MK1 MX5 Euro Trip June 2018

[Amebix]

This journal is a good 5000 words long and contains a lot of pictures.

I wasn’t going to share it with anyone but I feel like at least somebody might enjoy it, but i also appreciate just how boring other peoples holiday photos can be – Can’t say I didn’t warn you!

This is Pistonheads, so I’m aware that driving 10,000 miles around the continent, dominating foreign roads in your £100,000 car and running ten companies at the same time is the daily norm for a lot of you...

For a poor, Northern peasant like me it is not, so while you may scoff at the lowly achievement, this was all about accomplishing a long term dream of mine, inspired a good few years ago from reading a sadly now Picture-Barren Thread on this very website as an 18 year old, written by somebody who did something very similar in the same car.

I travelled most of Europe between the ages of 15-22 in various punk bands, lived on the road for months on end while I should've been in school - Mostly in knackered vans, playing illegal raves, barns, squatted chateaus, makeshift clubs you name it, so I’m not exactly wide eyed and bushy tailed but I’d never attempted anything like this off of my own back, indeed not in a car the same age as me

What I’m getting at is that while this may not impress or interest you, I hope it will at least inspire somebody else out there who's been giving themselves excuses as to why they shouldn't!

I am by no means a writer. So forgive the occasional clumsiness/past/present tenses, grammar and spelling errors, and some odd continuity; some of the close up car photos were taken after the trip for example - I have tried my best!

Enough diatribe!

This is what would be our (Me and my other half's) tin pot ride for the next two and a half weeks...

My £1000 140,000 mile "Emerald Green" 1991 Eunos Roadster VSpec, bought at the turn of the year.



I bought it modified by it’s previous owner; Lowered on Yellow Bilstein Suspension, Panasport Ultralite wheels, TR Lane roll bar, front and rear bracing, Full stainless decat exhaust with a single silencer, DIY sprayed front wing from a bump too.


I set about doing a few bits to ready it for it’s journey as a bit of a rolling project; New set of old tan seats, Cambelt, waterpump, coils, leads, plugs, oil, coolant, thermostat and sensors, filters, tyres, new roof and rain rail and loads of bits you’d expect of a car this cheap/old.



I also had to Loctite fix the crank nose which had suffered keyway wear meaning the pulley was wobbling and the idle was goosed – Not ideal but it beat sourcing and fitting a new engine – Something which I have the skills to do, but not the means/resources to at this stage in life!



I also ditched the gasless (But physically operational) A/C system at the same time as the major servicing for some mad weight savin’ yo (The irony wasn’t lost on me as I got burnt to a crisp whilst doing it, and incinerated in the European heat with the roof down a few months later!)





So I put a fair few more miles on my little car over the spring, fitted a few bits and bobs, removed the leaky spoiler, and then Passed it’s MOT in May with flying colours after some new tyres and a full wheel alignment (Paul Sheard in Congleton – by far the most knowledgeable MX5ist I’ve ever met!)







And so, we were ready, kind of – I found my clutch slave cylinder was leaking a little just a couple of days before we set off. I got hold of a spare new one to take with us, there was no chance I’d have time to sort it before we went so I took the sensible option of crossing all my digits and hoping for the best, knowing if it did fail completely I at least had a spare to fit.











We somehow managed to fit, a tent, sleeping bags, roll mats, two large camping chairs, full tool set, spare oils, spare wheel, foot pump, my rucksack, her holdall, her rucksack, and her makeup bag into this wee car – The cargo net/roll bar setup made for a good windbreak on the move too!











First stop: Le Mans!



Having not done any real motorway work in this car before, it quickly dawned on me that the earplugs I’d brought along for the 24 hour race may come into use a little earlier than that







Performance filter and that 2” 4-1 straight through exhaust at 4000rpm+ all the way from the North of the Peak district to Dover but otherwise an un-eventful trip.


https://1drv.ms/v/s!AvTrTEy-AT0ghF0mNxsy6yfwfkik (Video)









21:00 crossing to Calais and some lovely ferry food and an overnight blast down to the hallowed La Sarthe.







