The V8Nam thread - Rolls Royce and Corvette content...
Discussion
rottie102 said:
Is it possible to join you in another car? 
Hi,Unfortunately the red tape of taking a car across China means it's probably a bit too late to join...
No reason why you can't put together your own trip in the future though, a few folk on pistonheads have already done similar trips
Thanks to a mixture of work, flooding, snow and festivities, things have been pretty slow at V8Nam HQ recently, but here's a quick update...
Firstly, the Corvette. I've done about 2,000 nearly faultless miles in it over the past few months, over half of them due to flooding killing 2 cars in 12 hours one Sunday morning in November (story here ), forcing me to begrudgingly spend a week commuting up and down the M5 sat behind a 5.7l V8, rather than the usual 1.9tdi, and resulting in a very satisfying 24MPG, rather than a completely forgettable 45MPG. These miles have been almost faultless, the only issue being that the heat from the exhaust manifolds has cracked the brake booster, resulting in no vacuum, and hence no power assistance for the brakes - apparently a common problem in C4 'Vettes with performance manifolds. The replacement part (and a new master cylinder) is currently making its way across the Atlantic, while a temporary fix using silicone sealant has kept the 'Vette moving until it arrives. Other than this hiccup - and a slightly different hiccup in which I discovered it will wheelspin and jump sideways even at 50mph in the dry - it's been very confidence inspiring, and has a definite aura of toughness and dependability about it which is just perfect, given what lays ahead.
The Rolls Royce has had a slightly more eventful few months. A breakdown in early December resulted in Brummy getting it recovered to a local garage, from which it only emerged a few weeks ago, having not only had the faulty HT lead which caused the brakedown replaced, but also a full service, new brake pads, wheel bearings adjusted, horn repaired, brake lights fixed, exhaust gaskets replaced, new spark plugs and one of its carburettors rebuilt.
Fortunately, all this work seems to have given the quaint old beast a new lease of life, and it's now racking up the miles quite happily, while pounding Brummy's wallet via the petrol pumps, rather than garage fees.
In other trip news, it's taken a while but we've finally pinned down who is coming on each leg of the trip, and are currently in the process of getting permission to drive across China; a rather convoluted and expensive 3 month process. The only really big change to the route plan is that we won't be attempting to cross Tibet because as far as I can ascertain, they're not letting carloads of UK nationals in at the moment, so our China route will be skirting around the Tibetan Plateau.
So what now? The main jobs on the list for the next few weeks are fixing the 'Vettes brakes permanently, getting some visas and convincing a powerfully built company director somewhere to sponsor us.
Just over 2 months to the off...
By the way, thanks to everyone who's bought/commented on the book from the last big trip - rest assured that each sale buys enough '98 to get the Corvette another 6 miles closer to Vietnam!
Firstly, the Corvette. I've done about 2,000 nearly faultless miles in it over the past few months, over half of them due to flooding killing 2 cars in 12 hours one Sunday morning in November (story here ), forcing me to begrudgingly spend a week commuting up and down the M5 sat behind a 5.7l V8, rather than the usual 1.9tdi, and resulting in a very satisfying 24MPG, rather than a completely forgettable 45MPG. These miles have been almost faultless, the only issue being that the heat from the exhaust manifolds has cracked the brake booster, resulting in no vacuum, and hence no power assistance for the brakes - apparently a common problem in C4 'Vettes with performance manifolds. The replacement part (and a new master cylinder) is currently making its way across the Atlantic, while a temporary fix using silicone sealant has kept the 'Vette moving until it arrives. Other than this hiccup - and a slightly different hiccup in which I discovered it will wheelspin and jump sideways even at 50mph in the dry - it's been very confidence inspiring, and has a definite aura of toughness and dependability about it which is just perfect, given what lays ahead.
