993 on her hols

[Wozy68]

Just loading her up.

Leaving at 4PM today, meeting two other guys at Portsmouth later, ferry leaves for France at 8.15

Arrive around 8AM in St Malo tomorrow morning
Drive down through France arriving Vielha (Spain) around 6PM Friday evening.
THEN ..... Four days based in Vielha racing, ahem driving around the Pyrenees

One night in Logronno

A whole day in the Pictos De Europa taking the N621 from Leon to Riano and on to Santander for the ferry back to Plymouth in the evening.


Full service .. Check
New suspension installed .. Check
RS short shifter installed ... Check
Car fuelled .. Check
Ferry ticket .. Check
Passport .. Check

Jobs a good un, and just what a 911 was built for. Happy days.

[jackal]

wonderful .. have a fab time


fancy going back to the pyrenees and cevennes next year myself

[Solarized]

Looking great.
Have a blast

[Orangecurry]

Close the bonnet before you set off.

Enjoy. Your route sounds like massive fun.

I'm prepping mine for Le Mans tomorrow, taking my two sons.

This is my idea of 'fun'....

[V8KSN]

Good man!

As a side note, make sure your insurance is covering you for driving abroad and if you dont have it already, get some European breakdown cover, its relatively cheap and saves a lot of hassle!

Most of all, enjoy yourself, those roads are awesome!

[nurburgring1]

Sounds like a great trip, the mainland european roads are fantastic, a lot are so much quieter than Britain. We have been in Italy for the past week in our 3.2, heading back into France tomorrow for a couple of days, before heading home.

[PBLP]

Orangecurry said:

Close the bonnet before you set off.

Looks like some great driving roads, enjoy

[mollytherocker]

This is what its about. Enjoy!

[Crimp a Length!]

Spot on enjoy and drive bloody safe chap

[Wozy68]

I'm back

2400 miles, a lot of mountain passes and Cols, temperatures varying between 6 and 38 degrees. (lucky I had the aircon fixed)

Problems?
A little over half a litre of oil used and the unlocking function of the aftermarket key fob packed in so I had to use the key.
Not bad for a 20 year old car with now 127k on the clock.

If you take your 993 over the Pyrenees, remember this. I stopped over thinking and ended up with this simple formula for very quick driving that worked for 99% of the time.
2nd and third only, up the twisties, 3rd and 4th on the way down.
She handled and coped far better than I expected, I hadn't driven a 911 around the mountains before.

Absolutely fantastic time was had. New suspension (FSDs and M033 springs) worked beautifully, if a little bouncy on occasion on the more underlating roads

Edited by Wozy68 on Thursday 10th July 21:10

[PTT]

Pics, or it didn't happen

[nurburgring1]

A little over half a litre of oil, I think that's very good.

[Orangecurry]

PTT said:

Pics, or it didn't happen

Yeah - I bet he stayed at home and is just... fibbing.

I put MY photo up....

[Wozy68]

Orangecurry said:

PTT said:

Pics, or it didn't happen

Yeah - I bet he stayed at home and is just... fibbing.

I put MY photo up....

Ill have to admit it didn't happen then as I don't think I have one pic of my 911 on the trip

One last thing. BUY the RS shortshifter. Best £90 upgrade available. Bloody fantastic mod, and for me at least, it being taller than the standard shift makes the 993 better/easier/quicker to drive.

[Big E 118]

Sounds great! Hope you had better weather than we did in Le Mans.

What were the best roads around Vielha? We're heading down in September and spending 3 days based in Sort (coming from the Med coast) and plan on heading up to Vielha and into France on one of the days. We're then going along the rest of the N260 and stopping in Pamplona.

[Wozy68]

Big E 118 said:

Sounds great! Hope you had better weather than we did in Le Mans.

What were the best roads around Vielha? We're heading down in September and spending 3 days based in Sort (coming from the Med coast) and plan on heading up to Vielha and into France on one of the days. We're then going along the rest of the N260 and stopping in Pamplona.

Adrall to Sort which I'm guessing your coming in on is a great road. Sort to Vielha C13/C28 is a must. For a nice circular route then head south (We stay out of France, unless heading west towards our next stopover). From Vielha on the N230, picking up the N260 at Les Bordes, head east for about three miles and then head south on the A-1605. This is a lovely well tarmaced yet in places narrow road but excellent, just watch out for the bends in the tunnels. From there take the N123A to the N123, head east onto the N230 to El Pont de Suert and then N260 back to Sort. ...... this is a lovely route.

I have always been a great fan of the N-260, however one of the prettist parts was also the worse for tarmac when we were there this time. I'm amazed the road could fall apart so quickly. Its the N-260 section from Les Bordes to Campo, not fun and we turned off. However if you take it easy it is lovely scenery.

Roads of the trip that really stand out this time were
C-1412b Tremp to Isona and from there L-511 on to Coll de Nargo ..... epic road
L-401 east from Coll de Nargo east becoming the LV 4241 to Berga ..... very very narrow and windy, but beautiful, challenging, not a fast fast road but lots of hairpins and keep your wits about you.

We stay in Logronno from Vileha so head a bit more west than you. However to get there we take the following roads

From Vielha over the mountain to Luchon N-141, from there the D168 to Arreau, from there D918 to Saint Marie de Campan and over the Col de Tormalet.

From Argeles Gazost we carry on the D918 over the Col d'Azun taking in this road

Taken from the window of my 911 ... Zoom in to see the road, its very 'challenging' in places


From there D918 to Laruns then south into Spain for Biescas, then Jaca etc etc.

Parts of the above route sees some lovely scenary and is part of the Tour de France.

Have a great trip.

Edited by Wozy68 on Friday 11th July 14:26