I must admit it sounds easy the way I’ve written it, but it was quite gruelling with little sleep, the noise of the car, and the fact that really it didn’t like cruising at over 70/75mph!



(I was also acutely aware that this was only a fraction of the journey I had ahead of me over the coming weeks.)



Still, a couple of short sleep stops here and there and what was probably about 20 hours after we set off, we arrived at the Bleu Nord campsite late Friday morning and settled in with a well-deserved beer.







This was my second Le Mans trip after coming here in 2006 as a nipper to watch Audi clear up with their whisper quiet TDI’s… I won’t pontificate and ramble on as I’m sure it’s been documented already by people who can write far better than I.



Suffice to say it was just as amazing as I remembered; the atmosphere, the setting, the race itself… I’ll just leave some photos for posterity’s sake… (And Joe/Scott if you’re reading, it was a pleasure to meet you both, we’ll hopefully see you next year!)

















https://1drv.ms/v/s!AvTrTEy-AT0ghiiJ7HFXXr5pi8uJ (Video)





We were due to stay over Sunday night and set off Monday morning, but we both agreed it would make more sense to drive through the night, stop and camp somewhere and split the journey up.









Of course we didn’t ‘Camp somewhere’ rather just angled our seats backward and used my soft comforting TR Lane steel tubing for a pillow.











Next stop; Mende.







We Air BnB’d this one and to sleep in a bed again after 5 days of camping (Not so bad) and sleeping Rest stop A La Eunos (Back breaking) was an absolute god send.









The roads down to Mende were a treat after spending what felt like an eternity on the motorway, smooth switchbacks and vineyard scenery with the odd ancient Renault 4 van to overtake, lovely stuff.



The town itself was gorgeous and completely dead, we later learned about Frances labour laws and how Monday is pretty much a Sunday to them too. All very peaceful compared to La Sarthe!







Bought some delicious packet noodles for tea and settled in for a snooze.







Sadly no demonstration of this from our lovely host.





Next stop: Gap



So it turns out there are two places in this area of France with the same name One is 3 hours away from Mende, the other, our Air BnB for the night is 5 and a half hours away in a slightly different direction. You can see where this is going…



We pulled up in some industrial park in a city (I was too hot tired to notice which) with a carpark with the same name as our destination which was still another 3 and a half hours away. “Oh bother” I think I said.







When we finally arrived it was well worth the journey. Another Air BnB in a humongous log cabin overlooking the city with what I think was the Ecrin National Park in the background. We sat out on the balcony for most of the night, enjoying the view, overheating and necking warm lager. The usual affair for now.

















Next Stop; Chamonix



This is the part of the journey where the landscape took a dramatic change – now heading upwards away from the coast up towards the alps, our destination was the Excelsior Best Western in Chamonix. A very posh affair for the likes of me, and utterly stunning in the shadow of Mont Blanc. We even got to eat some actual vegetables at a nearby restaurant and soaked our weary arses in the hot tubs. Very proper.

































Next Stop; Grindelwald via Interlaken (Switzerland)



I must admit, after spending nearly a week tramming (Mostly) south, I was really quite glad to see the back of France – Don’t get me wrong, All the places we had stayed were amazing; the roads around Mende were incredible and Chamonix really was beautiful, it was more the anticipation of getting further into the Swiss alps and a change in scenery/place with the feeling of achievement of actually getting to it; its somewhere neither of us had ever really explored and what we’d kind of based the trip around…









And not too far past the border - DISASTER! After blatting along some amazing mountain passes heading north towards Interlaken, we were stopped in a small amount of traffic on a smallish B road due to roadworks, I thought I saw my temperature gauge twitch but put it down to young senility, then slowly but surely it began to spin clockwise from it’s usual rock solid “3 minutes to 12”.

Whilst the gauges in these early models aren’t dummy gauges, the water temp shouldn’t move once it’s fully warmed up… Heart sinking fast I nursed it into a layby and killed it dead.

How could I have been so Naïve to think that this 27 year old shed would have completed this mammoth journey, “what a tit I am” I think I said, head in hands.



