After having ridden in your car, Hugh, I don't blame you for not wanting to
make it a daily driver, a tired and heavy Imperial in todays traffic pushes
the wear and tear along at a faster rate (hurts), and adds to the drving
stress immeasureably. On the oil problem, I've always just run 20w-50 and
kept it topped off. When the oil gets exceedingly dark (or 4/mos,
4000/miles), I change it and keep going. Check the plugs to see which one's
foul first. On oil burners (like my current daily driver Newport) I've found
that the Bosch platinum plugs are very good at not fouling-out as soon as
regular plugs, say, 10-12,000 miles versus 4000.
On the other hand, you could have a little fun by running 10% VP Racing Fuel
(the good 4-gram per gallon stuff) to 90% 93-octane and jump the
timing/vacuum/throttle response back up. It ain't cheap, but it might offset
some of the lousy feelings as you clear out of the traffic pack to change
lanes as YOU desire, keeping the runway landing (approaching stops) clear
from the usual pesky termagants and wallowing pelicans. (And when they pull
up next to you to compliment that cool paint/sticker/finned appearance and
tell you, "Hey, that thing REALLY moves", you can brush 'em off with one of
those, "Naw, not really . . " witticisms, and plug the museum. Then deduct
the extra operating costs from the IRS. (Right?)
Ross
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