FRANCE 2008 Dates 14th-20th July (after Le Mans Classic)

[blacknight]

This one is the Saturday night die hards!

[davidjt]

A few for the historians among us: the XI must have been one of the best represented models at the event.

[muley]

Iain

Thank you once again for organising this.

Hope you all made it back safely. Jen and I went on to Brittany for 4 days of glorious sunshine and beaches and got back last night. Clocked up 1800 miles on the old bus ..

Will sort out photos later



Jim

[AndyH]

Iain,

Thanks also from Rich and I - your hospitality was top banana! Please pass our thanks to your parents also who looked after us really well. Apologies for having to dash off but we had so much distance to cover - indeed that day we drove all day and through the night to clock 850 miles!! a much easier task after the timing had been sorted out - it's like a different car now so ta for that! We made it over the alps without a fuss - got some fantastic pictures to show off when I can get to an internet with my laptop.. and I managed a lap of the 'ring in the pouring rain which made for an interesting drive - i.e. I sh*t myself - no grip whatsoever!!

Great to meet the rest of you too - if this happens again I will definately be up for it! . . but not for a while - after the 3111 miles we covered my bum is numb and I am happy not to drive the thing for a while!

Andy

[blacknight]

Thanks again to everyone for making this a special event!

By the way Andy, it was not a Kangaroo

You were by far the fastest on the the treasure hunt

couple more pictures for you.

[blacknight]

An example of poor parking!

[muley]

A few of my snaps are at :

http://picasaweb.google.com/mulebreast/2008France

Cheers


Jim

[AndyH]

By the way Andy, it was not a Kangaroo

It so was a kangaroo!! playing the bagpipes as well - you guys must have been looking at the wrong picture!

[chris.t]

Andy, can you tell us the details of your trip after you left us.

[AndyH]

I was going to wait until I could attatch pics - but I am bored at work so ok.

After we left on the...tuesday was it? We followed your advice and just drove...850 miles to be precise all afternoon, evening and overnite with a couple of hours kip in some french town's carpark or something. We went over that massive bridge in the morning - the name of which escapes me - but it was rather impressive! We ended up getting all the way to Saint-Raphael, just west of Monaco - a rather nice town. After dossing there for the day and recovering with wine we drove to Monaco on a burning hot day to drive the F1 circuit. I reckon I set a new Elan lap record of about 15 minutes!!..heavy traffic of course - but it's a great place to visit... much better if you're rich though - the boats in the harbour were huge!!
Coming out of Monaco (or was it going in?) I got stuck in a traffic jam waiting to pay at an Autoroute booth in 30 degree heat....and discovered the cooling fans are not working.. the guage went all the way to 'H'... I did poo myself a little bit but there was nowt I could do! thankfully it seems not to have bent anything by getting that hot
North of Monaco is the Col De Turini - famous Monte Carlo Rally special stage... rather scary road creeping round the side of a mountain - pleased I had the wilwoods - the drop offs were 100's of feet down and not always with barriers! Shite road surface though - I couldn't do more than 30mph on most of it! Since that road quite literally goes nowhere though I went round the back way to Monaco again and headed for the San Bernadino pass in Switzerland later that day.. now that is an impressive road! Much better road surface and hardly a soul on it! it went right up into the clouds and about 2 degrees of temp - 7000 feet up or something. I had to be light with the throttle going up though because it was so steep and I didn't want to blow anything.. coming down the other side though - fun!!
Stayed in a place called Splugen that night - about as picturesque a place as you can get.
Next day went to Davos to do the Stelvio pass. You have to see it to believe it - more switchbacks than you can count and such an incredible road..all open - it's like a racetrack. It went to 8500 feet I think and offered the best views of the holiday. The car didn't like being so high up but it coped well - in fact the only issue apart from the overheating thing the whole time was my gear linkage ty-wrap fix slipping a little - quick fix was all it needed.
About a million miles later we got to the 'ring. It was raining - hard! I stupidly assumed that it would be like driving on a normal road in the wet in terms of levels of grip - but I forgot about the gallons of oil that routinely get thrown all over the track - it was just undriveable! I double de-clutched into 3rd for the 1st big corner and the wheels just locked up - I had no chance! so 13 mins and 20 seconds later - a once fine figure of a man, now phsyical and nervous wreck emerged from the exit. I overtook more than I was overtaken though so I can't have done that bad. I am definately going again later this year though.. in the dry!!

That's a summary anyway, after 3111 miles - I'll be chucking pictures on this weekend

[theelanman]

the millau bridge is the one youre on about I think

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millau_Viaduct