I popped the bonnet and Sure enough, the (new) coolant was boiling up out of the (new) Radiator and into the Expansion tank, the fan was on and I was fearing the worst (Head Gasket failure pressurising the system) due to the sudden nature of it, and the fact that all the coolant was still well, in it



I diagnosed it as being the stey aftermarket radiator cap I’d fitted, and thanks to my laziness rather than pragmatism, I still had the old OEM one in a box in the boot! We waited for the old bird to cool fully, started it up to check that it was circulating. (It was) I fitted the old cap and set off driving like an 85 year old.



Sadly I don’t remember much of the rest of this section given that I was staring permanently at my temperature gauge which thankfully didn’t move a micrometre for the rest of the day…





Interlaken; and it was beautiful.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkSS_W9l-iq/?utm_sourc... (Video)



















Me and Sarah are both Veggie so carrying on as we had through France, we filled up on bread and cheese (Pizza) and carried on towards our destination...











A family run guesthouse in Grindelwald overlooking what is probably one of the most spectacular views I’d ever seen in my life.


https://1drv.ms/v/s!AvTrTEy-AT0gh1JQpH-lcO0D9d_Z (Video)

Sarah was sorting out our room whilst I could hear who I presumed was the grandmother making fun of me and my hobo chic; I hadn’t shaved my since we set off so was sporting a large unkempt ginger beard, and I was wearing a beanie hat to stop my head getting more sunburnt so I probably looked a bit of a state admittedly






We wandered down the valley in the late afternoon and even got rained on (Honestly an absolute treat at this point!)











And then spent the evening in the Guesthouse balcony/bar watching a local old boy playing Swiss folk songs on his accordion with everyone singing along, it was a bit surreal but very fun, especially after a few steins.



Next Stop; Grimsel Pass/Furka Pass then onto Kublis

An early start with a bit of a hangover but nothing was going to quell my excitement for today’s route, not even yesterday’s coolant related heartache, however until we got where we were going i was driving like a nun in an already slow car.

Cue some boring videos!



https://1drv.ms/v/s!AvTrTEy-AT0ghl8h0CEO5nN-IQAe (Video)

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AvTrTEy-AT0gimFui8S4fYTH_hfT (Video)

The Grimsel/Furka Pass is a road I’ve wanted to drive since forever, and the roads leading up to it were immense, this only fuelled my excitement (Yes she humours me mostly!) So you can imagine my disappointment when we got to near the top. Fog. Thick, pea soup to which whilst also being quite terrifying, was just gutting. We were following a convoy of Swiss military vehicles at this point trudging slowly along, I even sacrilegiously said we should probably pull over and put the roof up given the drizzle, and then what felt like out of nowhere the whole of the sky just lifted, properly surreal but then all of a sudden we were there in the postcards I’d seen and oh my god what a place!













Up one side to the Belvedere then down the other towards the Furka pass – Easy overtakes and switchback hairpins etc, it was pretty incredible. I didn’t get too many photos but managed some on board footage with my IPhone strapped to my Roll bar with a belt. #nopro

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkUvvFHFXrp/?utm_sourc...

We arrived at our Air BnB for the night, a log cabin to which we had the whole of the lower floor, the family were lovely and so was their dog – we even had a fridge for our beer and Sarah, unusually, fell in love with a cat








Next Stop; Stelvio Pass (Italy)

By this point we’d realised that to make the longer journey’s bearable we had to set off early early –The sun was punishing in that car admittedly, no air con (Because I’d ripped it out) a vinyl roof which really had to be down all the time, a baking hot transmission tunnel and leather seats, topped off with me being paranoid and wanting to keep the heating on in parts due to the overheating I had a few days previous… It just gave us a couple more hours of motivation on the longer days, of which this was one of.



That said, it hadn’t skipped a beat since and I was becoming more comfortable with the old dog again, happy with my radiator cap diagnosis. (More on this later sadly!)


