Should I drive my car to the track?
So here's the deal - I have this orange Duster that I want to get down the track in the worst way. While that's not a problem in itself, said track is approximately 80 miles from my house one way. I don't have a trailer of any sort. My car has a forward pattern manual valve body 904, 3,500 + converter and 4.30:1 gears. At 55 mph, I'm a little over 3K on the tach. There's an external trans cooler and a 26" rad with a shroud that according to my temp gauge never goes over 180-190 or so, even in stop and go traffic. But that is a lot of heat over a long period of time.
There is another option - our family truckster. We have an '01 Cherokee Sport with a class 3 trailer hitch. The P.O. installed it to tow a smaller trailer with motocross bikes in it but not a car hauler. I never verified that we have the towing package for this thing or not but I think it's OK either way. Problem with the Jeep is that the towing capacity is only 5,000 lbs. Duster weighs at least 3,200 with a full interior and all steel. That leaves very little room for the trailer, probably end up right at the maximum. Don't have the scratch to buy one of those lovely 1,200 lb aluminum trailers at the moment either.
I'm really hoping to get down there and makes some passes. Yeah the worry about breaking something is there and being stuck 80 mi. from home would suck. Kinda leaning towards driving down there but perhaps I am missing something. Might be unforeseen consequences from A) driving such a long distance with this particular combo, B) flogging it then C) driving back to the Island. I have no reason to believe anything is going to break but it's making me a little uneasy.
Not planning on taking any extra parts or tools beyond a tire gauge.
I also have a good friend who lives about 10-15 minutes from the track so if absolutely necessary, I could probably give him a call if a situation arose.
What say you all?