Our long distance field tester TJ is at it again!
TJ bought Ducky from us back in 2021 (roughly our 300th Bugeye) then flew in with his wife, and drove it home. In 2021, TJ and Ducky went on their maiden voyage of a 4,000 mile journey back to his home in Washington state, which is about as far away as you can get from our shop within the continental USA. That adventure was with the original 948 engine.
He had so much fun on the trip that he came back to do it again this summer!
This time, we picked up the car in Washington and brought it here to do some additional upgrades and improvements. For this trip, Ducky now has one of our 1275 engines bored to 1380 cc so he could have more power for his second cross-country adventure and beyond.
TJ set out from our shop on August 22 from our shop as shown in the video below. Total TJ mileage on Ducky at that departure was about 7,424. He’ll arrive home with about 12,000 miles on his Bugeye, all sine he purchased the car from us in 2021.
The pressure is always on for this kind of thing because we obviously have a lot at stake when one of our customers heads out into the unknown. Our check lists, test drives and diagnostics are working… as of Thursday night (two days in) he’s already reached central Indiana, without issue. After two days of driving he’s logged about 815 miles, and he should be in Illinois soon. TJ’s journey is inspirational, and demonstrates that it is still possible to head out on modern roadways in a good classic car.
TJ’s journeys are also a gift for us – he helps field-test our work and so we can continue to improve. Everything is working great so far, and we don’t expect any issues, but TJ’s experiences will certainly help us to improve the work we do for all of our customers, whether they log thousands of miles or just putter around the neighborhood. This is all great fodder for our quest to produce the most reliable and drivable classic British roadsters!