The Rolls Royce has had a slightly more eventful few months. A breakdown in early December resulted in Brummy getting it recovered to a local garage, from which it only emerged a few weeks ago, having not only had the faulty HT lead which caused the brakedown replaced, but also a full service, new brake pads, wheel bearings adjusted, horn repaired, brake lights fixed, exhaust gaskets replaced, new spark plugs and one of its carburettors rebuilt.
Fortunately, all this work seems to have given the quaint old beast a new lease of life, and it's now racking up the miles quite happily, while pounding Brummy's wallet via the petrol pumps, rather than garage fees.
In other trip news, it's taken a while but we've finally pinned down who is coming on each leg of the trip, and are currently in the process of getting permission to drive across China; a rather convoluted and expensive 3 month process. The only really big change to the route plan is that we won't be attempting to cross Tibet because as far as I can ascertain, they're not letting carloads of UK nationals in at the moment, so our China route will be skirting around the Tibetan Plateau.
So what now? The main jobs on the list for the next few weeks are fixing the 'Vettes brakes permanently, getting some visas and convincing a powerfully built company director somewhere to sponsor us.
Just over 2 months to the off...
By the way, thanks to everyone who's bought/commented on the book from the last big trip - rest assured that each sale buys enough '98 to get the Corvette another 6 miles closer to Vietnam!
LuS1fer said:
Is the 24mpg from the electronic display or is it from filling the tank? Only the display is in US mpg so 24 is nearly 29 UK mpg.
My 1985 used to show around 19 which was 22mpg and not going easy on the throttle either.
It was 22.5 on the trip computer, and the figure of 24 UK mpg came from a bit of rushed mental arithmetic. if 24US = 29UK, I could actually be getting a fair bit better than 24...My 1985 used to show around 19 which was 22mpg and not going easy on the throttle either.
Severn weeks to go before departure. The more things change, the more they stay the same...
It took 20 minutes for the 'Vette to jumpstart the still recalcitrant Rolls this evening. It's off to a specialist Rolls garage in Exeter tomorrow; hopefully they'll be able to fix its general cold weather/cold start grumpiness - fingers crossed. Vietnam still feels a long, long way away....
It took 20 minutes for the 'Vette to jumpstart the still recalcitrant Rolls this evening. It's off to a specialist Rolls garage in Exeter tomorrow; hopefully they'll be able to fix its general cold weather/cold start grumpiness - fingers crossed. Vietnam still feels a long, long way away....
Six weeks to go, and things are finally looking up! The Silver Shadow has had a thorough, rather scary check over by a marque specialist - which didn't turn up nearly as many major issues as we'd thought it would - and is now being fettled back into life.
Meanwhile in team 'Vette, the warmer weather has drawn me outside to crack on with the last few jobs which need doing before our departure. There's a little more in the way of gritty detail on the trip blog:
http://80breakdowns.com/2013/02/17/counting-down-t...
Meanwhile in team 'Vette, the warmer weather has drawn me outside to crack on with the last few jobs which need doing before our departure. There's a little more in the way of gritty detail on the trip blog:
http://80breakdowns.com/2013/02/17/counting-down-t...
It's D-Day for V8Nam! The Corvette will be setting course for Vietnam in about an hour, while the Rolls Royce will be leaving in the morning.
Leg 1 is from Dartmoor to Fontainebleau - just south of Paris - where we'll be spending Easter, before setting off east and beginning the trip in earnest. Suffice to say preparations for this trip have gone considerably smoother than the Africa trip, and I'll write a full update and post some photos during the Easter weekend. Until then, fingers crossed the cars continue to work as they should...
Leg 1 is from Dartmoor to Fontainebleau - just south of Paris - where we'll be spending Easter, before setting off east and beginning the trip in earnest. Suffice to say preparations for this trip have gone considerably smoother than the Africa trip, and I'll write a full update and post some photos during the Easter weekend. Until then, fingers crossed the cars continue to work as they should...
Greetings from Austria! Sorry about the radio silence recently, I'm blaming our habit of camping in cheap non-wifi places. Suffice to say, everything is going pretty well, we've got 1,200 miles under our belts with only a few breakdowns so far, have spent a pleasant Easter weekend rock climbing in Fontainebleau and will be updating the Blog from Vienna tomorrow. Until then, here's a photo of the Corvette tearing up the Tyrol Alps earlier today...
