4 days and a newly TUBE'ed 997C2S - Monte Carlo ?
Discussion
we have clearance from other halves for a 4 day blast in 3 weeks time (so mid-Aug and max tourist traffic)
the car is newly tweaked and desperate to explore - a mate is coming over to passenger/navigate/enjoy the beers
so......do we head down to the south east corner of france on day 1 and spend 2 days in the mountains or head for Germany/Austria ?
I'm conscious that the tourist traffic will be a major factor so want to go for as drivable roads as possible - I did last years MegaHoon and this years MiniHoon so the Reims route (reprised on another thread I see) has an attraction as do the Cours up around Obergurgl and the Grossen Glocken
I really would welcome suggestions of the best way to exploit 4 days to the max at what I'm conscious is a really tourist clogged period of time
the car is newly tweaked and desperate to explore - a mate is coming over to passenger/navigate/enjoy the beers
so......do we head down to the south east corner of france on day 1 and spend 2 days in the mountains or head for Germany/Austria ?
I'm conscious that the tourist traffic will be a major factor so want to go for as drivable roads as possible - I did last years MegaHoon and this years MiniHoon so the Reims route (reprised on another thread I see) has an attraction as do the Cours up around Obergurgl and the Grossen Glocken
I really would welcome suggestions of the best way to exploit 4 days to the max at what I'm conscious is a really tourist clogged period of time
flying trotter said:
I really would welcome suggestions of the best way to exploit 4
days to the max at what I'm conscious is a really tourist clogged
period of time
Drive at night or at least between midnite and 8am
and stick to the three lane autobahns.
Two lanes isn't enough room for a top speed burnup.
In reality, you aren't going to get past 100 mph in France
and you aren't going to get much past 120 mph in Germany
during the day.
I got to 150 mph twice on the four lanes each way
A4 just west of Koln at 7:30 am Sunday a couple of weeks ago.
Deep joy.
Either it's Dutch caravans doing 60 mph pulling out to
overtake or it's Frenchies pottering about at a dilatory
100 mph I find.
flying trotter said:
seriously though I'm primarily looking for mountain roads to get the
TUBE singing at 4-7k bhp and would welcome some suggestions
www.alpineroads.com
It's all there. I've done all the top ten in Austria and
some of the rest and I've done some Italian ones and some
German ones, so if you want a second opinion, just ask away.
flying trotter said:
is it for example realistic to get to Salzburg in a day or am I
better setting a shorter target
I used to do the London-Munich run back when I was a young
man and that was about 700 miles in a day.
If I forgot about food and drink and toilets and only stopped for
petrol, that 700 miles was achievable in a day.
These days, 300-400 miles a day is a much more comfortable target.
We usually stop for an overnighter in the Aachen area.
Maastricht, Valkenburg, Monschau and Aachen itself are
all lovely.
This also means an early start on the second day on the autobahns.
Munich in a very long day is do-able but you will be useless for anything the next day. I frequently do Munich and then through the Alps to St Moritz via Garmisch, then up from St M to either Karlsruhe or Strasbourg and back to Blighty from there: the back way into the Engadin valley via Austria is an epic non-motorway or dual carriageway drive and the villages areound St M are great for jumping off to explore the rest of the big name alpine roads. The road out of there to the north crosses the Julierpass (9,000 odd feet), which is quite something, as is the next pass along to the East, which goes down through Davos and out through an amazing narrow cleft gorge at the bottom end.
Two memories that stick out in my mind from various trips: one was going up to the peak of the Julier in my E55 and finding another british car up there. -4 deg, driving snow, and what type of car was it? An Astramax.
The other is the name of the village about halfway up the 75km Julier. I'm astonished brits passing through haven't nicked the roadsign: it's called C**ter. I'm sure you can work it out.
(the only problem doing this section of the alps is that the Basel > Karlsruhe autobahn is two lanes only, which frequently means 100KmH and that's yer lot. it's also concrete slabs: try driving for about 200Km at EXACTLY 100, with a ba-DUM ba-dum, ba-DUM ba-dum noise from the joints between slabs...)
I disagree about not going over 120 on autobahns: they do expect it to happen so they keep well out of the way, in general. I've been up around 150 lots of times on 2-lane bits (the A3 from Oberhausen to the Dutch border is good for this - it's hardly ever busy) but you do need to be in a car fully capable of both reaching that speed, and stopping from it. Beware, though, that the german attitude to speed has changed a lot, and given the choice of 20 locals doing 150 in a 130, and one johnny foreigner tagged on the back of that line, Klaus von Plod WILL nick you and leave everyone else alone!
The Doktor (whose E55 has over 120 hours at over 100mph on it)
Two memories that stick out in my mind from various trips: one was going up to the peak of the Julier in my E55 and finding another british car up there. -4 deg, driving snow, and what type of car was it? An Astramax.
The other is the name of the village about halfway up the 75km Julier. I'm astonished brits passing through haven't nicked the roadsign: it's called C**ter. I'm sure you can work it out.
(the only problem doing this section of the alps is that the Basel > Karlsruhe autobahn is two lanes only, which frequently means 100KmH and that's yer lot. it's also concrete slabs: try driving for about 200Km at EXACTLY 100, with a ba-DUM ba-dum, ba-DUM ba-dum noise from the joints between slabs...)
