perry190
05-30-2003, 06:58 AM
Euro Road Trip 2003
What a blast ! A great crew and a great trip all round.
Cruising speeds varied greatly but eventually leveled out at 120MPH maintained for hours on end. The European drivers tend either to not use the outside lane or if they do, they get out of your way as your blasting through.
The feeling when blasting through 6k long alpine tunnels at 120MPH with neons blazing just has to be experienced to be believed! I don’t think the locals new quite what hit them to be truthful ;-) This along with managing to cross France, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Austria all in one day (and back!) was oh so cool
Chuffed with my top recorded speed of 145MPH (Apexi RSM), should be noted that the speedo was reading roughly 150+ at this point, so don’t go believing those speedo’s guys! We had confirmed speeds checked by both RSM and GPS and all showed the Toyota speedo’s to be way, way out.
By the time I got home the recorded distance was just short of 2,000 miles, so this must be one of the longest convoys ever? The fact that we left the UK with 5 celi’s and returned with 4 was the only downer Unfortunately on returning from our Alpine escapade a local French driver decided to wack into the side of our only Gen 5 in attendance! No fault of our driver as they were in a ‘hashed’ safety zone whilst crossing a junction.
The Gen 5 was spun around by the force and is defo a write off, the two passengers were obviously shocked and suffered bruising etc, fortunately no passengers in either of the cars was seriously hurt. All props to our members tho as they decided to continue on through the last stint of the trip into Paris and then home. We managed to split them and their luggage between the remaining celi’s and still keep up our 120MPH standard ;-)
Celi’s appeared to be quite rare in mainland Europe? As we passed through villages and cities alike, everyone stopped and stared? Even our lead car which was a black Gen 7 that had only been lowered and had the addition of a raised hood scoop got very many admiring glances.
The culinary delights sampled by us in France were very varied! Main meals were dishes such as Frogs Legs and Kangaroo (yes you heard me right...Skippy!) and the bars served beer in 2 pint glasses. Consequently there was a noticeable shortfall in night time driving (couldn’t walk by this point )
I’ll post some piccy’s from the trip as soon as I’ve grabbed some sleep.
What a blast ! A great crew and a great trip all round.
Cruising speeds varied greatly but eventually leveled out at 120MPH maintained for hours on end. The European drivers tend either to not use the outside lane or if they do, they get out of your way as your blasting through.
The feeling when blasting through 6k long alpine tunnels at 120MPH with neons blazing just has to be experienced to be believed! I don’t think the locals new quite what hit them to be truthful ;-) This along with managing to cross France, Germany, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and Austria all in one day (and back!) was oh so cool
Chuffed with my top recorded speed of 145MPH (Apexi RSM), should be noted that the speedo was reading roughly 150+ at this point, so don’t go believing those speedo’s guys! We had confirmed speeds checked by both RSM and GPS and all showed the Toyota speedo’s to be way, way out.
By the time I got home the recorded distance was just short of 2,000 miles, so this must be one of the longest convoys ever? The fact that we left the UK with 5 celi’s and returned with 4 was the only downer Unfortunately on returning from our Alpine escapade a local French driver decided to wack into the side of our only Gen 5 in attendance! No fault of our driver as they were in a ‘hashed’ safety zone whilst crossing a junction.
The Gen 5 was spun around by the force and is defo a write off, the two passengers were obviously shocked and suffered bruising etc, fortunately no passengers in either of the cars was seriously hurt. All props to our members tho as they decided to continue on through the last stint of the trip into Paris and then home. We managed to split them and their luggage between the remaining celi’s and still keep up our 120MPH standard ;-)
Celi’s appeared to be quite rare in mainland Europe? As we passed through villages and cities alike, everyone stopped and stared? Even our lead car which was a black Gen 7 that had only been lowered and had the addition of a raised hood scoop got very many admiring glances.
The culinary delights sampled by us in France were very varied! Main meals were dishes such as Frogs Legs and Kangaroo (yes you heard me right...Skippy!) and the bars served beer in 2 pint glasses. Consequently there was a noticeable shortfall in night time driving (couldn’t walk by this point )
I’ll post some piccy’s from the trip as soon as I’ve grabbed some sleep.