We’ve all seen Top Gear, most of you have probably driven this particular route yourselves too so I don’t need to tell you the The Stelvio Pass is an amazing road to drive, but the roads leading up to it from Switzerland into the Bormio side never seem to get a mention – It was Spectacular, a Sunday so all the (What I presume were) Owners Clubs were about, Lots of classic Porsches, Alfas other old exotica, and that Summer morning haze through the alpine forests, it was pretty special even for a potato like me.





Climbing up the Bormio side of the Stelvio and the sun was beating down on my lobster red neck.

It was late morning so getting very busy; bikers, cyclists etc it didn’t bother me one jot, in fact it just added to the atmosphere – we even got Papped on the way up



We got stuck in traffic at the top which was to be expected, I noticed there were some lovely vintage tractors from various different countries lined up outside the café part but didn’t think too much of it until we set off down the other side.



https://gvdeqa.ch.files.1drv.com/y4mR-Qc5N6oYFv4Ru... (Video)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BkbINh8lOT4/?utm_sourc... (Cant seem to upload these ones properly...)

Well of course it’s the 23rd of June so it’s only the inaugural 2018 Vintage Tractor Tour coming the other way! How could I have forgotten! Well truth be told it was absolute fking bedlam with 300+ tractors overtaking each other at 10mph, spewing smoke everywhere, getting stuck on the corners in the tight parts, breaking down and generally causing mayhem - Not exactly how I imagined my first Stelvio run but god it was fun - I won’t forget it!



(From the website I found afterwards;)

Old fellows of the nostalgic kind, bound by a unique mountain pass road and an incomparable mountain scenery – this is the Antique Tractor Tour 2018.

In June, around 300 antique tractors will meet for the fourth go-round of the Antique Tractor Tour in Prato allo Stelvio/Prad am Stilfserjoch. A unique experience, not only for the participants. The spectators can also take in a fascinating sight when the polished jewels drive from Prato on the 48 hairpin turns up to the 2,752m high Stelvio Pass on the second day of the event. Not the fastest car wins, what counts is the given target time. One can still really hit the pedal, and passing is allowed as well. After fuelling up on the mountain air and the impressions of the day, one meets at the Tractor Ball in Prato. Here the old and perhaps some newfound vintage car fans can exchange their experiences. Hereafter, the tractors will be fired up again and presented at a demo drive through Prato and Agumes/Agums.

Next Stop; Iselsberg Stronach (Austria)

After the Mayhem of the Stelvio it was a good 4/5 hour blast east through Northern italy – The Stereotypes are true it has to be said, they drive like absolute nutters mostly from what I experienced.



It was all relatively uneventful until DISASTER 2, I was overheating again. Once again, the Gauge wasn’t far off centre but as I said it shouldn’t move at all. I nursed it down the road into a little town near the Austrian border called uelfo-Tesido for bonnet up time number two. Same situation, coolant boiling up into the expansion tank and out of the overflow. A Local German speaking old boy took pity on my and walked me over to a nearby mechanic to see if they could help, but of course they were shut…

The radiator cap seemed ok this time which obviously again led me to believe the worst. Until I calmed down a bit and thought a bit more rationally (And googled a lot)… The thermostat, it had to be that jamming shut after giving it the beans for a prolonged period then “warming down” after when cruising again.

So I waited for it to cool, took the housing off and took the damn thing out, not like we needed the heating anyway and the MX5 sends its coolant through the heater matrix regardless of heater position so there’s no reason it wouldn’t circulate properly.

I only fitted it a few months previous but of course it’s a lottery with cheap parts – lesson learned.

I used a combination of the old gasket and some RTV I’d had the foresight to bring with us to re seal the housing (not a perfect job but it held!) re-filled the radiator with premix that I had also brought with us and burped the system while were parked on a hill.

Car back up to temp, me fixated on the temperature gauge for another 2 hours and we made it absolutely fine to the Molltaller Hotel in the hills overlooking Lienz.



Once again we stocked up on supermarket cheese, bread and beer and had a sit down meal in the hotel restaurant then retired to the balcony to watch the sunset and the bikers thraping it up and down the road . All very civilised and nice although I must admit I was pretty stressed out about my overheating, even though it had been fine since we’d set off again…

Next Stop; Berchtesgaden (Germany) via Grossglockner High Alpine Road

An early morning start yet again and the roads were glorious. Was a shame that we didn’t see much more of Austria as it’s somewhere I came quite a bit when I was younger. We originally had Vienna pencilled in at this point in the trip but sadly didn’t have time. We will be back…

I’d forgotten to turn on “Avoid Toll roads” on our satnav, and I’m actually quite glad I did. By the time I’d noticed the signs for the Grossglockner toll road it was a bit too late to turn back.

I took the 30 Euro toll charge on the chin shortly after assuring Sarah that it “wouldn’t cost much, not like the French roads” (Oh how we laughed)

We navigated the Beautiful Grossglockner High Alpine Road, “Austria’s Highest View!” stated the pamphlet. Well here’s what we could see and yes it was snowing, snowing all over our sunburnt faces which was a blessed relief.






Even got a double wave from an ND Mx5 driver and his passenger coming the other way, and got a window Sticker for my 30 Euro. Small Victories.


Our first German Destination was the Nazi Era Reichskanzlei Outpost of Berchtesgaden. Another very beautiful place, steeped in history, just a dark one.


Sadly we couldn’t really afford to go up into the tunnels and see the Eagles Nest but I was just happy for a sit down near the lake at Schönau am Königssee and a well deserved cold beer for my co pilot!



“Guesthouse Alpina” was the digs for the night and it was lovely. We watched the kickoff of the England/Panama match in the room that night and I distinctly remember say “Nah it’ll be a boring one anyway, let’s go explore the town”

(Our first decent meal in a long time!)







Next Stop; Rothenburg



A relatively easy 4 hours of road time in front of us, It was still hot but had abaded enough as to not be punishing, we even started the day with some sweet, sweet rain (You can tell we’re both Northern can’t you?) I must admit, driving this little car on the big bad autobahns was pretty intense at times but it held it’s own, even if I now have permanent tinnitus…



Rothenburg is another lovely town, obviously a heavy tourist area this time of year as the place was teeming with loud American Students, still, after some touristing of our own we found a relatively quiet bar to watch the Iran/Portugal game and got an early night. Hotel owner was a biker like me who'd ridden pretty much ll the routes we had/were going to on his super Tenere - gave me a few ideas about next years trip which will hopefully be on two wheels...







Next Stop; Gengenbach

Picked some souvenirs up for my mates/family at home – we used to drink these on the road with the bands when we were young. Utterly awful but obviously novel. Taking 5 one litre cans to a service station till at 10am raised a few eyebrows though I must admit.



Gengenbach was another sweet little german town, with a history of masks and puppeteers. The air BnB we stayed at was awesome, basically a blokes garden with some little apartments in it, and of course a TV area with a £1 a Beer vending Machine.








I met a master puppeteer who worked at the local mask/history museum that night at a party the host was throwing. He told me that there were more distilleries in the 5miles surrounding Gengenbach than in the whole of Germany, making what I would call Moonshine (poor form apparently!) and what they were calling “Schnapps” It was Lethal either way but we made some good friends that night – left with a sore head and another place to revisit some time in the future!


Next Stop; Nurburgring Via Geilerlay Suspension bridge

This, what would be our penultimate European journey started as normal, early rise for us for a 4/5 hour journey. Everything as normal, crushing heat, frantic Autobahn, drinking hot water from a bottle… then just before Karlsruhe, traffic. Gridlock traffic as far as the eye could see (Pretty far )

and so sat there idling in the late morning sun, you can probably guess where this is going next.

Overheat number 3. Managed to muscle my way onto the hard shoulder much to the disgust of some lorry drivers and once again killed it dead with the temperature gauge creeping up fast. I opened the bonnet to be greeted by the now familiar sight of coolant boiling up into the expansion tank and out the overflow, only this time something was different….

