Winter road trip in an R500
Discussion
Well decided I can't wait and am collecting my R500 from Caterham on Thursday and will be taking a little road trip. I'm working in the Canary Islands as a skipper at the moment so that's the ultimate destination.
Caterham into London to see friends, then around various parts of the UK over the weekend to catch up with other friends before the ACE Cafe meet on Monday night to see the final group of friends from Petrolhead Nirvana (a good night if you've never been).
The Portsmouth for the Santander ferry on Tuesday, drive across Spain to Barcelona to jump on a ferry to Palma to see some more friends (have to loose 5 days between arriving in Spain and the ferry to the Canaries due to winter schedules). Then back to Barcelona after a weekend of fun and drive all the way down to Cadiz to get on the final ferry to Gran Canaria.
Not the perfect spec car for the trip but will be fun! Will post some pictures of the trip and a very dirty car by the end of it I would imagine...
And these are the sort of roads I'll get to play on when I finally get back to the island.
Caterham into London to see friends, then around various parts of the UK over the weekend to catch up with other friends before the ACE Cafe meet on Monday night to see the final group of friends from Petrolhead Nirvana (a good night if you've never been).
The Portsmouth for the Santander ferry on Tuesday, drive across Spain to Barcelona to jump on a ferry to Palma to see some more friends (have to loose 5 days between arriving in Spain and the ferry to the Canaries due to winter schedules). Then back to Barcelona after a weekend of fun and drive all the way down to Cadiz to get on the final ferry to Gran Canaria.
Not the perfect spec car for the trip but will be fun! Will post some pictures of the trip and a very dirty car by the end of it I would imagine...
And these are the sort of roads I'll get to play on when I finally get back to the island.
You should be able to get to Barcelona in about 5 hours with plenty of coffee/tea/wee stops. If your ferry gets into Santander in the morning, you should be able to get the night ferry to Palma, which gets in about 07:00 IIRC.
Here's a couple pic's from when I did it in my R300.
And here are the type of roads we have in Mallorca to play on
Have a great trip, and be safe
I've been in the shipyard in Barcelona on my boat for the last two months and will be rotating off tomorrow. It would of been good to see a Caterham in Barcelona! I have my Caterham in Antibes, France again this year and plan to go for some blats along the coast, and in the hills if the weather warms up.
Hum, well all didn't quite go to plan and a sick Caterham is waiting in some recovery yard in Spain for a transporter trip back to the UK. Had enough of standing in petrol stations waiting for recovery for a while!
Tried first with Caterham Spain but they were unable to sort the problem so I'm finishing the holiday by plane.
Will post more when I've got proper internet.
Tried first with Caterham Spain but they were unable to sort the problem so I'm finishing the holiday by plane.
Will post more when I've got proper internet.
sad newsI read the OP title and thought - hope he has a rescue strategy in place.....While that would have been a fantastic adventure in an open top sports car, I could not help but think I wonder how far he got before the inevitable happened. I mean Oil top ups alone and gearbox oil checks negate a leisurely long road trip such as this. Then there is the inevitable vibration loosening list of components and connections that inconvenience the unprepared...
I hope you get it sorted - You must be gutted spending £££ and the opportunity for a road trip of a lifetime to have it cut short.
I hope you get it sorted - You must be gutted spending £££ and the opportunity for a road trip of a lifetime to have it cut short.
Edited by Evo10 on Wednesday 20th February 18:39
Evo10 said:
I read the OP title and thought - hope he has a rescue strategy in place.....While that would have been a fantastic adventure in an open top sports car, I could not help but think I wonder how far he got before the inevitable happened. I mean Oil top ups alone and gearbox oil checks negate a leisurely long road trip such as this. Then there is the inevitable vibration loosening list of components and connections that inconvenience the unprepared...
I hope you get it sorted - You must be gutted spending £££ and the opportunity for a road trip of a lifetime to have it cut short.
I would have thought a new Duratec powered R500 would be pretty reliable though?I hope you get it sorted - You must be gutted spending £££ and the opportunity for a road trip of a lifetime to have it cut short.
Edited by Evo10 on Wednesday 20th February 18:39
Was the car new? Hope you get it sorted soon!
