French Motorail - 355 Spider

[bad company]

Has anyone ever taken a 355 on the Motorail? I have used the service before in a TVR but I'm a bit worried about the low ground clearance on the 355.

[rthierry]

I used the service with my Chimaera and I remember I could only *just* drive the car on the train. Normal ground clearance = 130mm, taking into account full boot, and oldish shocks I'd say 100mm. Don't know how low a 355 spider is but I could be difficult. A good option would be to have adjustable shocks.

very convenient service otherwise.

Cheers

Roms

>> Edited by rthierry on Monday 20th January 09:57

[ATG]

excuse my ignorance ... what's the motorail service? Is this just thru the channel tunnel or can you cart your car round France on a train?

>> Edited by ATG on Monday 20th January 10:04

[basher]

Are you thinking of taking it to Monaco Granp Prix ??

[Amar360]

Motorail refuses to take 360s and, I suspect, 355s as well because of the clearance problems. I don't know of any reasonably priced way to ship a current model Ferrari down to the Med other than driving it... does anyone know other options?

(ATG, you board Motorail from across the Channel; cars go in open-top carriages and people in couchettes with beds, and after an overnight journey you end up in south of France in the morning.)

[kevinday]

If this was the spring or summer I would say, why do you want to take the car on the train instead of driving it? But as it is the winter I'll just shut up

[ATG]

sounds like a civilised way to travel.

[craigw]

roughly how much does it cost&how long does it take? would love to drive to s of france and get train back.

>> Edited by craigw on Monday 20th January 12:01

[bad company]

Thanx for the help guys. From memory it cost around £400 last year to take 2 of us and the TVR to just outside of Nice. The train leaves at around 5 pm and arrives the next morning. A bit slow but you will be asleep in your cabin for most of the time.

We then spent 2 weeks driving home over the Alps, thru Switzerland and into Germany to give the car a blast.

The train is a bit expensive but by the time you allow for not needing to pay petrol, motorway tolls and probably 1 night in a hotel it evens up a bit.

I can thoroughly recommend it, sounds like I wont be able to take the 355 though.

>> Edited by bad company on Monday 20th January 14:37

[bad company]

Just a thought. Has anybody tried to get a 355 on one of the ferries? For example there is a service from Plymouth to Santander and another from Harwith to somewhere near Hamburg.

>> Edited by bad company on Tuesday 21st January 08:39

[F355GTS]

Ferries and Eurotunnel are fine in a 355, I've taken my 355 on both with no problems, also took my 328 on Motorail to Bologna again with no problems although I drove it on and off myself which I would recommend.

give the following guys a shout, they are the UK agents and have a list of cars that do and don't fit

www.railsavers.com/

[bad company]

Thanks for the help. I have now checked and the motorail will only take cars with 10cm of ground clearance which counts the 355 out. Apparently OK for the Plymouth to Santander ferry though so I will probably go for that.

>> Edited by bad company on Thursday 23 January 12:17