tristanh
Part of things
Routinely bewildered
Posts: 990
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Apr 24, 2019 12:52:10 GMT
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For the 2nd year in a row, I drove from the middle of Ireland to the Nurburgring for Easter. In my mk2 GTI, with 2 other cars in convoy. Last year it was a 1.3 mk2 and a VR6 Corrado. We lapped the Ring on the evening / following morning, and did a session on track at Spa in the evening. This year we "just" did the Ring, my GTI, the 1.3 now sporting Bike Carbs, and another "CL" mk2 that has GTI running gear. Approx 1400 miles each trip, over 4/5 days.
Who else does these kind of journeys in their retro car, and would you be nervous?
And yes, of course, there were some "running repairs"....
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Whether you believe you can, or you cannot, you're probably right.
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andyborris
Posted a lot
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
Posts: 2,161
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Apr 24, 2019 14:59:12 GMT
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MX5 to Brno in the Chech Republic.
Triumph 2000 MK1 to Brittany and Aneccy in France.
Mitsubishi Delica camping in the Semmoz mountains twice.
Barcelona in a Pug 205D, about £70 in fuel door to door!
And before all the old bangers I used to drive became "Retro", everywhere!
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The Doctor
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 3,434
Club RR Member Number: 48
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Roadtrips in Retros? The Doctor
@thedoctor
Club Retro Rides Member 48
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Apr 24, 2019 16:58:22 GMT
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A mate and I did a 'little' roadtrip in 2015, Netherlands - tour around Scotland - Retro Rides Gathering - Netherlands. 1900 miles in 2 weeks in a 1959 Wartburg, of course with some running repairs (one caused by a busdriver not seeing the little 6V braking lights and modifying the rear and a bit...), but loads of fun and thumbs up from other drivers we where holding up with our slow, smoking 2stroke from behind the iron curtain!
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Apr 24, 2019 22:38:27 GMT
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Our 1999 BMW does about 20.000km a year. That's for work, holiday, day trips etc. We don't hesitate taking it where ever we want to go. Our 1997 Delica was only used for road trips. 3500KM was the norm...
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In January/February this year we did a family road trip the length of New Zealand (approx. 4500 km all up) six up in my 1990 Falcon wagon to attend my eldest son's wedding. Didn't give it a second thought. It's my daily so I just drive it as required.
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tristanh
Part of things
Routinely bewildered
Posts: 990
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This warms my heart. I have mates who think twice about a 200 mile spin in their cars...
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Whether you believe you can, or you cannot, you're probably right.
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OGDB
Part of things
Posts: 544
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Apr 25, 2019 10:32:25 GMT
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Don’t a few ring trips in retros. Most eventful was when I hit an apex and smashed the exhaust off. Same trip my friend hit me up the chuff and passport control on the way home.
Hoping to do the same trip next year in my 1967 Cooper.
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vader
Part of things
Posts: 425
Club RR Member Number: 93
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Roadtrips in Retros? vader
@vader
Club Retro Rides Member 93
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Apr 25, 2019 11:31:29 GMT
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South of France twice in the Stag for family holidays, Bi annual trip to Le Mans since 2010. Wife goes on holiday to Tenegrief with her mates, eldest boy is going to Barcelona with school so Whitsun is me and youngest boy to Vendee area for a short holiday in the Stag. Hopefully!
Also had a few hols to Vendee in the Stag.
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Triumph Stag Ducati Supersport Shanks’s Pony
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mungo
Part of things
Posts: 318
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Apr 25, 2019 11:37:42 GMT
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I've done a few in my old vw's. 72 bay bus from oxford to south of france and oxford to northern Ireland- with not a single mechanical issue!! and 56 bug ( <---that one ) to Lake Garda Italy (over the alps!)via Bavaria and another time to Les Gets France...mostly issue free. broken oil cap on one and driver side wiper fail in a thunder storm over the alps on the other ! All of those were a couple of thousand mile in a couple of weeks. I've spent a lot of time making both cars as reliable as possible ..... I quite happily jump in my bus this afternoon and drive 1000 miles ....although it would would struggle to get that far in an afternoon ..........maybe 300
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56' bug 2332 +ida's 56' lowlight ghia 72' bus 1600 devon 67' type 3 square - gone 83' gti - gone 90' gti 16v - gone 82' chevette - gone 70' GP1 Beach buggy -gone 78' lightweight landrover 3L v6 -gone 89' gti - gone 83' gti - gone
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Apr 25, 2019 13:53:51 GMT
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Not as epic as the above trips, but I've just done a long weekend up to Carlisle and a quick trip over the border into Scotland, put 808 miles and the only thing she needed was petrol and a bit more petrol. 3 of us made the trip and all cars performed faultlessly.