I disagree about not going over 120 on autobahns: they do expect it to happen so they keep well out of the way, in general. I've been up around 150 lots of times on 2-lane bits (the A3 from Oberhausen to the Dutch border is good for this - it's hardly ever busy) but you do need to be in a car fully capable of both reaching that speed, and stopping from it. Beware, though, that the german attitude to speed has changed a lot, and given the choice of 20 locals doing 150 in a 130, and one johnny foreigner tagged on the back of that line, Klaus von Plod WILL nick you and leave everyone else alone!
The Doktor (whose E55 has over 120 hours at over 100mph on it)
drgummi said:
as is the next pass
along to the East, which goes down through Davos and out
through an amazing narrow cleft gorge at the bottom end.
Thanks for the tip: I'll try it next time I am in the area.
drgummi said:
Two memories that stick out in my mind from various trips: one
was going up to the peak of the Julier in my E55 and finding
another british car up there. -4 deg, driving snow, and what
type of car was it? An Astramax.
I was once clipping along at 120 mph near Ulm and I passed
a British plated Rover 214 pulling a caravan.
Seemed a sad business. A couple of days at 50 mph on the autobahn
with a caravan to get to the Alps.
drgummi said:
I disagree about not going over 120 on autobahns: they do expect
it to happen so they keep well out of the way, in general.
I've been up around 150 lots of times on 2-lane bits
(the A3 from Oberhausen to the Dutch border is good for this -
it's hardly ever busy) but you do need to be in a car fully
capable of both reaching that speed, and stopping from it.
You are braver than I am. Most of the two laners are sufficiently
busy that I don't get much past about 120 mph these days.
Hence the high speed stuff on the three lane bits [ mainly
A3 Koln Frankfurt]
Hallo Ian,
Both the Julier and the Fluela are nice to drive, the latter has some bad surface on the southern side.The drive from Davos to rejoin the motorway in Landquart is beautiful,too, but lots of traffic in the early morning and late afternoon,(I am living in that valley), another one is rather unknown, i.e. from Lenzerheide to Davos, thrilling road, but some VERY narrow places in some villages...Give me a call when you are around...
We are doing a driving week-end tomorrow with some Porsches and SL/SLK's around St.Moritz, Stelvio etc.,I shall contact you again,,,,just collection some ideas....and checking the roads...
Eurohoon 05 is still very vivid in our minds :-))
Regards, Rainer and Dot
Both the Julier and the Fluela are nice to drive, the latter has some bad surface on the southern side.The drive from Davos to rejoin the motorway in Landquart is beautiful,too, but lots of traffic in the early morning and late afternoon,(I am living in that valley), another one is rather unknown, i.e. from Lenzerheide to Davos, thrilling road, but some VERY narrow places in some villages...Give me a call when you are around...
We are doing a driving week-end tomorrow with some Porsches and SL/SLK's around St.Moritz, Stelvio etc.,I shall contact you again,,,,just collection some ideas....and checking the roads...
Eurohoon 05 is still very vivid in our minds :-))
Regards, Rainer and Dot
got back in the early hours (due to the Chunnel problems [a fire that closed it for some hours] and the consequent need to divert to a ferry)
we followed the Eurohoon 2005 route to Hallstadt on Fri - then blasted down to Merano taking in the A7 and the Timmelsjoch - Merano is well worth using as a base - the newly opened Steigenberger Hotel is very good indeed and if you are travelling with a partner the Spa is worldclass
on the Sunday we maybe took on too much - we started with the Jaufenpass and then worked across to the Grossglockner and then blasted north up to a village north of Munich off the A9 - fantastic roads but 12 hours in the saddle and in Aug a lot of holiday traffic - the Jaufenpass is worth thinking about for those travelling around that region and the Grossglockner is simply awesome but the weather is a factor with sections over 8,000 feet - we had an absolutely superb initial ascent with some of the best driving of the trip - sweeping curves with great surface and visibilty - but then we found the clouds dropped and we went through a thunderstorm with snow and clouds in the tunnels - challenging
can't wait for the next trip - thanks to all who posted and who emailed me direct through my profile
Ian
on the Monday we managed a creditable 180 mph on a de-restricted section of the A9 between Munich and Nurnberg and (until we hit the Chunnel) made great progress
we followed the Eurohoon 2005 route to Hallstadt on Fri - then blasted down to Merano taking in the A7 and the Timmelsjoch - Merano is well worth using as a base - the newly opened Steigenberger Hotel is very good indeed and if you are travelling with a partner the Spa is worldclass
on the Sunday we maybe took on too much - we started with the Jaufenpass and then worked across to the Grossglockner and then blasted north up to a village north of Munich off the A9 - fantastic roads but 12 hours in the saddle and in Aug a lot of holiday traffic - the Jaufenpass is worth thinking about for those travelling around that region and the Grossglockner is simply awesome but the weather is a factor with sections over 8,000 feet - we had an absolutely superb initial ascent with some of the best driving of the trip - sweeping curves with great surface and visibilty - but then we found the clouds dropped and we went through a thunderstorm with snow and clouds in the tunnels - challenging
can't wait for the next trip - thanks to all who posted and who emailed me direct through my profile
Ian
on the Monday we managed a creditable 180 mph on a de-restricted section of the A9 between Munich and Nurnberg and (until we hit the Chunnel) made great progress
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