amazing, especially dropping down from the hills down to the Malibu coast! I’ve been up in Montana, Idaho, and Yellowstone on my Harley and it’s beautiful up there too!

ist dwa said:

Love it, I've done MOD in IL once and I want to do MOD in CA one time in my 1G before I die.

Click to expand...

I’ve been to The Shootout 3 times but never to a MOD. That would be fun too.

Here’s a new reel from Bob’s Market (Toretto’s Market from the original Fast and Furious movie):