Discussion
Next day was continuing East up the N260, over the border again to the Spanish exclave of Llívia for lunch. The next two sections of the N260 was just as great but a bit busier and with loads of motorcycles. After an appropriate length of time to warm the fluids after quite a cold morning we were right up it!
We turned off that up to the border which was a bit crap. We made it to the lunch place I'd identified just before opening - a cheese maker with a scenic restaurant. Sadly it seems we should have booked for Sunday lunch so back across the border we went!
https://goo.gl/maps/pLkrGqCxDtDH1CFq5
Back down South and then onto a road called...the N260. Tight and with a bit of slow car traffic but pretty we found a mahousive tour bus which slowed us to a crawl for the last few Kms. We were supposed to stop at a garden designed by Gaudi in a town called Lillet but it seems (after a 700m walk in the sun) I'd done a generally pretty s
t job of organising this day and it was shut for siesta! Gruntlement levels were fairly low and the walk back down the hill came with some mild discussions regarding how fault need not be attributable to any single one person. But back into town we lucked onto a fantastic restaurant for lunch to restore spirits.
After lunch we were onto a road I'd found on a TV show or on PH somewhere called the B402. And honestly it was a bit much! 30kms of constant really tight 2nd gear corners, skinny lanes and no sight lines after a big lunch left us both calling time by the end. There were no pull in zones either so we didn't get any pics!
After that we were supposed to take the older N260a but it looked like more of the same so we wussed out, I handed over control and we took the wider N260 into Olot. And so ends the mountain portion of our trip.
Olot was a nice town and possibly worth more than one night, certainly if the majority of your time is spent washing. They do take this whole Catalan thing really seriously though (I don't think I've ever seen menus written in it before) and there were loads of murals, graffiti and yellow ribbons everywhere. Catexit could be a thing...
We turned off that up to the border which was a bit crap. We made it to the lunch place I'd identified just before opening - a cheese maker with a scenic restaurant. Sadly it seems we should have booked for Sunday lunch so back across the border we went!
https://goo.gl/maps/pLkrGqCxDtDH1CFq5
Back down South and then onto a road called...the N260. Tight and with a bit of slow car traffic but pretty we found a mahousive tour bus which slowed us to a crawl for the last few Kms. We were supposed to stop at a garden designed by Gaudi in a town called Lillet but it seems (after a 700m walk in the sun) I'd done a generally pretty s
t job of organising this day and it was shut for siesta! Gruntlement levels were fairly low and the walk back down the hill came with some mild discussions regarding how fault need not be attributable to any single one person. But back into town we lucked onto a fantastic restaurant for lunch to restore spirits. After lunch we were onto a road I'd found on a TV show or on PH somewhere called the B402. And honestly it was a bit much! 30kms of constant really tight 2nd gear corners, skinny lanes and no sight lines after a big lunch left us both calling time by the end. There were no pull in zones either so we didn't get any pics!
After that we were supposed to take the older N260a but it looked like more of the same so we wussed out, I handed over control and we took the wider N260 into Olot. And so ends the mountain portion of our trip.
Olot was a nice town and possibly worth more than one night, certainly if the majority of your time is spent washing. They do take this whole Catalan thing really seriously though (I don't think I've ever seen menus written in it before) and there were loads of murals, graffiti and yellow ribbons everywhere. Catexit could be a thing...
Edited by seefarr on Tuesday 19th October 17:01
Edited by seefarr on Tuesday 19th October 17:05
Edited by seefarr on Tuesday 19th October 17:19
Drove a Mk1 R8 manual years back when I went to collect my first S3. Absolutely sublime cars and very underrated/done down by large swathes of motoring enthusiasts who don’t actually have a clue about them.
Very entertaining write-up and some great trips!
I’m based in Surrey too, have a fairly quick Golf and do like a good b-road blat so if you fancy a drive out give me a shout. Also, if your “back roads to Sevenoaks” route is the same one as mine, then yes it’s a belter!
Very entertaining write-up and some great trips!
I’m based in Surrey too, have a fairly quick Golf and do like a good b-road blat so if you fancy a drive out give me a shout. Also, if your “back roads to Sevenoaks” route is the same one as mine, then yes it’s a belter!
