18 replies to this topic

[StephenSLR]

I was watching Classic Resto's on the weekend. Fletch mentioned he'll be doing a few shows along Route 66 and suggested to check out the link.

I've looked into it and it looks great.

Route 66 tours


Has anyone here done one and is it value for money?

What do you guys think?

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[Ando]

I did about half the route 66 from Texas to Santa Monica - California via Grand Canyon & Las Vegas in 2007.
Went with two other mates. We hired a car & did it our own way. It was a car related holiday & saw a lot of car shows & events.
Also brought a car back to OZ as well as heaps of parts & memorabilia.
I highly recommend doing this trip & I hope do the whole route 66, starting from Chicago in the future.
If you are starting in Chicago, make time & go to Detroit, the Motor-City, home of the big three car makers.
Well worth the effort.

[StephenSLR]

In case anyone is interested, Dales response:

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Hi Stephen,

Thanks for watching Classic Restos & for your interest in our fantastic Route 66 Tour from Chicago, Illinois to Barstow, California, ending in Las Vegas, Nevada.

This is by far the best Road Trip Tour of Route 66 available and we are very proud to be working with Fletch and the Classic Restos team.

Classic Cars – well I can promise you this, come along on tour with us & you will see thousands, & most of them for sale.

Although our tour is focused on Route 66, and the nostalgic road trip experience that it is.

As a Classic Car owner & lover, you can be sure they factor into every tour I put on.

In fact I doubt it is even possible to drive Route 66 & not see hundreds of classic cars.

If you have checked out our basic itinerary online at www.route66tours.com.au then you might notice the lack of details.

Up until now that has been on purpose as we want people to come along on tour for Route 66 itself.

However we are in the middle of upgrading the itinerary & it will soon be showing more detailed information on what is offered along the way.

For a start we include 2 very special workshop tours that are invitation only.

The first is the workshop of one of the world’s best Hotrod builders.

The other is a workshop that has a focus on Classic Mustangs, and they would easily be the best in the USA.

We also take in several Classic Car Museum’s and collections.

On top of that we stop at one of the largest classic car lots I have ever seen with many hundreds of cars for sale, if not thousands.

We take in another smaller yard that has cars that range from wrecks to $15,000 cars for sale.

Then in Vegas we go and have a look through Carol Shelby’s Museum and workshop as well.

Again, this is a fantastic tour of Historic Route 66, and that is our focus, but as it happens the boom time for the Route was the 50’s and 60’s, & as a result Classic Cars & even Vintage Cars factor in every trip down the Mother Road.

I am very open to offering a $200 per person discount to Classic Restos viewers that book & deposit by March 31st.

Please don’t hesitate to give me a call or email me directly if you have any questions.

I look forward to showing you Historic Route 66, The Mother Road.

PS click on this link for over a thousand photos taken on past tours.... http://www.facebook....23294776?ref=ts

Kind Regards,
Dale Butel
Managing Director

Edited by StephenSLR, 23 February 2010 - 07:36 AM.

[StephenSLR]

Also brought a car back to Aus.

How is it these days? I recall it was relatively easy in the '80's then they clamped down on it making it a lot harder, the suffering AUD after they floated the dollar didn't make it worth it either.

What are costs involved, documents required etc.?

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[Ando]

Best way to find out is contact your local car importer for a cost breakdown but ball park figure allow about 20 - 30% on top of initial purchase price which should cover shipping, gov. taxes, fees, compliance & maybe road registered here. Exchange rate varies at different time but it's not bad at the moment.

I used an importer for the first time & paid the extra grand or so to save the pain & frustration of doing it myself. The second time I controlled the process a little more once I established some contacts but one thing I recommend is allow plenty of your time to find the right car for you & don't trust photo's.

Cars over there at a good price are getting harder to find. You may need to get away from the west coast as there are no shortage of foreign buyers doing the same thing. You may even find a car in OZ without all the hassle.

I took this approach. Do your home work here before you go! I surfed the internet here & established enough inspections before I left here & that helped set my trip itinerary. I looked at about 100 cars before I settled on one but in my case, I was focused on one model & it had to be the right car as it was for long term family ownership. You could get lucky on the first you see. Who knows you may not find what you want & just have a great holiday but that is part of the fun.

