Eurotrip 2014

[Poodle]

Figured i should start something on this, else it'll never happen lol.

Just a teaser until one of us has the spare time to do it properly. This is one of the passes, coming up away from Brig i *think*. Probably wrong though lol.

[Niall]

Would you be looking at doing similar to this year? Or longer or shorter trip?

Edit: and don't you mean 2015? :p

[Toms306]

Blimey, your 1.4 shifts!

That scenery is epic though!!

[Poodle]

No Niall, it's definitely 2014, says so on my ferry ticket. Won't be doing another this year, although i do want to spend another weekend at the nurburgring. Next year i'll be doing Scandinavia with the missus in tow. If we were going to do the passes again it would have to be a few weeks later in the year - most of the summits were still closed thanks to snow.

Lol thanks Tom, the scenery was as incredible as the driving, if not more so. Got about 20 more videos and hundreds of pictures, will put them up as and when i/somebody else have the time and inclination.

[Fooby]

My Gti!!

Yes i forgot how amazing that it looks.

Those right hand corners though, do not recommend in a GTi.. hence the wide angle

[rocker8742]

Those right hand corners though, do not recommend in a GTi.. hence the wide angle

So very very true

[Poodle]

And that's despite Jonny repeatedly poking it with a fooking great stick to try and get a tighter line lol. Another one uploading now, more to come.

[Poodle]

[Niall]

That looks amazing!

[Jonny81191]

And that's despite Jonny repeatedly poking it with a fooking great stick to try and get a tighter line lol. Another one uploading now, more to come.

Why would you accuse me of doing such things?

[Fooby]

And that's despite Jonny repeatedly poking it with a fooking great stick to try and get a tighter line lol. Another one uploading now, more to come.

Why would you accuse me of doing such things?

Because all you did was carry that stick around and poke my GTi with it?

[Jonny81191]

And that's despite Jonny repeatedly poking it with a fooking great stick to try and get a tighter line lol. Another one uploading now, more to come.

Why would you accuse me of doing such things?

Because all you did was carry that stick around and poke my GTi with it?

Might have been a bit...

[Poodle]

That looks amazing!

It really was, got to be a bucket list jobby i reckon. Still determined to do the Stelvio one day.

[Poodle]

[video=youtube]http://youtu.be/41pKGF4rA4E [/video]

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[martyn92]

*awaits Jonny's pics/vids from 2013*

Looks amazing, gutted I missed it

[Poodle]

http://youtu.be/LU_QgrPEU70

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[Fooby]

Top gear lake!!

[MY95]

The trip and scenery looks amazing! As does the videos, keep them coming
Got any info on the trip like what routes you took/your trip consisted of, how much it cost you in Diesel Poodle and anything else like did you use a hotels or camped? Would love to do something like this myself sooner or later
Cheers!

[Poodle]

Total cost of trip per person: £450

This is considering we split the fuel of all the vehicles evenly between 5 people - 1 x stage 1.5 HDi, 1 x GTi6, 1 x 2.8l Z3. That includes fuel, insurance, camping, food, beer, meals out, ferry tickets, EU mandatory stuff like breathalysers and gb stickers, the lot. If i'd just paid for my own fuel the cost was about £200 in the HDi for 2200 miles, including fuel for laps, works out at around 53mpg as diesel is ~£1.05/l on the continent.

Route someone else will have to contribute, once Hugo started navigating i lost track. Approximate itinerary was Calais > Troyes > Chamonix > Bellinzona > Ulm > Koblenz (2 nights) > Calais. Open to correction on all counts, was a bit of a blur lol. It took in as much scenery as possible, we made a trip down/up/along almost every long wiggly line that was close to our outlined route on the map. Campsites we usually phoned ahead to confirm there'd be someone around when we arrived, being off-season a lot of places weren't open, especially when we were rocking up well into the evening most days.

If i was going to do it again i'd do one or the other, trying to fit a nurburgring visit and a grand tour into a week was pretty hard work and it would have been more enjoyable if we weren't constantly pushing for time. That or do 10-14 days rather than 8 long ones lol.

[MY95]

That sounds good! What happened if there was no campsite open, slept in the cars or went to a hotel?
What did the gti6 get to the gallon then? must of been very low for the Z3 haha
As i could take either the HDI or Rallye if i was to go
Id love to go to the Ring and will do in the next few years, maybe with the oc too.
You must have been shattered with the amount of miles you were clocking up!

