Tamora 3000 mile road trip
Discussion
Having bought our Tamora in November 2011, we wanted to get a good long drive done to make sure the car got properly warmed up.
Work got in the way early in the year, but I had some time from mid-May so we took 3 weeks to drive down to the French Alps, South of France / Monaco, Italian Lakes, a bit of Switzerland and back home. As it is over 3 weeks it is a bit steadier-paced than the intense week-long driving holidays, with a few non-driving days (which I needed).
The car did very well, no mechanical issues and it used no oil or water. The car experienced everything from heavy snow and days of endless rain to baking sun and was solid throughout. Apart from grip on snow, but that is to be expected. It returned 27 mpg over the 3000 miles.
The roads were mixed. Some of the passes were great, some really good driving. Other bits were less good (narrow roads, traffic, low speed limits, no parking) and we would have been better off in a Fiat Panda or public transport than a TVR.
I can see where there is benefit to a properly organised driving holiday where someone has gone to th effort of making an optimised route where you can have some fun and avoiding the awkward, dull, or slow roads. On our trip sometimes we were lucky with roads, and sometimes we weren't.
The car got a good reaction from people, and after a few conversations I got better at describing TVRs in French.
This link takes you to a really long road trip report split over 3 pages (with links between pages).
A few pictures are below.
Heading out, nice and clean
Into the mountains
Just after we had turned back due to a snowstorm
On the Monaco start line
Sometimes the roof came off
Start of the Gottard Pass
Part-way up the Gottard Pass
Work got in the way early in the year, but I had some time from mid-May so we took 3 weeks to drive down to the French Alps, South of France / Monaco, Italian Lakes, a bit of Switzerland and back home. As it is over 3 weeks it is a bit steadier-paced than the intense week-long driving holidays, with a few non-driving days (which I needed).
The car did very well, no mechanical issues and it used no oil or water. The car experienced everything from heavy snow and days of endless rain to baking sun and was solid throughout. Apart from grip on snow, but that is to be expected. It returned 27 mpg over the 3000 miles.
The roads were mixed. Some of the passes were great, some really good driving. Other bits were less good (narrow roads, traffic, low speed limits, no parking) and we would have been better off in a Fiat Panda or public transport than a TVR.
I can see where there is benefit to a properly organised driving holiday where someone has gone to th effort of making an optimised route where you can have some fun and avoiding the awkward, dull, or slow roads. On our trip sometimes we were lucky with roads, and sometimes we weren't.
The car got a good reaction from people, and after a few conversations I got better at describing TVRs in French.
This link takes you to a really long road trip report split over 3 pages (with links between pages).
A few pictures are below.
Heading out, nice and clean
Into the mountains
Just after we had turned back due to a snowstorm
On the Monaco start line
Sometimes the roof came off
Start of the Gottard Pass
Part-way up the Gottard Pass
Cool, did couple of similar trips in two different TVR's. No reason why a TVR should have any problems with it. Johnny Foreigners reaction to a TVR is cool. I've had, 'my, you have such a beautiful car' and a bunch of French lads stand around it pointing and saying, ' oh, t-v-yerr'. They seem to appreciate them.
Thanks for the comments. It was a good trip and well worth the effort to give the TVR a decent outing.
Hopefully the write-up will be of some use to people passing through those parts to find out which bits I thought were good, and which areas were less-suited to a sports car. There were a few times when I wanted to be in a Fiat Panda not a Tamora... But plenty of times when it was the other way round
Hopefully the write-up will be of some use to people passing through those parts to find out which bits I thought were good, and which areas were less-suited to a sports car. There were a few times when I wanted to be in a Fiat Panda not a Tamora... But plenty of times when it was the other way round
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