European Road Trip in my VX220 - write up & pictures

[bakerstreet]

Good trip report. Like others I would also like to do this myself one day. Could be the push I need to buy an M3. It would be comfortable doing it in the Saab, but not much fun

[Cyrus1971]

Roastie ITR said:

Cyrus1971 said:

Looks like you had a blast. PH sholud have more of this kind of sharing IMHO. Did you give the 458 Itallia a run for it's money ?

Cyrus

I'm sure if he was trying properly I wouldn't have seen which way he went. Seemed to be giving it beans on the straight, but slow through most corners.

Agree about sharing these kind of trips, it's what inspired me to do it and I'm really glad I did.

Agree. I wrote up a smaller tour in my 996 Turbo : London, through French, Swiss and Itallian Alps to the Lakes and back (via Old St Bernard and Simplon passes) Great drive. You may also be interested in this site on a tuned VX220 : https://sites.google.com/site/z20letpower/home

[DanDC5]

Great write up and some great pics. Can imagine the VX was a lot of fun on some of those roads

[blearyeyedboy]

Inspiring. Good write up.

[Davey S2]

Great trip and a great write up.

I have done several similar trips (in an Exige and Cayman S) and they are what driving is all about IMO.

Also think yourself lucky you have a missus willing to do a trip of that length in a VX220.

Stelvio is very overated and the other side is far better than the famous hairpin side. Hairpins get boring after the first few.

The Col De turini is better but the last time I did it was in a Bentley Continantal T which is a big bus to try and throw up and down there.

Glad you liked Garda. I stopped off there a few times and going back there for the first part of my honeymoon next year.

[Roastie ITR]

sagarich said:

Cracking write up! Really enjoyed reading this and would love to do something like this at some stage.

How did you navigate? Sat nav? Or was the misses operating the map?

I produced ITN files for each day of the exact roads that I wanted to drive that I then uploaded onto my TomTom.

Each morning it was just a case of selecting the correct route and then following the TomTom.

[Craikeybaby]

Great thread! I've got a similar trip planned, but I need to go out there and do it!

How was the luggage situation in a VX220 for 12 days?

Edited by Craikeybaby on Wednesday 31st October 12:50

[Allyc85]

Fantastic pics and vids, cheers for sharing!

I have to go back to the alps next year. I just love driving out there and theres a couple more roads I need to do!

[Bargenosenti]

Great post - this will be for me and Mrs. next year, just need to buy a chariot suitable for the journey

Looking at those passes, I think something a bit more driver orientated would be better.

[Dave200]

Trip sounds great, but I can't be the only one confused by your decision to share so many photos of your other half with so many strangers... How bizarre...

[Contigo]

Great trip, did something similar some years ago minus the Stelvio but the European roads are just fantastic. Gonna plan a roadtrip in the M5 but will need a fuel tanker in tow!

[Nano2nd]

great pics and write up what sort of costs did you incur on the whole trip?

[krallicious]

Quite funny that you turned off by Wehr for the Schwarzwald and I know where the picture was taken. It's part of my weekend route when I'm visiting the MIL!

[nails1979]

Looks great. Wished I done his before our first kid. No 2 seaters. No hundreds of miles in one go without I need the toilet are we nearly there het etc lol. Maybes when he's grown up. Might even want to do it then with me. Although I don't want to imagine the cost of fuel in 20 years time.

[m3jappa]

I always found it hard to get to grips with going somewhere in Europe for a holiday but after doing something very similar to you this year I'll be doing it again next year.

Probably the best holiday I have had, for petrol heads it doesn't get much better.

[m3jappa]

Actually here's a vid of me and my mate driving through some of the best roads I have ever experienced in Tuscany, complete with 80's music it felt like we were in a film such good times


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEWKNcbQp-8&fea...

[Nedzilla]

Fantastic write up,thanks for sharing it with us.It really does look like another world over there and is without a doubt petrolhead heaven!

I really must drive out there someday myself but with my current car and roads like that I would be filling up every 80 mile or so!!

Cheers

[*Al*]

Fantastic! Thanks for sharing, very PH of you I would really like to do something similar one day, maybe on my bike.

[jontymo]

Great thread, do you have a list of the hotels you stayed at and did you go for secure parking every time?

jontymo

[g3org3y]

Roastie ITR said:

I produced ITN files for each day of the exact roads that I wanted to drive that I then uploaded onto my TomTom.

Each morning it was just a case of selecting the correct route and then following the TomTom.

That's useful.

When we did ours, we only had (and still have the Tom Tom Start 2 (I think)) which has no extra memory slot. Not sure if we are able to do this? Is it done via the Tom Tom PC program?