Cheers guys. If I feel like being embarrassed by a Golf I'll give you a bell! 
Next day was our biggest distance to cover to get to the next place and should have been a 4:20 motorway schlep to Zaragoza. But what's an hour's detour between friends?
https://goo.gl/maps/hG5cmW7RM7JQ5pfH8
So off to the Montsec ranges for some gorges and lakes. The Beautiful Blonde Ballast kindly offered to do the boring bit at the start and handed over control just at the start of the C1412b. What a girl! And what a road that turned out to be! You're probably bored of me ticking them off
but after so long driving in Britain finding yet another perfect tarmac, empty, beautiful scenery road stacked with lovely 3rd gear corners is still not getting old for me.
We turned off that onto the reason for the detour, the C13 and it was just as good a road, prettier than before with a little more traffic but not crazy. And so many views, the road ran along side a series of dams and down canyons.
The missus proclaimed it her favourite road of the trip! We stopped at the next random town for lunch and after that I selected "no tolls" on the satnav and pointed at Zaragoza. The satnav took us straight to a toll booth! Much swearing
but no tickets to collect and a Google led us to understand it had been turned from a toll road to free the month before - result!
We had two night in Zaragoza and loved it - loads of little bars and restaurants in the old town and some great stuff to see. We missed out on seeing a fair bit so we'll have to go back.
Next day was our biggest distance to cover to get to the next place and should have been a 4:20 motorway schlep to Zaragoza. But what's an hour's detour between friends?
https://goo.gl/maps/hG5cmW7RM7JQ5pfH8
So off to the Montsec ranges for some gorges and lakes. The Beautiful Blonde Ballast kindly offered to do the boring bit at the start and handed over control just at the start of the C1412b. What a girl! And what a road that turned out to be! You're probably bored of me ticking them off
but after so long driving in Britain finding yet another perfect tarmac, empty, beautiful scenery road stacked with lovely 3rd gear corners is still not getting old for me.We turned off that onto the reason for the detour, the C13 and it was just as good a road, prettier than before with a little more traffic but not crazy. And so many views, the road ran along side a series of dams and down canyons.
The missus proclaimed it her favourite road of the trip! We stopped at the next random town for lunch and after that I selected "no tolls" on the satnav and pointed at Zaragoza. The satnav took us straight to a toll booth! Much swearing
but no tickets to collect and a Google led us to understand it had been turned from a toll road to free the month before - result!We had two night in Zaragoza and loved it - loads of little bars and restaurants in the old town and some great stuff to see. We missed out on seeing a fair bit so we'll have to go back.
From Zaragoza we had a schlep down to Albarracin but we stopped on the way to do a walk and look at some cave paintings. It was quite warm in the sun so we were pretty sweaty when we got back to the air conditioned car. A 45 minute drive down some more windy roads was a great way to cool off. The country is really getting its Autumn on now and mixed in with the conifers were these lovely deciduous trees going full on gold.
Altitude and NA cars gets mentioned a lot but I guess I've never driven a non-turbo car at altitude before. We were constantly over 1000m the last few days and over 2000m I really noticed the power drop - as much as 20% if you believe the Internet. On the way into Albarracin I turned out of a t-junction behind some little SUV thing I'd been stuck behind for the last few Kms and pulled into the outside lane to over take at a clear spot. I short shifted into 2nd as he'd been doing granny speed but he obviously clocked me overtaking and decided to boot it. Between his auto turbo at full go and my lazy shifting at altitude I actually only squeaked the overtake but honestly, what a bell end!
We arrived into town all good (twisty, good roads down a gorge, windows down, V8 thunder bouncing off cliffs, BORING!), checked in with lots of questions and compliments on the car from the hotel staff. We went up the steep hillside to try to find a beer to congratulate ourselves for the walk but sadly a few coaches of tourists were in town and every bar, restaurant, cafeteria and tabac was full with waiters shooing us out. We ended up drinking a can in the park like hobos:
Altitude and NA cars gets mentioned a lot but I guess I've never driven a non-turbo car at altitude before. We were constantly over 1000m the last few days and over 2000m I really noticed the power drop - as much as 20% if you believe the Internet. On the way into Albarracin I turned out of a t-junction behind some little SUV thing I'd been stuck behind for the last few Kms and pulled into the outside lane to over take at a clear spot. I short shifted into 2nd as he'd been doing granny speed but he obviously clocked me overtaking and decided to boot it. Between his auto turbo at full go and my lazy shifting at altitude I actually only squeaked the overtake but honestly, what a bell end!