[Poodle]

There was always one open somewhere. The continental police get very upset when they find you sleeping in cars, speaking from experience lol. Tbh for the sake of a two minute phone call in broken english it's worth calling ahead at about 4pm, just to make sure. Hotels could get expensive quickly if you're turning up on the night.

6 managed a decent amount actually, over 30mpg average iirc, no laps though. The z3 was pretty appalling, as expected, i think my brother put about £400 in and he only did one lap of the ring lol. The HDi was ridiculously good though, i didn't have to fill up at half the fuel stops and she was loaded to the gunwales. Plus i was pushing so hard she was overheating going up the passes, hence the pic of snow crammed into the rad and fmic.

Yeah we were usually out cold by 11, if not before. Especially where we were trying to fix the cars most nights and having to put the tent up and down every night. Taking longer or doing less is highly recommended lol.

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Edit: Haven't posted those pics yet, will do it another time lol.

[MY95]

Nice one, thats not too bad at 30 mpg to be fair, especailly if its in the cold at times too! Spill the beans on the Z3 mpg
Hahah nice one, sounds like your HDI served you well
What pics?

[Niall]

Nice one, thats not too bad at 30 mpg to be fair, especailly if its in the cold at tiems too! Spill the beans on the Z3 mpg
Hahah nice one, soudns liek your HDI served you well
What pics?

Its a BMW. It will be shocking MPG lol.
Im surprised the GTi averaged 30 and that isn't too bad. Easily affordable if this is done next year

[MY95]

Nice one, thats not too bad at 30 mpg to be fair, especailly if its in the cold at tiems too! Spill the beans on the Z3 mpg
Hahah nice one, soudns liek your HDI served you well
What pics?

Its a BMW. It will be shocking MPG lol.
Im surprised the GTi averaged 30 and that isn't too bad. Easily affordable if this is done next year

I suppose, and Id agree Niall

[Poodle]

The Gti managed more than 30, just can't remember how much, 33, 34 maybe... As for my brother, he spent easily double what i did, but petrol is a touch more expensive over there and he bought premium a few times lol. As such i'm guessing he did over 25mpg, probably nearer 30 tbf. Bear in mind there wasn't much room for extra weight on board though, and the z3 has better aero and smaller frontal area than a 306. Bigger engines can be better for high-speed cruising, the bmws are pretty good in my experience, considering they're lardy things.

[MY95]

That sounds good, if you were to do another Eurotrip where would you go next time? What places/bits would you skip and which would you definately do again?
Thanks again

[Niall]

Im sure you have probably already answered this but how many miles roughly did you do? Id be genuinely interested next year if i can afford it and trust the car lol

/toms306

[Poodle]

We went for the roads, not the places lol. We literally just planned a vague loop on the map and worked in as many interesting looking bits of road as possible. The San Bernadino (sp?) pass, or at least the bit of it that was clear, was awesome and i was a bit gutted we couldn't do anything similar thanks to the snow. Still determined to do the Stelvio one day. I'd actually skip the Nurburgring for the reasons mentioned above.

Total distance was about 2200 miles, 50 of that was doing laps lol.

[samass]

We went for the roads, not the places lol. We literally just planned a vague loop on the map and worked in as many interesting looking bits of road as possible. The San Bernadino (sp?) pass, or at least the bit of it that was clear, was awesome and i was a bit gutted we couldn't do anything similar thanks to the snow. Still determined to do the Stelvio one day. I'd actually skip the Nurburgring for the reasons mentioned above.

Total distance was about 2200 miles, 50 of that was doing laps lol.

I think some time we need a tour of the whole alps, the roads are just epic!!

Oops. Samass is still logged in

[Toms306]

Im sure you have probably already answered this but how many miles roughly did you do? Id be genuinely interested next year if i can afford it and trust the car lol

/toms306

Pfft whats the worse that can happen....hundreds of miles away...in a French car....on unknown roads.



On a serious note though, I would genuinely like to do something like this in the distant future lol, I'm not usually fussed by scenery - I see woods and fields all the time - but those mountain roads really do look epic!!

Would have to be playing some Matt Monroe with sunglasses on as well....just watch out for tunnels lol.