The V8Nam thread - Rolls Royce and Corvette content...
Discussion
Once upon a Friday night, in a pub called the Seymour Arms, some like-minded friends and I were whiling away the evening by coming up with ever more far-fetched ideas for road trips. From fairly sensible beginnings, the practicality of the ideas being mooted spiralled upwards from the realistic to the ridiculous, and by 11PM, only the daftest ideas were carrying any weight. And that's when, in a single word, the idea was mooted.
V8Nam.
Get car with a V8; drive it to Vietnam.
Despite it's obvious silliness, this idea was of such genius it refused to go away, and hence we're going through with it next year. Those who've followed the previous thread on the subject ( here) will already be familiar with our hunt for suitable cars; to cut that particular long story short, 4x4s were out, random PH-esque choices were very much in, and we now have two V8s in which to undertake the journey.
Firstly, introducing in the red corner, my new toy - a 5.7l Corvette:
After previously erring towards taking a TVR but being frustrated by the lack of cheap Chimaeras in my part of the world, I spotted the 'Vette on Ebay just up the road and went to take a look, more out of curiosity than anything else. Half an hour later, I'd impulsively bought it for £3,800, and drove home amazed that you can pick up the V8-powered American performance icon for the price of a rather average '944 S2.
My purchase of the 'Vette spurred my friend Brummy (of 'Survival of the Quickest' fame...) into action, and a few days ago his choice of trans-continental transport appeared outside the house. In the red, white and blue corner, I give you a six-and-three-quarter litre V8-powered Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II:
As British as the Corvette is American, Brummy's Rolls exudes an old-school charm and has possibly the most quaintly awesome interior ever. It also seems to do about 13 miles to the gallon and take up half of Devon...
So that's the convoy - England to Vietnam in a Corvette and a Rolls. We're leaving in April next year, and are planning on a three month trip. We're just bimbling through a route plan and figuring out the bureaucracy now, and will keep this thread - and the blog at www.80breakdowns.com - updated so anyone who's interested can laugh at our incompetent progress...
Ben.
V8Nam.
Get car with a V8; drive it to Vietnam.
Despite it's obvious silliness, this idea was of such genius it refused to go away, and hence we're going through with it next year. Those who've followed the previous thread on the subject ( here) will already be familiar with our hunt for suitable cars; to cut that particular long story short, 4x4s were out, random PH-esque choices were very much in, and we now have two V8s in which to undertake the journey.
Firstly, introducing in the red corner, my new toy - a 5.7l Corvette:
After previously erring towards taking a TVR but being frustrated by the lack of cheap Chimaeras in my part of the world, I spotted the 'Vette on Ebay just up the road and went to take a look, more out of curiosity than anything else. Half an hour later, I'd impulsively bought it for £3,800, and drove home amazed that you can pick up the V8-powered American performance icon for the price of a rather average '944 S2.
My purchase of the 'Vette spurred my friend Brummy (of 'Survival of the Quickest' fame...) into action, and a few days ago his choice of trans-continental transport appeared outside the house. In the red, white and blue corner, I give you a six-and-three-quarter litre V8-powered Rolls Royce Silver Shadow II:
As British as the Corvette is American, Brummy's Rolls exudes an old-school charm and has possibly the most quaintly awesome interior ever. It also seems to do about 13 miles to the gallon and take up half of Devon...
So that's the convoy - England to Vietnam in a Corvette and a Rolls. We're leaving in April next year, and are planning on a three month trip. We're just bimbling through a route plan and figuring out the bureaucracy now, and will keep this thread - and the blog at www.80breakdowns.com - updated so anyone who's interested can laugh at our incompetent progress...
Ben.
Brilliant, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book, Survival of the quickest. The next adventure looks to be exciting.
Having owned a Silver Shadow, I wold ensure that someone carefully studies the hydraulics of brakes and suspension, and works out a few advance emergency bodges if they fail ..... I don't you can sort the RR brakes with cable ties, but happy to stand corrected !