We arrived into town all good (twisty, good roads down a gorge, windows down, V8 thunder bouncing off cliffs, BORING!), checked in with lots of questions and compliments on the car from the hotel staff. We went up the steep hillside to try to find a beer to congratulate ourselves for the walk but sadly a few coaches of tourists were in town and every bar, restaurant, cafeteria and tabac was full with waiters shooing us out. We ended up drinking a can in the park like hobos:
Edited by seefarr on Sunday 24th October 09:12
Albarracin is a beautiful town and you should go but probably out of season with less tour groups. And book a restaurant.
Anywho, birthday the next day so I had 75kms of windy road plotted in, a stop at a monastery and onwards to Soria. Timing was tight for the monastery visit so we had to get a wriggle on. Sadly the satnav ducked when it should have weaved and we only got 15kms of nice road before it chucked us out on the motorways and it was too late by the time I'd figured it out to turn around.
Day went well though, we stopped off at a charming village called Mediacelli for lunch in a great restaurant then we ticked off a Michelin star restaurant in Soria for dinner as the only customers
. They didn't do a matching wine tasting but the waiter managed to match 5 different wines anyway - what a guy!
We were up bright eyed and bushy tailed (kind of) for another drive onto our final stop of Burgos.
https://goo.gl/maps/5myh4S4TvU9kohWU6
I'd plotted a stop up the top of a mountain with a great view. The drive there was great, the view was underwhelming.
Back down the hill to go see a famous lake (Laguna Negra) and the drive through the National Park to get there was super pretty. We parked up like all the other tourists but with a couple of nods of appreciation from other guys. And the lake was really pretty.
Then some 3rd gear corners interspersed with sleepy villages and lots of stares took us to Burgos and sadly that's the last of the nice drives!
Burgos is stack full of the tiniest of tiny little parking garages and all our research before hand couldn't find a good answer. We've done amazingly well with decent car parks throughout the whole trip though so it was bound to happen once. We went down the main underground car park which had reviews saying things like "tight ramps but good size parks". They lied about the parks but the ramps were a bit of a breath in, 3 point turn sort of affair. Despite being quite steep the R8 didn't kiss the front coming down. On the line is in, right?
Anywho, birthday the next day so I had 75kms of windy road plotted in, a stop at a monastery and onwards to Soria. Timing was tight for the monastery visit so we had to get a wriggle on. Sadly the satnav ducked when it should have weaved and we only got 15kms of nice road before it chucked us out on the motorways and it was too late by the time I'd figured it out to turn around.
Day went well though, we stopped off at a charming village called Mediacelli for lunch in a great restaurant then we ticked off a Michelin star restaurant in Soria for dinner as the only customers
. They didn't do a matching wine tasting but the waiter managed to match 5 different wines anyway - what a guy!We were up bright eyed and bushy tailed (kind of) for another drive onto our final stop of Burgos.
https://goo.gl/maps/5myh4S4TvU9kohWU6
I'd plotted a stop up the top of a mountain with a great view. The drive there was great, the view was underwhelming.
Back down the hill to go see a famous lake (Laguna Negra) and the drive through the National Park to get there was super pretty. We parked up like all the other tourists but with a couple of nods of appreciation from other guys. And the lake was really pretty.
Then some 3rd gear corners interspersed with sleepy villages and lots of stares took us to Burgos and sadly that's the last of the nice drives!
Burgos is stack full of the tiniest of tiny little parking garages and all our research before hand couldn't find a good answer. We've done amazingly well with decent car parks throughout the whole trip though so it was bound to happen once. We went down the main underground car park which had reviews saying things like "tight ramps but good size parks". They lied about the parks but the ramps were a bit of a breath in, 3 point turn sort of affair. Despite being quite steep the R8 didn't kiss the front coming down. On the line is in, right?