Hope this helps.

[StephenSLR]

You could get lucky on the first you see. Who knows you may not find what you want & just have a great holiday but that is part of the fun.

I don't have any particular model in mind, it's just in case I happen across a one in a million and don't want to regret it later.

Yep the travel bug is slowly awaking and I'm starting to see this one happening.

s

[MictheAussie]

I currently live in the US but haven't done the drive. It is on the bucket list tho.
In my opinion, for what they are charging you could have a much better time doing it yourself.

Look at it this way... 4 guys do it together. Tour price is $7995 each. ( like you gonna do it in a van) So that's $31,980. Geez.... Plus Gas and Meals!!

So to do it yourself: 4 flights- $6000 (you can get return Syd to LA for $1500 usually)
A reliable muscle car $10000 ( Nova, Chevelle, etc... Doesn't need to be fast but reliable and looking good, inc. rego and insurance)
Hotels for 20 days $200 night for 2 rooms $4000 (2800km + time to look around - 20 days)

So thats $20,000 And you get to keep the car. Or to rent a mustang it can be $2000 maybe. So that's $12,000.
Add in fuel $1,000 maybe, Food $200 day if you like to eat expensively, so $4,000.

So if that's hard to follow With a muscle car: $25,000 total, $6,250ea but you get a car out of it.
With a rental car (similar to this company's package): $17,000 total, $4,250ea

I may not be a math genius but I know what I'd do. With the internet these days, you can plan the whole trip yourself, book the hotels and find restaurants before you even leave Aus.
Do it yourself. You will have a better trip and a few grand extra to buy CHEAP car parts.

[StephenSLR]

Look at it this way... 4 guys do it together.

Not all of us can get 4 guys together, I've scouted around among friends and not a cracker. Too many kids, mortgages, etc.

You have to pay a commission to be part of any tour.

I've done Europe with a bunch of friends going to Wacken, Metalcamp, and visiting Metal clubs in every city we went to.

We did it on the cheap with round the world tix and staying at backpackers, etc.

Thanks to MetalTravelGuide.com I'll look into all the Metal clubs along the route - It'll be the Route 666 tour for me.

s

Edited by StephenSLR, 26 February 2010 - 02:33 PM.

[StephenSLR]

I may not be a math genius but I know what I'd do. With the internet these days, you can plan the whole trip yourself, book the hotels and find restaurants before you even leave Aus.
Do it yourself. You will have a better trip and a few grand extra to buy CHEAP car parts.

I'm on the trip right now and I'll tell you this for sure, you can do the searching on the net but this guy that's running the tour knows a hell of a lot about Route 66 and takes you to some pretty remote places and old roads.

You can drive to some of the historic spots you find on the net but Route 66 doesn't exist like it used to, it's been replaced by interstates (freeways) that bypass it all. Dale really tries to get you to see as much memorabilia and historical sites as you can fit in. He says you'd need 6 months to see it all. I'm happy with the trip so far and I know if I got 3 of my mates together it would be nothing like this. The accommodation is pretty good too.

He gives us each Sat Navs, mobile phones and we all have a two way to keep track of each other. The Mustangs have satellite radio and I'm in heaven listening to Metal from the 80's & 90's as well as comedy channels as I'm driving along.

s

[StephenSLR]

I've arrived back home, the tour was pretty amazing, well worth it.

We made the news in Missouri - there were several errors in the report, e.g. it should read Portland Concrete, the journo must've had difficulty with our accent.

TV Crew Follows Aussies Along Historic Route 66

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[StephenSLR]

Classic Restos is screening the first part of the Route 66 special tonight on TVS (Ch 31, etc.) 7.30 pm, it's repeated Sunday morning.

If you see the group of Mustangs, I'm in the black one.

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[StephenSLR]

I'm going to usa in Sept and have 2 weeks to kill, might go take a look. Intend on seeing a nascar race while i'm there too

Why not drive a Nascar for yourself?

I did the Rookie Experience in Las Vegas.

http://www.drivepetty.com/experiences/

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[StephenSLR]

Here's episode 1 of the Route 66 special.

Route 66 ep. 1

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[StephenSLR]

Route 66 Part 2

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