Getting the car to Switzerland
Discussion
Merry Chrimbo one and all,
This coming year I'm planning on a few days blasting the 355 around Switzerland. The challenge is getting it there. Naturally I could drive it down, however I'm not particularly keen on adding a few thousand miles of just droning along the motorways.
Does anyone have any recommendations for how I could meet it there? Key priorities are:
- Not having it bashed up (naturally)
- And ideally not spending more than £1k return
My first thought was the Motorail but apparently they don't take 355s due to clearance issues.
So... perhaps not possible, but maybe there's something I've not thought of!
Cheers.
This coming year I'm planning on a few days blasting the 355 around Switzerland. The challenge is getting it there. Naturally I could drive it down, however I'm not particularly keen on adding a few thousand miles of just droning along the motorways.
Does anyone have any recommendations for how I could meet it there? Key priorities are:
- Not having it bashed up (naturally)
- And ideally not spending more than £1k return
My first thought was the Motorail but apparently they don't take 355s due to clearance issues.
So... perhaps not possible, but maybe there's something I've not thought of!
Cheers.
Some recommendations here https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=17... - maybe some others similar from other areas - your budget might be tight
kiethton said:
“Blasting” and Switzerland don’t often go together?
Would you not recommend it for such a trip? Reason I favour it is because the GF is Swiss and thus I figured it would be an easier sell 
... however if you think France / Austria / Italy would be more favourable then open to alternatives.I live in CH there’s some fantastic quiet alpine roads to “ blast “ about on .
It’s a Ferrari owners ( and any other sporty car ) paradise .
1/2 of the worlds production of Veyrons live here , along with a disproportionate number of F cars .
Your GF probably knows that .
The French motorways are pretty empty outside school hols and plenty of Nice places to stop over .
You could aim for Basel via the E side of the Rhine in Germany .Find out how fast it really goes .
Take the B raids once in CH .
It’s a Ferrari owners ( and any other sporty car ) paradise .
1/2 of the worlds production of Veyrons live here , along with a disproportionate number of F cars .
Your GF probably knows that .
The French motorways are pretty empty outside school hols and plenty of Nice places to stop over .
You could aim for Basel via the E side of the Rhine in Germany .Find out how fast it really goes .
Take the B raids once in CH .
This should give you a second thought about driving there..you can skip to min 07:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL3v-VvmRhs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL3v-VvmRhs
There’s zero speeding control of any form on the B Alpine roads and passes .
The bends are too tight and straights too short .
Take the St Bernard pass for example you will be lucky to see 50 if that , but your tyres and brakes will warm up .
Motorways sure and schools , villages etc etc in urban areas .The urban areas are all herded together in the valleys .But remember if opt to pass through Germany on the way to CH there’s plenty of opportunities to get a high speed fix .
In CH it’s all about tackling bends / corners up and down the mountains .
June to Sept are the best months.
Mid June top of St Bernard border with Italy the lakes still frozen .
The bends are too tight and straights too short .
Take the St Bernard pass for example you will be lucky to see 50 if that , but your tyres and brakes will warm up .
Motorways sure and schools , villages etc etc in urban areas .The urban areas are all herded together in the valleys .But remember if opt to pass through Germany on the way to CH there’s plenty of opportunities to get a high speed fix .
In CH it’s all about tackling bends / corners up and down the mountains .
June to Sept are the best months.
Mid June top of St Bernard border with Italy the lakes still frozen .
todea20 said:
This should give you a second thought about driving there..you can skip to min 07:30
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL3v-VvmRhs
Yeh that’s bikers and feels like a A road not that twisty tbo .https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qL3v-VvmRhs
Fiammetta said:
There’s zero speeding control of any form on the B Alpine roads and passes .
The bends are too tight and straights too short .
Take the St Bernard pass for example you will be lucky to see 50 if that , but your tyres and brakes will warm up .
Motorways sure and schools , villages etc etc in urban areas .The urban areas are all herded together in the valleys .But remember if opt to pass through Germany on the way to CH there’s plenty of opportunities to get a high speed fix .
In CH it’s all about tackling bends / corners up and down the mountains .
June to Sept are the best months.
Mid June top of St Bernard border with Italy the lakes still frozen .
Yeah that's what I was thinking - not so concerned about hitting any radical speeds so much as experiencing some amazing dynamic roads.The bends are too tight and straights too short .
Take the St Bernard pass for example you will be lucky to see 50 if that , but your tyres and brakes will warm up .
Motorways sure and schools , villages etc etc in urban areas .The urban areas are all herded together in the valleys .But remember if opt to pass through Germany on the way to CH there’s plenty of opportunities to get a high speed fix .
In CH it’s all about tackling bends / corners up and down the mountains .
June to Sept are the best months.
Mid June top of St Bernard border with Italy the lakes still frozen .
Still, seems like a lot of the best driving is between around the Swiss / Italian border (?) so if the lower risk simply means you spend more time on the Italian side of it then that's no great hardship.
Fiammetta said:
There’s zero speeding control of any form on the B Alpine roads and passes .
The bends are too tight and straights too short .
Take the St Bernard pass for example you will be lucky to see 50 if that , but your tyres and brakes will warm up .
Sorry that’s just not true...I can speak from experience. The smaller roads might not have cameras but police operate speed traps. I got caught by a speed trap on the road from Martigny to the St Bernard pass...I was doing 18 kmh over the limit and got a CHF 500 find on the spot ! I was in an X5 and was following 3 Swiss registered cars all doing the same speed, I was the only one stopped. The bends are too tight and straights too short .
Take the St Bernard pass for example you will be lucky to see 50 if that , but your tyres and brakes will warm up .
The roads are brilliant but you have to be very careful. I was out in Switzerland last week in our Cayenne. Found an utterly fantastic road that went north off the E62 about 30 km before Geneva to a town called Saint-Cerque....a nothing road by Swiss standards but bloody brilliant....I’d love to drive that in my GT3.
OP if you’re not time constrained the cheapest way would be to put the job out to tender to a transport company that’s doing the route anyway.....if they can fill a slot on a transporter already doing the route it should be a bit cheaper. When I was out there on a ski trip a few years ago that’s how the insurance conpany got my X5 home after I dislocated my shoulder.
Cheib said:
Fiammetta said:
There’s zero speeding control of any form on the B Alpine roads and passes .
The bends are too tight and straights too short .
Take the St Bernard pass for example you will be lucky to see 50 if that , but your tyres and brakes will warm up .
Sorry that’s just not true...I can speak from experience. The smaller roads might not have cameras but police operate speed traps. I got caught by a speed trap on the road from Martigny to the St Bernard pass...I was doing 18 kmh over the limit and got a CHF 500 find on the spot ! I was in an X5 and was following 3 Swiss registered cars all doing the same speed, I was the only one stopped. The bends are too tight and straights too short .
Take the St Bernard pass for example you will be lucky to see 50 if that , but your tyres and brakes will warm up .
The roads are brilliant but you have to be very careful. I was out in Switzerland last week in our Cayenne. Found an utterly fantastic road that went north off the E62 about 30 km before Geneva to a town called Saint-Cerque....a nothing road by Swiss standards but bloody brilliant....I’d love to drive that in my GT3.
OP if you’re not time constrained the cheapest way would be to put the job out to tender to a transport company that’s doing the route anyway.....if they can fill a slot on a transporter already doing the route it should be a bit cheaper. When I was out there on a ski trip a few years ago that’s how the insurance conpany got my X5 home after I dislocated my shoulder.
Martingy to approx the tunnel entrance is an A road and passes through a few villages .The pass above the tunnel shown in the pic is a B .
The road to Saint - Cerque is a B .
So you are agreeing with me . No ?
There’s loadsa little B roads you can have fun .
Aigle to Chateau D Oex , Aigle to Gtaad via col du Pillion .Villars to Diaberets via col du Croix .
Check out the tyre marks on the hairpins on Villars side where lads have got it sideways and smoked the rear tyres ,because going up they can see there’s nothing coming down so can take the best line and use all the width .
Olivera said:
The solution of many other Ferrari drivers:
Drive it down
Enjoy the holiday
Drive home
Clock car before next mot/service
On my 355 the speed sensor just stopped working for about 30-50km, then it came back after the next stop - pretty sure it is very easy to disconnect and suspect that will have happened to many UK cars thanks to the mileage paranoia. Drive it down
Enjoy the holiday
Drive home
Clock car before next mot/service
Could just realize it is a car and treat it as such - ie drive it.
peterperkins said:
I have no aspirations to drive such exotic machinery but even in my own comfort zone my advice is drive the thing.
Enjoy the trip down stay at nice hotels and enjoy the car..
Am completely open to that - but keen to know the other options nevertheless.Enjoy the trip down stay at nice hotels and enjoy the car..
Outside of the mileage there's also time (+3/4 days I guess driving there and back, depending on intensity), and to a lesser extent just not overdoing the time in the car before even getting there (hard to imagine, but I dare say possible...).
The time aspect is indeed a little annoying. I have done London to Salzburg in one go, but am pretty sure wifes/girlfriends would not appreciate that type of driving.... the good thing is, the 355 is a very comfortable long distance car if on standard suspension and seats.
Still miss that car, might just buy another one and forget about the costs - one life and all that
Still miss that car, might just buy another one and forget about the costs - one life and all that
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