Edited by seefarr on Sunday 24th October 10:03
I realised I didn't finish this one up so here goes.
Burgos is rightly famous for it's black pudding (morcilla) and we had a tapa of it for lunch and dinner both days we were in town! Onwards for a a toll road schlep to the ferry back at Bilbao. The only interesting thing was a minivan who pulled out camera phones when we overtook them which was fine. What was not fine was them randomly speeding up another 20kph to overtake us as we were coming up to the back of a truck doing 80kph up a hill.
Why?
The ferry was fairly uneventful - we were placed on what was quickly christened the Donkey-Deck in front of a couple of Fezzas and behind a lovely '65 Mustang that was in the ferry over with us. The missus did not get sick this time as well so we'll call it a once-off.
Waiting to get back in our cars we struck up a conversation with the Mustang couple and had a good old chat whilst we waited. He had a bunch of classic cars with the earliest being 1925 and the Mustang his newest.
So that's it! What did we achieve?
Despite that it was another super adventure in an amazing car!
Burgos is rightly famous for it's black pudding (morcilla) and we had a tapa of it for lunch and dinner both days we were in town! Onwards for a a toll road schlep to the ferry back at Bilbao. The only interesting thing was a minivan who pulled out camera phones when we overtook them which was fine. What was not fine was them randomly speeding up another 20kph to overtake us as we were coming up to the back of a truck doing 80kph up a hill.
Why?The ferry was fairly uneventful - we were placed on what was quickly christened the Donkey-Deck in front of a couple of Fezzas and behind a lovely '65 Mustang that was in the ferry over with us. The missus did not get sick this time as well so we'll call it a once-off.
Waiting to get back in our cars we struck up a conversation with the Mustang couple and had a good old chat whilst we waited. He had a bunch of classic cars with the earliest being 1925 and the Mustang his newest.
So that's it! What did we achieve?
- 2700km of wonderful Spanish tarmac. This really is the promised land of roads and I'm seriously thinking about booking it in every year. I just can't imagine Switzerland/Northern Italy/Austria being this empty and amazing.
- The burning of all the fuel in Spain (avg. 21mpg) and the deaths of all the bugs in Spain.
- Two extra inches added to our collective waistlines. The food in Spain is my absolute favourite European cuisine, no matter if it's Michelin starred or dodgy looking back street cafe. And the booze is cheap and plentiful.
- Some very dirty carpets. I guess there must have been a diesel or fuel-oil spill on our deck of the ferry so the whole time we were stood chatting we were working this into our shoes.
Let''s hope that's not permanent staining but I guess worst case I can order some more from Audi.
- A couple of extra scratches in the tiny car parks perhaps because of Spain's relaxed attitude to park-by-feel.
- But the worst is a thumb sized dent I've picked up on the scuttle panel behind the driver's door - I think this was pulling back onto the road from one of the ubiquitous mountain-side stops and I heard a clunk as we came up over the edge.
Despite that it was another super adventure in an amazing car!
No updates for 6 months which I guess is because there's not much to say! I had the joy of a detached retina diagnosed and operated in late December so I was not driving anywhere for the next two months. No lasting damage from that or the dose of the deadlies I got soon after but I can heartily recommend avoiding both.
The R8 was due a service in March and what with the spectacularly rubbish service we'd had from the main dealer I booked in with RE Performance in Swindon. It was a two hour drive out which was ok and when I got there I met Ricky. I asked him to take a look at the leak I had that was dripping on the rear parcel shelf. He came out to take a look and luckily there were some new drips on top of the carpet, which showed that water was dripping down from from the window rather than down under the carpet. That just needed the rear high level brake light replaced and all is well.
I also asked Ricky to take a look at the rear wishbones that were replaced on the last service. Early V8 wishbones are no longer made and if they need replacing (which they did on the last service) then you might have to replace all the rear suspension with V10 gear. My worry was that they'd somehow managed to cram the later V10 wishbones on early V8 suspension but Ricky confirmed all was well there too which was a relief. Not sure if it's all V10 back there or they somehow managed to source the last V8 wishbones in existence but it's in good health.
Ricky is a deadset legend too - down to earth, knowledgeable and trust worthy. It's no wonder he has such a good name, it's just such a shame Swindon is so furkin far away.