Evo10 said:
I read the OP title and thought - hope he has a rescue strategy in place.....While that would have been a fantastic adventure in an open top sports car, I could not help but think I wonder how far he got before the inevitable happened. I mean Oil top ups alone and gearbox oil checks negate a leisurely long road trip such as this. Then there is the inevitable vibration loosening list of components and connections that inconvenience the unprepared...
I hope you get it sorted - You must be gutted spending £££ and the opportunity for a road trip of a lifetime to have it cut short.
Northern Spain to Barcelona is a 5 hour drive.I hope you get it sorted - You must be gutted spending £££ and the opportunity for a road trip of a lifetime to have it cut short.
Edited by Evo10 on Wednesday 20th February 18:39
Why would you need to be checking the gearbox oil level unless it was leaking? Have you ever checked the gearbox oil level on a Seven? Not something you'd want to do at the side of the road!
I picked my new car up from CC south, did the 500 miles in U.K. changed the oil and filter in a car park, and drove to Mallorca no problem at all.
Shame it wasn't to be with SY. Spanish dealer probably didn't help though TBH.
Evo10 said:
I read the OP title and thought - hope he has a rescue strategy in place.....While that would have been a fantastic adventure in an open top sports car, I could not help but think I wonder how far he got before the inevitable happened. I mean Oil top ups alone and gearbox oil checks negate a leisurely long road trip such as this. Then there is the inevitable vibration loosening list of components and connections that inconvenience the unprepared...
I hope you get it sorted - You must be gutted spending £££ and the opportunity for a road trip of a lifetime to have it cut short.
I know a bloke who built a Duratec 7 in Denver, Colorado and then drove it across the Mojave desert to Los Angeles, California (in the summer!) to visit family, and then turned right to drive it to his home in Anchorage, Alaska. A bit over 6,000 miles on his first drive in his new 7 with zero miles on the odometer at the start of the trip.I hope you get it sorted - You must be gutted spending £££ and the opportunity for a road trip of a lifetime to have it cut short.
Tough luck, SpeedYellow. An unfortunate set-back, but it'll all be worth it once you get that car singing on those Canary Island twisties.
Speedyellow, sorry to hear about the premature end to your adventure. Those Canary I. roads look fantastic!
I'm the "bloke" that BBL-Sean wrote about, who made the 6100-mile trip from Colorado to Alaska USA in a near-zero-mileage R500 Duratec. The trip went almost like clockwork -- except for the loss of a rear wheel bearing on the way to the Monterey Historics in California (DHL overnight shipment of new parts from Colorado meant that I only lost one day of road time), and being backed into by a 3/4-ton Ford pickup while stuck in traffic in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory (luckily, only the cowl and bonnet were smashed, and the car was still drivable).
When I started this trip, the thought never crossed my mind that I might be thwarted by a mechanical failure; perhaps I was naive, and simply trusting to the presumed inherent reliability of a brand-new car? Perhaps that description doesn't include a brand-new Caterham....
I'm the "bloke" that BBL-Sean wrote about, who made the 6100-mile trip from Colorado to Alaska USA in a near-zero-mileage R500 Duratec. The trip went almost like clockwork -- except for the loss of a rear wheel bearing on the way to the Monterey Historics in California (DHL overnight shipment of new parts from Colorado meant that I only lost one day of road time), and being backed into by a 3/4-ton Ford pickup while stuck in traffic in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory (luckily, only the cowl and bonnet were smashed, and the car was still drivable).
When I started this trip, the thought never crossed my mind that I might be thwarted by a mechanical failure; perhaps I was naive, and simply trusting to the presumed inherent reliability of a brand-new car? Perhaps that description doesn't include a brand-new Caterham....
Yes all was sorted fantastically by Caterham, when the car got back there they could read the ecu and it showed intermittent failure of the cam sensor, a standard Ford part. Car was up an running properly in 10 minutes.
Lessons learnt, Caterham looked after me as well as they could remotely, next time I'd take a tiny laptop and cable so it could be diagnosed anywhere, joy of it not running a ford ecu.
Problem is back at sea too much to get it down here again until the winter so have decided to stick it back up for sale in the UK. Spring bargain for someone.
Lessons learnt, Caterham looked after me as well as they could remotely, next time I'd take a tiny laptop and cable so it could be diagnosed anywhere, joy of it not running a ford ecu.
Problem is back at sea too much to get it down here again until the winter so have decided to stick it back up for sale in the UK. Spring bargain for someone.
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