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Please don't throw litter, take it home.
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Roadtrips in Retros? DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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Apr 25, 2019 13:53:52 GMT
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We're taking my Mk1 GTI to Woerthersee this year, that'll put a good few thousand miles on the clock! I've been going since 2004 but the Golf has never been. Can't wait
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Last Edit: Apr 25, 2019 13:54:10 GMT by DarrenW
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Apr 25, 2019 13:56:36 GMT
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We're taking my Mk1 GTI to Woerthersee this year, that'll put a good few thousand miles on the clock! I've been going since 2004 but the Golf has never been. Can't wait I hope your not going to be modest and include pics of it there, in your comprehensive picture report.
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Roadtrips in Retros? DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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Apr 25, 2019 14:05:31 GMT
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We're taking my Mk1 GTI to Woerthersee this year, that'll put a good few thousand miles on the clock! I've been going since 2004 but the Golf has never been. Can't wait I hope your not going to be modest and include pics of it there, in your comprehensive picture report. I miiiiiiiiiiiiiight take a photo or two of it there
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ChasR
RR Helper
motivation
Posts: 10,194
Club RR Member Number: 170
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Roadtrips in Retros? ChasR
@chasr
Club Retro Rides Member 170
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Apr 25, 2019 17:18:03 GMT
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I've done a few. Some were on the edge of retro, and others were just plain brave! However, looking back, it's a bit of a miracle we got away with alot! They were great times, make no mistake! When I first joined this forum all the way back in 2006, I took this Volvo 740 SE 2.0i EFI to Spain. Being £260 and with a high clutch, we ended up dumping it over there. A good car, albeit a very slow one! We laughably bought some shirts, labelling them 'VOC 2006 Road Trip!'. Oh, the irony! The year after, we decided to get adventurious! I took a Volvo 740 2.3i GLE Estate and an Escort XR3i with a few of us around Europe, going out as far as Austria & Slovenia, while also spending a week in Spain! Out of both of the cars, we thought the Volvo wouldn't make it. It had a shakey autobox, a very tired interior and exterior, whilst leaking more oil than the Exxon Valdez due to a rear crank seal leak. The Escort we bought off eBay for £350 with a full MOT. Forgive me if this sounds familiar. From having paint that looked like Dulux emulsion being painted on, a driveshaft which shook you to death in the car, A choice bunch of part-worns in the wrong size all round, in addition to a dodgy pattern alternator, it took a bit of work to get it ready. It still broke down in Italy, when the alternator tried to fall apart, and the exhaust downpipe flange snapped on it: Yup, that photo was taken just outside Genova, in Italy on the motorway. The breakdown in the Escort wasn't too bad TBH! We ended up staying with a lovely Italian family, whose daughters/father beckoned us to stay over, after taking pity on us! We ended up selling that for a pittance 3 years later; a mate of ours used it in Spain for 3 years, and got it running to a reasonable standard, albeit with a few bodges, including a manual fuel pump switch (We didn't want to pay £60 for a relay on a sub-£500 car; that's how little they were worth back then in that kind of condition. The Volvo? HubNut aka Ian Seabrook dollywobbler would buy that, and end up using it as a tow car for the princely sum of £150. forum.retro-rides.org/thread/36469/volvo-added-collectionYou would have thought we'd have seen sense by now. But this a VOC venture, and well, sense maybe be discussed, but that doesn't mean that it enters the final equation! Enter Stage Left: Yup, we bought a 1994 Renault Espace 2.0i Alize, all the way back in 2008! We only had three requirements that year: -It cost less than £400 -It had 7 seats ; this would be a 6 person band again, but we wanted everyone in one car to save a little from last year's trip -It had AC ; We sweated to death in the Volvos, especially with 5 of us on board! But, the Escort was OK, obviously! We ended up getting this Espace, sight unseen on eBay for £600. Eventually after seeing it, seeing that the clutch was slipping more than Peter Green's mind on LSD, and that the tyres on the front were bald despite 12 months ticket, we paid £450. It had a water loss problem, which was traced to a bad pipe, which was brazed up. Without the AC however, it would get hot as one of the three fan sensors didn't work. Seeing as each one was £50 each, and the car owed us around £700 after a clutch change and tyre swap, you can see why we were reluctant! Besides, you could just put the AC on! It was not an especially quick car either! That marked the trips up until 2010. More have taken place as others know, but I'll talk of them in another post .
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OGDB
Part of things
Posts: 544
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Apr 25, 2019 17:21:07 GMT
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We're taking my Mk1 GTI to Woerthersee this year, that'll put a good few thousand miles on the clock! I've been going since 2004 but the Golf has never been. Can't wait I’d love to do that trip! Some what of a trot though. Who knows maybe one day.
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Roadtrips in Retros? DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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Apr 25, 2019 18:39:33 GMT
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We're taking my Mk1 GTI to Woerthersee this year, that'll put a good few thousand miles on the clock! I've been going since 2004 but the Golf has never been. Can't wait I’d love to do that trip! Some what of a trot though. Who knows maybe one day. We break it up over a couple of days, stopping at interesting places along the way. It's a long drive but it's so worth it!
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thebaron
Europe
Over the river, heading out of town
Posts: 1,646
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Apr 25, 2019 19:42:24 GMT
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As above, I tend not to even think about it as an issue and just drive. A few of the most memorable were;
1989 Toyota Corolla 1.3 from Ireland to Dubrovnik and back. Two months later I drove it to Poznan where I was moving to work.
1989 E30 325i Coupe which I bought on ebay - Flew to London from Poznan and drove it back on old summer tyres in mid winter.
Same car from Poznan to Knokke Heist in Belgium and back via Hamburg over the course of one weekend. The return journey was particularity memorable as flat out almost all the way.
1995 840i from Dublin to Switzerland. The utter smoothness and waft of it all.
Not so far distance wise but the day I bought my 911 SC I flew to Heathrow with my GF and collected it nearby. I was planning to leave out of Pembroke but the weather was bad and the ferries kept getting cancelled - 1st Pembroke, then Holyhead so we had to keep going north and just managed to get out of Stranraer. Rotten weather but the pressure on the journey and the need to keep the hammer down made it really memorable.
Many many more. As the Antipodeans have demonstrated above; cars are just cars. No reason they should not travel long distances.
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Apr 25, 2019 21:35:54 GMT
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'67 Triumph Vitesse..... all over Europe, repeatedly. I've done just over 80k in it since 1989 and I reckon at least half of that on the other side of the channel Just on the Slovenian side of the Austrian/Slovenian border in 2017. Hopefully going to Italy and Switzerland this year. And my 23 year old A6 presumably counts as a retro ..... it's my daily driver and still racking up at least 12k a year, adding to it's current 321K. Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend) 1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing) 1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Roadtrips in Retros? DarrenW
@darrenw
Club Retro Rides Member 74
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Apr 26, 2019 11:46:16 GMT
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Just on the Slovenian side of the Austrian/Slovenian border in 2017. That's a great photo!
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Apr 26, 2019 14:54:02 GMT
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Thanks..... taken just after dawn having driven across Austria overnight. The road south from Klagenfurt to the Slovenian border at the Loibl pass is just fantastic..... as were the roads west and south of Kranska Gora..... although the Vitesse didn't appreciate the cobbled hairpins with the combined twist of the tight sloping hairpins and hammering from the cobbles exploiting the floppiness of it's construction and undoing the body-mount bolts - we slowed down alot after the first one of those.....
Then, over the other side of the pass the road changed to brand-new bowling-green smooth EU tarmac - and deserted at that early hour.....
Nick
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend) 1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing) 1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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