Asterix said:
Awesome.
Best wishes for the rest of the trip chaps.
Cheers! Best wishes for the rest of the trip chaps.
Quick update; we've just had a rather pleasant weekend in Vienna, and will be hitting the road to Budapest in about an hours time. 6 countries and 1,600 miles down so far, and both cars are doing brilliantly, chugging along without complaint. Unfortunately this rather inconvenient bout of reliability does mean that there's not a huge amount of interesting car-related stuff to blog about, but I'm sure that'll change over the coming weeks. Still, I've updated the blog and added some photos for anyone who's interested:
www.80breakdowns.com/2013/04/07/momentum/
Right, enough waffling - I'll sign off with a photo of the cars in a random village in Southern Germany...
v15ben said:
So I was just waiting to check into my cheap Budapest hostel before our bus to Poland in the morning.
I peered through the gate of the neighbouring hotel car park.
What should I see but a Corvette, Rolls and a Range Rover.
Of all the hotels in all the world, we're... well in the crap one next door.
Enjoy Budapest, it has been a great city for us this week.
That's amazing! We're actually at the crap hostel next door too - think it's called the Mandarin Hotel, 4 Euros a night. Don't know who the UK registered Range Rover belongs too, though was tempted to find out and try to get them on board - it is a 4.6HSE after all... hope you have a good last night in Budapest, feel free to say hi in the morning if you've time... or tonight if you're anywhere near the 'Buddha Bar' in town I peered through the gate of the neighbouring hotel car park.
What should I see but a Corvette, Rolls and a Range Rover.
Of all the hotels in all the world, we're... well in the crap one next door.
Enjoy Budapest, it has been a great city for us this week.
Edited by v15ben on Sunday 7th April 18:37
Identical Rolls Royces, rich Moldovans, stubborn border guards, potholed gravel tracks, a race through the Moldovan night with a Vauxhall Insignia and a fight between 2 middle aged women. Here's yesterday, in a nutshell:
http://80breakdowns.com/2013/04/10/a-day-in-the-li...
http://80breakdowns.com/2013/04/10/a-day-in-the-li...
matt3001 said:
Love the updates Ben, I am halfway through your original book so can't wait to read all about this trip on the Kindle...
Cheers, I'll try to keep 'em up - and I apologise for the fact that I'm rather lazy with blogging when I'm on the road though.Crossed into the Ukraine today. Border was about 20 times easier to negotiate than expected. Currently in somewhere called Vinnitsa, admiring the architecture.
Slightly navel-gazing petrolhead blog post today. If you're following this thread for the culture and scenery, please look away now!
http://80breakdowns.com/2013/04/13/ode-to-an-engin...
http://80breakdowns.com/2013/04/13/ode-to-an-engin...
RS4Audi said:
I'm loving this thread, and from it have discovered your Porsche book which I've just started reading too
Cheers, hope you're enjoying it. We're in eastern Ukraine right now. Roads are worse than expected, worse than we found in Russia last time we came to this part of the world in fact; not that Team Rolls have noticed with their luxurious suspension. In the Corvette however, the ride has became sufficiently painful that I've already sworn that my next road trip car will be one fitted with suspension. A Jag maybe, or a Lexus. Anyhows, despite the spinal damage both cars are still going brilliantly, and today we visited an underground Soviet nuclear missile silo, which was pretty cool. Here's a few pics which have nothing whatsoever to do with cars but are of one of the coolest places I've been in a fair while:
Blast door of one of the 10 rocket silos near Uman in central Ukraine - each silo was 6m diameter and over 30m deep...
SS-18 Satan death machine.
12 stories underground, the control room for the launch process.
The button of armegedon...
Brummy pretending to nuke Paris. Repeatedly...
And as this is general gassing, here's a few car shots from today to finish:
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