5 days, 5 countries, 1415 miles, a few beers & 1 breakdown!
Discussion
Hi all 
Earlier this week I got back (just!) from a fantastic Euro trip I organised with 2 other cars and 5 motorbikes....
Day 1 Fri - Home to Groningen (near Assen) - 475 motorway miles
Day 2 Sat - MotoGP at Assen then to Liege - 220 miles
Day 3 Sun - Met up with Han, gave him his S Club mugs and went to Spa to watch GT's, F3 etc, then back to Liege via the "scenic" route
120 miles 
Day 4 Mon - To Cochem in Germany for lunch then to Nurburgring. Stunning smooth flowing mainly empty roads before just about managing to squeeze in 2 laps of Da Ring; it was scheduled to be open 2.25 hrs but was actually only open for approx 30mins as a result of 2 "incidents" - 150 miles
Day 5 Tues - The drive home, of which the first 120 or so miles was on more of Germany's heavenly tarmac. Sadly we had a 6.5hr delay due to the car cutting out several times en route, then refusing to start altogether on the motorway hardshoulder near Liege.
Recovery truck driver didn't speak any English but saw the Ford engine so took us straight to the nearest Ford garage who refused to look at the car! After being driven aimlessly around Liege for a couple of hours I phoned Han and he located a local mechanic who was eventually able to help.
He was located a total of 5km from where we had broken down 6hrs earlier....... Problem was quickly fixed - a disintegrating connector on the fuel pump. The guy had a collection of UK cars gathering dust, including a couple of Rollers and the sad looking S in the pics, which didn't have an engine and more importantly no front indicators! Eventually arrived home at 0045 (0145 Euro time!) rather than the planned 1800..... 450 miles
Apart from the minor detail of the fuel pump issue the S was superb. Only other slight drawback was the time taken to get the boot unpacked and roof on the couple of occassions rain threatened, but we had great fun "playing" with the bikes on amazing roads and drew lots of attention especially around Assen from the 1000's of bikers - but that could be because of the Rossi sickers
If you've ever though of touring abroad with your S, do it, you will not regret it. Just make sure you have breakdown recovery and a list of sports car specialist along your route before you go
Longers
Earlier this week I got back (just!) from a fantastic Euro trip I organised with 2 other cars and 5 motorbikes....
Day 1 Fri - Home to Groningen (near Assen) - 475 motorway miles
Day 2 Sat - MotoGP at Assen then to Liege - 220 miles
Day 3 Sun - Met up with Han, gave him his S Club mugs and went to Spa to watch GT's, F3 etc, then back to Liege via the "scenic" route
120 miles Day 4 Mon - To Cochem in Germany for lunch then to Nurburgring. Stunning smooth flowing mainly empty roads before just about managing to squeeze in 2 laps of Da Ring; it was scheduled to be open 2.25 hrs but was actually only open for approx 30mins as a result of 2 "incidents" - 150 miles
Day 5 Tues - The drive home, of which the first 120 or so miles was on more of Germany's heavenly tarmac. Sadly we had a 6.5hr delay due to the car cutting out several times en route, then refusing to start altogether on the motorway hardshoulder near Liege.
Recovery truck driver didn't speak any English but saw the Ford engine so took us straight to the nearest Ford garage who refused to look at the car! After being driven aimlessly around Liege for a couple of hours I phoned Han and he located a local mechanic who was eventually able to help.
He was located a total of 5km from where we had broken down 6hrs earlier....... Problem was quickly fixed - a disintegrating connector on the fuel pump. The guy had a collection of UK cars gathering dust, including a couple of Rollers and the sad looking S in the pics, which didn't have an engine and more importantly no front indicators! Eventually arrived home at 0045 (0145 Euro time!) rather than the planned 1800..... 450 miles
Apart from the minor detail of the fuel pump issue the S was superb. Only other slight drawback was the time taken to get the boot unpacked and roof on the couple of occassions rain threatened, but we had great fun "playing" with the bikes on amazing roads and drew lots of attention especially around Assen from the 1000's of bikers - but that could be because of the Rossi sickers
If you've ever though of touring abroad with your S, do it, you will not regret it. Just make sure you have breakdown recovery and a list of sports car specialist along your route before you go
Longers
Maybe next year, it sure looks like a lot of fun!
Barkychoc said:
That S is probably worth quite a bit too if it has the appropriate paperwork.
Thanks Chris, I do all have all of the paperwork for my S. Oh.... you mean the left hand drive one...?!! Yes, it might be, but it's in a bit of a state. The pics don't show it that well but the passenger door has been ripped out of it's mounts, maybe by reversing into a post or garage with it open plus it hasn't got an engine. Chassis looked very good and seems to have been recently painted with just a bit of dust covering it. Would be a good buy for euro mainland seeing as it's already left had drive though....
hvdweerden said:
Hello Ian,
Nice motorway pics and shots of the TVR dealer ! Do you know if the S was broken for parts, maybe I pay them a visit for some goodies.
Br, Han
Han, I did try to ask about the car but he didn't speak any English - he had to ring a mate of his to translate for me into English! I decided not to hang around too long to find out about the car cos all I wanted to do was get home by that point Nice motorway pics and shots of the TVR dealer ! Do you know if the S was broken for parts, maybe I pay them a visit for some goodies.
Br, Han
Thanks again for your help Han. See you next year....?
Gassing Station | S Series | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff