The hostel stay was cozy enough and we got up bright and early to hit the road on Saturday. Our first leg was incredibly ambitious: Long Beach to Albuquerque in one day, an 800 mile, 13 hour trip. Yes, I am an idiot. That’s a long time in any car, much less one this small and going through the desert without A/C or cruise control and even worse in a car that’s running at very near its maximum speed. While the Cappuccino can do 120 KPH (75 MPH) easily, it is limited to 150 KPH so there’s not a lot of headroom on the wide open highways of the American Southwest.We did stop for breakfast and coffee in Long Beach proper and drive across the start/finish line of the Grand Prix course (because of course, I had to). After a nice breakfast and coffee, I pointed the Cappuccino East and began the journey.The desert was absolutely stunning. Miles and miles and miles of flat sand, punctuated by ffar-offmountain peaks. It was beautiful in its own, dangerous way. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky during our trip through SoCal, so we were forced to keep the roof on. This lead to a very hot car, even with the windows down.We pulled over in Barstow for gas and checked the weather. The ambient temperature was 103! Inside the car, it was easily over 110. We kept a big bottle of water handy behind the seat, but it would get very hot long before we could drink it all. This was very much the least fun part of the trip. After three hours of suffering, we decided to try the A/C. To our surprise, cold air burped out of the vents. Hooray! We might not bake to death after all!
Looks like a fun trip. I did a similar run from Denver to northern DE in my ’92 Cappuccino last year. A/C compressor may have been an overtemp safety; mine worked great up until rush hour traffic in St. Louis and an ambient temp of 105*+. We lost it for maybe 2 hours, but worked great the rest of the evening and the next day once temps got back down into the 80s-90s. Hopefully yours is a similar non-issue. Safe travels!
If you are planning to replace the OEM wheels please let me know, I have been looking for a set.
If you’re ever down in Kentucky, let me know! Always nice to meet another Capp owner. I was unaware of the overtemp function, but the A/C does have problems. I’ve tried it a few times and it isn’t blowing any cold air period. It is an old system, so I suspect all the freon has leaked out somewhere.
As for the wheels, replacing the wheels and tires with something a bit wider is in my early plans. I want to install some performance tires and the OEM wheels are too skinny. The tires on it now are practically brand new so they’d be perfect for someone looking for an OE swap. I’ll get in touch with you about setting up a wheel trade or sale.
Glad to see a cappuccino can make a trip back to KY! I just bought one in japan and I’m currently waiting for it to be shipped out to me. mine is coming to newport news virginia and I plan on driving it home from the port to ashland ky. I plan on autocrossing it at least once in lexington this year, maybe I will see you there!
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Wow, it wasn’t until that pic with the Sentra that you can really appreciate how small these cars are. Great article!
Looks like a fun trip. I did a similar run from Denver to northern DE in my ’92 Cappuccino last year. A/C compressor may have been an overtemp safety; mine worked great up until rush hour traffic in St. Louis and an ambient temp of 105*+. We lost it for maybe 2 hours, but worked great the rest of the evening and the next day once temps got back down into the 80s-90s. Hopefully yours is a similar non-issue. Safe travels!
If you are planning to replace the OEM wheels please let me know, I have been looking for a set.
If you’re ever down in Kentucky, let me know! Always nice to meet another Capp owner. I was unaware of the overtemp function, but the A/C does have problems. I’ve tried it a few times and it isn’t blowing any cold air period. It is an old system, so I suspect all the freon has leaked out somewhere.
As for the wheels, replacing the wheels and tires with something a bit wider is in my early plans. I want to install some performance tires and the OEM wheels are too skinny. The tires on it now are practically brand new so they’d be perfect for someone looking for an OE swap. I’ll get in touch with you about setting up a wheel trade or sale.
Glad to see a cappuccino can make a trip back to KY! I just bought one in japan and I’m currently waiting for it to be shipped out to me. mine is coming to newport news virginia and I plan on driving it home from the port to ashland ky. I plan on autocrossing it at least once in lexington this year, maybe I will see you there!