The Fan wasn’t on! Which seemed odd given the immense heat (33 Degrees that morning) a quick fiddle with the thermostat temp sender wire and it kicked back into life and stayed on for pretty much the rest of the journey. I pulled the sensor wires and cleaned them off with a bit of acetone to make sure and that was that. Not had even a slight problem with overheating since. I’m guessing I knocked the sender when messing around with that bloody thermostat.


First stop on the way up was the Geirley Suspension Bridge. I hadn’t even heard of it before this trip but I’m glad we went. Its 360 metres above ground at its’ highest point! I managed a full across one way and back. Sarah Managed a quarter…

https://1drv.ms/v/s!AvTrTEy-AT0giS6bLSgvdc-YQNOx (Video)







And finally, we were off up to the fabled Nurburgring. I’d already cocked this one up to be honest – I’ve never been to the ring and the idea of a quick tourist lap on the way home was just too good to pass up. I’d checked to see if there were any events on the day/evening we arrived and there wasn’t so I presumed it would be open. Nope.

The ring calendar on the website showed “Closed” for the whole day and that day only with no indication of why. Turns out some cowboy outfit by the name of “Porsche” were there testing for some pie in the sky record lap attempt a couple days later or something?





Never mind. Just to be there was enough at this point and I know I’ll be back.

The roads around that part of the country are pretty spectacular too, and completely deserted which made up for it.





Our accommodation was the Aptly named “Speedy’s Guesthouse” which was honestly the nicest place we stayed the whole time in terms of the apartment itself. It was also the cheapest so I know where I’ll be going next year!





Next Stop; Dinant (Belgium)

Truth be told, today’s drive was another easy one even though I was still paranoid about my overheating – Cooler temperature and more cloud cover meant less stress/sweat in the morning at least

(Needs must!)

It was however slightly marred with a tinge of sadness – Dinant was to be our last destination before ferrying home after 2 odd weeks on the road. Still, it was a fitting place to be for (What we thought) would be our last night “on Holiday”. We even went to a big screen showing of the Belgium/England game in the square – save for a few Aussies we were stood near the was nothing but Belgian flags in sight. Was a great Atmosphere though and quite a fitting end.









https://1drv.ms/v/s!AvTrTEy-AT0giWp0Gjc7c6VZgHtz (Video)

Final Stop; Glossop (Via Cambridge)

Another early start for the long final leg home. It was actually cold enough that morning to warrant keeping the roof up weirdly enough.




The crossing at Calais was nicely uneventful, as was setting off on the other side and getting used to driving on the left again!


The heat though. Good lord it was rough. Sat nav decided it was going to take us bang through the middle of London too due to traffic and accidents on the M20/M25. The Blackwater tunnel was particularly horrendous, still paranoid about my car overheating sat in gridlock traffic for hour upon hour (It Didn’t by the way, and hasn’t since)



come 5pm ish I’d been driving for nearly 12 hours including the crossing and I was goosed. We overpaid to stay in a little Travelodge outside Cambridge and went for a wander into the country for what would Actually be our last night “On Holiday”



Another 4:30am start after an early night meant we were home for 7am, car, driver and passenger in one piece (if a little tired!) 3500+ miles later!




The map isn't entirely accurate but it gives you an idea.

As for the car, it’s fulfilled it’s purpose but I’m 99% sure I won’t be selling it and time soon, it’s amazing how attached one can grow once you’ve completed a trip like this, so it will stay on the road over the summer months then I’ll garage it over winter for a new clutch, possibly a new diff too we’ll see.

Rest of the photos; https://1drv.ms/f/s!AvTrTEy-AT0giD62nJBKv3eCRMZ_

@whydoyousnakemeup if you're mobular and on the 'Gram

Well done if you’ve read this far in and thanks for your time. Sorry if i've broken any rules and sorry that some of my photos are on the piss too. A coder i am not!

Edited by Amebix on Friday 27th July 16:24

[Rawwr]

I don't want to gush too much but this is exactly the bare essence of fun and interesting motoring. It all looks fantastic

[Mafffew]

Looked like an absolute blast, well done

Thank you for sharing

[Ekona]

Brilliant thread, brilliant pics and brilliant read. Many thanks for posting that, sounds like a proper epic road trip

[IdiotRace]

This is the reason I've been troubleshooting all the leaks in my AC system! Really want to do something like this at some point this year, but I know I'll need working AC

[Kingdom35]

God I wish I was young again :-)
Fair play fella....living life to the max.