Nothing else much to report in the service. Ricky's place is an amazing place though - he had three V10 cars in various states of undress getting twin turbo treatments. And that's ignoring the awesomeness of the Dodge.
And a casual new V10 block lurking in the corner ready for a full forged turbo build.
Besides that the R8 hasn't really had any days out besides the occasional trip to country pubs (including a couple of miraculously empty roads) and a trip up to Norfolk to visit the out laws. On the way back from the service I had to put £120 worth of fuel in it but it's all worth it to feed that V8!
The R8 was due a service in March and what with the spectacularly rubbish service we'd had from the main dealer I booked in with RE Performance in Swindon. It was a two hour drive out which was ok and when I got there I met Ricky. I asked him to take a look at the leak I had that was dripping on the rear parcel shelf. He came out to take a look and luckily there were some new drips on top of the carpet, which showed that water was dripping down from from the window rather than down under the carpet. That just needed the rear high level brake light replaced and all is well.
I also asked Ricky to take a look at the rear wishbones that were replaced on the last service. Early V8 wishbones are no longer made and if they need replacing (which they did on the last service) then you might have to replace all the rear suspension with V10 gear. My worry was that they'd somehow managed to cram the later V10 wishbones on early V8 suspension but Ricky confirmed all was well there too which was a relief. Not sure if it's all V10 back there or they somehow managed to source the last V8 wishbones in existence but it's in good health.
Ricky is a deadset legend too - down to earth, knowledgeable and trust worthy. It's no wonder he has such a good name, it's just such a shame Swindon is so furkin far away.
Nothing else much to report in the service. Ricky's place is an amazing place though - he had three V10 cars in various states of undress getting twin turbo treatments. And that's ignoring the awesomeness of the Dodge.
And a casual new V10 block lurking in the corner ready for a full forged turbo build.
Besides that the R8 hasn't really had any days out besides the occasional trip to country pubs (including a couple of miraculously empty roads) and a trip up to Norfolk to visit the out laws. On the way back from the service I had to put £120 worth of fuel in it but it's all worth it to feed that V8!
We went for (surprise) a drive to a pub on Friday. We had a lovely C3 Corvette go past at 95+ but the R8 felt a little flighty on the motorway. When we got to the pub we discovered we had a flat rear tyre - no idea why the tyre pressure monitoring system that I believe is standard didn't have anything to say about it but it was dead flat when we pulled up. We got the included pump out of the frunk and gave it a pump up before we went in to eat.
I didn't waste the sealant that's also included because the tyre was looking... A little second hand.
During lunch we reflected on how close we had come to disaster but it stayed pumped up and we drove home on the B roads at <40mph which was fine.
I started checking t'interwebs on Saturday but it turns out you can't buy a 295/30/19 Michelin PS4S for love nor money, which was a touch disappointing having replaced all 4 last year. Luckily a local backyard tyre guy round the corner had.... one tyre left so £319 later and we're back in the game.
I didn't waste the sealant that's also included because the tyre was looking... A little second hand.
During lunch we reflected on how close we had come to disaster but it stayed pumped up and we drove home on the B roads at <40mph which was fine.
I started checking t'interwebs on Saturday but it turns out you can't buy a 295/30/19 Michelin PS4S for love nor money, which was a touch disappointing having replaced all 4 last year. Luckily a local backyard tyre guy round the corner had.... one tyre left so £319 later and we're back in the game.
easy_rider33 said:
Some cracking photos since I last checked the thread, as said previously, you can't have enough photos of an R8 on a mountain road!
I hope to do something similar soon.
Thank you! I've been thinking about what trip to do this year to find a few roads too... I'm finding it hard to pass up another trip to Spain. The ferry is expensive but it's a night's accom and food and drink are cheap once you're there is how I'm convincing myself!I hope to do something similar soon.
roadie said:
Cracking thread and great to see you use the car hard like it is meant to be.
£320 for one tyre is pretty galling!
Yeah it was a lot for one tyre but it was less than two tyres of something else.... and then I'm not sure I'd be happy with different brands front and back in a 4wd car. I could go up to 305s on the back, but they're showing as £335 a tyre for MPS4S now too!£320 for one tyre is pretty galling!