Having owned a Silver Shadow, I wold ensure that someone carefully studies the hydraulics of brakes and suspension, and works out a few advance emergency bodges if they fail ..... I don't you can sort the RR brakes with cable ties, but happy to stand corrected !
Thanks folks!
The last time I did a trip like this, we didn't decide whether to ship the car back or sell it until about 24 hours before we left the country - and even then, it was pretty much a toss of the coin; hopefully we won't be so indecisive this time...
carreauchompeur said:
Epic. Quite simply epic. What are you going to do with the cars when you get to Vietnam? From memory they have a humungous import tax...
We're yet to properly look into this - the options are to either sell them somewhere in S.E.Asia, or ship them back to Blighty; it all depends on which makes most financial sense, and how much sentimentality arises. If we do sell them in S.E.Asia, we'd probably be looking to sell in Singapore or Malaysia, as the plan is to make the most of our visit to Asia by carrying on to Singapore after ticking the 'V8Nam' aspect of the trip ('V8apore' just didn't have the same ring to it!)The last time I did a trip like this, we didn't decide whether to ship the car back or sell it until about 24 hours before we left the country - and even then, it was pretty much a toss of the coin; hopefully we won't be so indecisive this time...
Shaw Tarse said:
Is that plate still on the Roller, if so can he sell it to help with funds?
The plate will be staying with the previous owner I'm afraid. Shame...RS404 said:
This would make a fantastic documentary. Have you approached anyone about filming it? Sell some DVDs or better still to TV, I reckon you could use some petrol money! All the best to you, will be following your progress.
It's something we're vaguely considering at the moment, however I have a hunch we've left it too late to get a proper adventure film-maker interested, and if the timescale doesn't put 'em off, our faces-for-radio probably will! Seriously though, looking into this is on my to-do list for next week...David87 said:
Amazing. Can I come? 
Sure; get yourself a quirky V8 and join the convoy! I should warn you I'm a grumpy sod though... rswift said:
Brilliant, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your book, Survival of the quickest. The next adventure looks to be exciting.
Having owned a Silver Shadow, I wold ensure that someone carefully studies the hydraulics of brakes and suspension, and works out a few advance emergency bodges if they fail ..... I don't you can sort the RR brakes with cable ties, but happy to stand corrected !
Glad you enjoyed the book, and thanks for the heads-up. I understand the electrics can be a bit iffy too.. (and I'm not saying that purely because the wipers packed up last night!)Having owned a Silver Shadow, I wold ensure that someone carefully studies the hydraulics of brakes and suspension, and works out a few advance emergency bodges if they fail ..... I don't you can sort the RR brakes with cable ties, but happy to stand corrected !
R11ysf said:
Brilliant idea and great choice of cars. Vietnamis about 9,000 miles, so @ 13 mpg you are looking at about 3,140 litres of fuel!! So £5k at Uk prices!!!! That's punchy but I'm sure it'll be the trip of a lifetime.
Best of luck, it is a truly excellent idea.
Ow, hadn't looked at it like that!!Best of luck, it is a truly excellent idea.
carreauchompeur said:
R11ysf said:
Brilliant idea and great choice of cars. Vietnamis about 9,000 miles, so @ 13 mpg you are looking at about 3,140 litres of fuel!! So £5k at Uk prices!!!! That's punchy but I'm sure it'll be the trip of a lifetime.
Best of luck, it is a truly excellent idea.
Ow, hadn't looked at it like that!!Best of luck, it is a truly excellent idea.
Turkmenistan = 0.15p/litre
Uzbekistan = 0.60p/litre
China = 0.70p/litre
Vietnam = 0.65p/litre
Based on that, I think if you aspire to run a Rolls or 'Vette for 10,000 miles, driving to Vietnam in the process makes a lot of man-maths sense!
Especially as a standard Corvette C4 will apparently do 28MPG at a steady cruise; maybe even more if it has a Rolls to slipstream...
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