I need to get myself a mk1 MX5 :-)

[Amebix]

Thanks everyone, it really was fun. Although I will Admit there were some days I wish we’d been in something comfy with long gearing and air conditioning (like my big old dumb Avensis) I know full well I’d have regretted it.

Although yes, if your old MX5 still has the capacity for AC, spend the time sorting it rather than ripping it out like an impatient savage!

Edited by Amebix on Friday 27th July 15:45

Edited by Amebix on Friday 27th July 15:50

[bomb]

Superb read, and great pictures too. we have done very similar trips in our TVR's over a number of years. Had a blast each time. I fully understand the eye on the temp gauge all the time ! And.....the excessive heat too, in the cockpit. I feel a road trip coming on.....

[Kieranv]

Excellent!

Reminds me of the trip I did a few years back in my Eunos which I purchased for £450 2 months before the trip.

I think the only place we stayed in which you also visited was Interlaken, I love that place!

Makes me want to plan another trip now....

[snoopy25]

Fantastic thread!!

Love reading about euro trips like this!

[HorneyMX5]

What an awesome thread, cheers for taking the time to write it up.

[Leon R]

Just finished reading this, thoroughly enjoyed your write up from start to finish.

Great stuff.

[Amebix]

Cheers again guys.

Believe me when I say that there is nothing detailed in this thread that I found more difficult than actually writing this in forum format with embedded pictures etc. I’m in my late 20’s and I’ve never actually owned a computer, so this too was a learning exercise

[Tickle]

Fantastic, great write-up!

[twizellb]

What a fantastic write up and a great road trip, you'll remember it all your life.
Have done most of the places myself in different cars, hats off for going in the mx5 too.
Camping and the mx5 is a young mans game though

[watchnut]

Thanks for sharing that with us, I have just done a week in the north of Ireland/Donegal in my MX5....also great MX5 driving and wish we had longer Ireland also worth a trip!

I am also planning a 6 month trip in our "5" around Europe when the wife retires in a couple of years.....and those phot's have confirmed it will be done!

cheers

[DippedHeadlights]

Brilliant.

And thanks.

Currently planning a similar trip in our 1991 Eunos - which doesn't have a noisy exhaust and even has working aircon.

This shows it is very possible and very fun. Also thinking of a loop down through France, Cham, tunnel, Italian lakes then back via Austria and Germany.

I think key is bounce between AirBnBs and try not to do more than a couple of hundred miles in a day.

D

[lost in espace]

Thanks for posting!

[WJNB]

You get the prize for the best PH posting I have ever head.
Whatever happens in your life you will always remember that trip.
But what REALLY got me was that in the late 1950's my Mum & Dad took me in their little Hillman family saloon to all the places you visited.
On a budget with little money being allowed to be taken out of the country Mum & Dad slept in the car & I in a tent.
I'm pretty sure the Stelvio was not paved & all the passes were without tolls. In those days it was a huge adventure & the sight of another British car sporting a GB badge gave rise to much waving & hooting of horns.
Now I'm going to read your report & admire the photographs again.
Thank you.

[Amebix]

WJNB said:

You get the prize for the best PH posting I have ever head.
Whatever happens in your life you will always remember that trip.
But what REALLY got me was that in the late 1950's my Mum & Dad took me in their little Hillman family saloon to all the places you visited.
On a budget with little money being allowed to be taken out of the country Mum & Dad slept in the car & I in a tent.
I'm pretty sure the Stelvio was not paved & all the passes were without tolls. In those days it was a huge adventure & the sight of another British car sporting a GB badge gave rise to much waving & hooting of horns.
Now I'm going to read your report & admire the photographs again.
Thank you.

Thank you in turn mate, humbling words!

That sounds like a proper adventure, what a time to have done it in, credit to your parents