The road to Geneva

Most people fly squeasyjet to the Geneva show; we went via V8 instead, courtesy of Vauxhall

When it comes to kicking off a couple of days' great driving, a sunny Sunday morning nipping around the Monaco Grand Prix circuit isn't bad. Sadly, the roads were open to the principality's usual sedate traffic, so heading up the hill and along the main coast road past Nice and then north towards Grasse was no hardship.

Flying from Luton to Geneva, PH style

For anyone familiar with this neck of the French woods, you can probably guess where we were headed: the N85, better known as the Route Napoleon. It's one of the finest stretches of tarmac ever laid, and it certainly does stretch as it goes all the way from Grasse to Grenoble.

Better still, we weren't using just one car for this jaunt, we had a selection of Vauxhall's best current cars plus some historic ones for good measure. It's all part of a road trip from Monaco to the Geneva motor show and makes for a much more pleasurable journey than a sweaty early morning flight direct to the best European ogle at new cars.

VXR'd enough?
Given Monaco's rigidly enforced speed limits and the dull but quick motorway start, our first car of the day in the shape of a new Insignia VXR SuperSport estate was ideally suited to the mixed conditions. Modest enough to avoid the attentions of the Monegasque police, it was swift and smooth on the peage and showed strong overtaking pace once Grasse was in the rear view mirror.

Updated Insignia VXR was a good warm-up

Standard four-wheel drive helped as the Insignia dealt with some lingering snow and ice that lay in the mountain shadows. Vauxhall has improved the ESP to help quell understeer in this car and revised the rear suspension, so the Insignia feels very neutral when pressing hard. Its single turbo 2.8-litre V6 engine provides 325hp, which was to be lowest power output of the day's driving selection, and the wagon provides 0-62mph in 6.1 seconds.

As a way to bed into a road trip, the Insignia SuperSport Tourer is comfortable and capable but a bit, well, sanitised for this sort of road. It never felt anything other than stable and assured, yet on roads where twists and hairpins are 10 a penny, something a little more invigorating was needed.

Change of mood
As the church perched on top of the hill at Castellane came into view, the Insignia had done its job and it was time for a coffee and croissant. Tres chic, or as chic as motoring hacks get, but the sun was warm and thankfully the local pharmacy was open due to the French obsession with their minor ailments so I could grab some paracetamol for an achy back.

Brutish Monaro was a physical workout

All thoughts of back pain were soon forgotten as we slid into the fatly padded leather chairs of a Vauxhall Monaro VXR500. One of only a handful built, the VXR500 takes its name from the amount of torque it chucks out (500lb ft in Imperial measure), while 504hp is on hand from the supercharged 6.0-litre V8.

A 185mph top speed was never going to be worried on the Route Napoleon, but 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds, rear-wheel drive and a simple on-off button for the traction control guaranteed the VXR500 was going to be entertaining.

Heavy load
Edging out of Castellane, first impressions of the Monaro were its clutch is heavy and the gearchange is even more weighty. This isn't the sort of weight that adds feel, just obstruction, so the next few miles were spent thinking more about how to drive the car smoothly than driving the road.

Lotus Carlton rather more appealing

With some sort of mutual agreement reached between driver and transmission, the supercharged power of the VXR500 was there to be deployed in an instant. Every low speed corner became an excuse to overwhelm the rear tyres and even in third gear the VXR would wag its tail with an accompanying supercharger shriek.

Sad as it is to say about a 504hp supercharged coupe, I was glad to see the back of it when we pulled into Digne for a spot of lunch at L'Auberge. With plenty of good food on the table, our view out from the rear-most dining room also gave us a perfect view of the assorted Vauxhalls still waiting to be driven by ourselves and others on this trip.

Best of all, we could see the Lotus Carlton that was ours for the next stage towards Laiterie Col Bayard. Broody dark green paint, spoilers and flared arches might be all very 1980s, but there's no arguing with a twin-turbo 3.6-litre straight six motor turning out 382hp to give 0-62mph in 5.4 seconds and a 176mph top speed.

Al really didn't want to give this one back

Bad boy
The Lotus Carlton upset large sections of the press when launched because of its top speed in a family car. As a result, I've coveted it ever since and now I was driving number 820. Far from being disappointing after the crazy power of the Monaro, the Carlton felt taut, together and far more wieldy on the narrow roads leading north out of Digne.

We decided to deviate from the Route Napoleon to take in the D900 up and over the hills at Monclar and then drop down the eastern edge of Lac de Serre-Poncon. The roads are sensational here, but the views are the real breathtakers as the road heads down to Savine-le-Lac and the bridge that took us west towards our afternoon halt.

Just about the only downside of the Carlton, which has a huge capacity for overtaking was the aftermarket sat-nav was useless. Then again, using a road map felt entirely appropriate in this car and the keys had to be plasma cut from my grip. A hero met and the reality was even better than the anticipation. More on this car in due course...

VXR8 helped ease the pain of loss though

New school
Out last stage towards Grenoble and our overnight hotel was completed in the brand new Vauxhall VXR8 GTS. In essence, this car feels like the spiritual successor to the Lotus Carlton far more than it has in common with the previous VXR8 or Monaro. Easy to drive slowly yet formidably fast, it covers ground quickly and assuredly. You can be a hooligan with the power, but it's a car that rewards a neater style and is easily the measure of a BMW M5 for a lot less money and with a slick six-speed manual gearbox as standard.

Traffic reined in play on the last section of the N85 towards Grenoble, yet the VXR8 mooched along with plush suspension and impressive refinement. This car could easily cope with a much longer stint on the Route Napoleon or any other journey thanks to the broad range of its talents.

The final run to Geneva was in pouring rain on equally dull roads, but from flawed to fabulous the drive up the N85 was best way to arrive in Geneva.