Driving a Mk4 Spitfire to Italy

[bmt216a]

Hello,

I am planning a road trip to Italy in my Spit in September time. Has anyone done this before reading this, if so would like to hear your stories. Been looking for forums online but havn't come acorss anything.

Cheers
Ian

[chard]

Where abouts are you going? I went to the lakes took a couple of days via switzerland, you will need a motorway pass for this route.
You could stop @ luxomberg on the way down.

[snx]

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/forum.asp?h=0&a...

Peruse through the pages here.
Soon find others doing Italian road trips

hth's

[bmt216a]

Planning to drive to South of France Then on towards Lake Garda / Como.

Thanks for the link

[chard]

It would be worth stopping @ Villefranche-sur-Mer (near Nice) for a couple of nights if you have time a good place to unwind and then a short hop into Italy.

[cliftyhanger]

Done ake garda a few times, truely beautiful place. First time was 1992 in a MK3 spit, spent a week there as part of a 6 week break, happy days.
Worth visiting the Bugatti museum in Mulhose on the way.
And enjoy the trip. Ours was virtually fault free (one simple 2 min job to retighten handbrake cable) but was pretty hot at times. weather and car.
Cheers
Clive

[FLAT 6]

Me, the Spittie and the Girlfriend (in order of priority as of that time) went to Italy many years ago in a MkIV. It's a great car to tour in with loads of boot space and I remember it being really comfortable for day long driving.

Went to Italy via Belgium, Germany and Austria, entering Italy via the Stelvio Pass. There was still snow at the top! My only problem on the whole trip was the clutch failing due to over use climbing the mountain passes and then the brakes giving up on the descent!!

I can recommend the route above. Went via Spa Francochamp, Nurburgring, the Rhone Valley, Neuschwannstein (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang castle), Munich, Austria (a bit boring...) and over Stelvio. Then home via Switzerland, into France below Lake Geneva (Lac Leman for the French) and up home.

So, bring some clutch and brake fluid and head for the Alps!

Sorry no photos but this trip was well before the advent of the digital camera!

Bonne Route!

[itiejim]

I've done Rome and back a couple of times in my MkIII. No problems with the car except for some fuel evaporation in the St Gothard tunnel which (at 19 km long) gets extremely hot by the end of August. Not a good place to stop...

I take it you have an overdrive fitted?

[bmt216a]

No overdrive fitted. Recenlty purchased a 1500 spit which I have decided to take instead as the mk4 isn't going to be ready.

Thanks for the info, will look into

[itiejim]

If you're using a 1500 with no O/D you'll want to make sure that you've got really good full-synth oil in as they're not the most robust unit to keep revving the nuts off for hours on end.

I once kn@ckered one completely by trying to set a bit of a time record back from Cannes to the ferry port - did it in 10 hours though