Shnozz said:
I am more surprised that a Corvette C3 could manage 95mph! Beautiful cars (I am after one myself) but many seem rather underpowered!
I don't think I could distinguish between a small and big block by ear but it sounded pretty healthy when he gave it a squirt going past. He pulled off at the next intersection so I repaid the favour by changing down to third and giving him the gift of V8 at 8250rpm. 
This week saw us out in Somerset for a wedding. We stayed a few days in a big AirBnB with some mates just near Cheddar with a steeeeeep lane to get get up to it - the Audi was three wheeling round the turn but Quattro got us up the hill as it shuffled power around. We had just a kiss of scraping up and down (as did our mate's Fiat 500) which is a testament to how usable the car is.
We went up to Cheddar on Sunday at 10am but everything opened at 10:30am so not much to see but a nice gorge with some goats to spot up high and a strangely empty road....so next morning I was up and out at the crack of dawn (8:45). I'd read a few threads on here with people saying the Cheddar Gorge road is always busy with walkers and rubber-necking tourists but it was dead at 9am!
Building speed with the V8 in 2nd echoing off the walls, I only saw one other car coming in the other direction and a couple of campervans parked up on the side. And the goats. The goats had come down from up on high and were all hanging out next to and in some cases lying on the road which added a certain extra level of excitement. I caught up to another car once out of the gorge proper but the patented Seefarr "wait on a straight until another car comes up behind you" got me plenty of clear lovely road. Lunges up into third up this two lane B road were a memorable "jeeze this thing is quick" reminder.
At some point I started running into a lot more traffic and although I had a route planned out, I just turned round and went back the way I'd come for more gorge fun. Coming down the hill working the brakes and running in 2nd just for the shear noisy brilliance, windows down and Green Lung rocking on the stereo whilst goat dodging. I parked up at the bottom for a couple of pics (handbrake off!), the car happily ticking away and I was completely wired.
A couple of people at the wedding asked what I'd get next but I just can't think I'd ever sell it!
On the way back from the wedding the next day we had the cruise control set at warp factor in the outside lane, singing along to Crowded House when a BMW X5 suddenly appeared just off our back bumper. So we slowed down and moved over to the middle lane so he could go past but he just pulled up level with us. I looked over and saw a uniformed man with a radio on his arm giving the slow-down gesture.....bummer. He crawled past, gave a flash of the blues and just when I thought he'd be pulling us over he rocketed off!
We went up to Cheddar on Sunday at 10am but everything opened at 10:30am so not much to see but a nice gorge with some goats to spot up high and a strangely empty road....so next morning I was up and out at the crack of dawn (8:45). I'd read a few threads on here with people saying the Cheddar Gorge road is always busy with walkers and rubber-necking tourists but it was dead at 9am!
Building speed with the V8 in 2nd echoing off the walls, I only saw one other car coming in the other direction and a couple of campervans parked up on the side. And the goats. The goats had come down from up on high and were all hanging out next to and in some cases lying on the road which added a certain extra level of excitement. I caught up to another car once out of the gorge proper but the patented Seefarr "wait on a straight until another car comes up behind you" got me plenty of clear lovely road. Lunges up into third up this two lane B road were a memorable "jeeze this thing is quick" reminder.
At some point I started running into a lot more traffic and although I had a route planned out, I just turned round and went back the way I'd come for more gorge fun. Coming down the hill working the brakes and running in 2nd just for the shear noisy brilliance, windows down and Green Lung rocking on the stereo whilst goat dodging. I parked up at the bottom for a couple of pics (handbrake off!), the car happily ticking away and I was completely wired.
A couple of people at the wedding asked what I'd get next but I just can't think I'd ever sell it!
On the way back from the wedding the next day we had the cruise control set at warp factor in the outside lane, singing along to Crowded House when a BMW X5 suddenly appeared just off our back bumper. So we slowed down and moved over to the middle lane so he could go past but he just pulled up level with us. I looked over and saw a uniformed man with a radio on his arm giving the slow-down gesture.....bummer. He crawled past, gave a flash of the blues and just when I thought he'd be pulling us over he rocketed off!
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