The Brexit Grand Tour in an Ariel Nomad
Discussion
Ariel Nomad has been my Dream Car since I saw one first time on Pistonheads. I absolutely loved its quirkiness, the speed, how cool it looked and most importantly that it was just amazing on the road as it is on gravel rally stages in Wales. It was AWESOME!
My partner and I popped in to Ariel factory on the way to Cornwall once, had a good look around one Nomad and I loved it even more but then the penny dropped - the waiting list for one is minimum 18 months. Generally, I'm not the most patient person, but when it comes to car purchases, and especially DREAM CAR purchases, that was too much for me so we just left it at that. I've been watching the market ever since and I think only two popped up for sale within that time. Not in the right specification until that one day in April when I saw my future car. I went to test drive it and I had to have it. Since then I put about two thousands miles on it already, going on roadtrips to Cornwall and Wales, checking its top speed on the beach at Pendine Sands, driving children around for charity at the Top Gear track during The SuperCar Event and generally loving every minute of the ownership.
That's the car part, now for the trip:
We were supposed to drive to mongolia this summer. First, as a part of The mongol Rally, then we changed our minds and decided to go independently. I didn't like the limitations that mongol Rally organisers apply on participants plus few other things. Later I got the Nomad and of course I didn't want to leave the car for months without driving it. Unfortunately, due to its value I wouldn't want to risk taking it outside of EU without cover of my UK insurance. Hence, the idea of the european trip. Then, of course, as always with our plans, it snowballed and from going to few EU countries it developed into going to ALL EU countries.
We call it The Brexit Grand Tour - going to every country of the European Union in a car built in the UK. In a way, showing what amazing company is UK leaving... The best bits of EU in one roadtrip, visiting amazing places in an amazing car.
That's the story. Now it's time to get ready, as you can imagine it requires a lot of planning to go anywhere further in the Nomad, not even mentioning three months of transcontinental travel, carrying photo and video gear, etc.
The preparation:
We normally travel light. As in one shared suitcase for both of us for up to a week. But travelling in a Nomad for three months takes it to another level. Especially with video making and editing in mind. Cameras, big laptop, lenses, drone and so on and so on. And unfortunately even bigger issue than the lack of space is the security - you can’t really leave anything on the Nomad and go exploring.
I’ve tried putting a roofbox on it
but it looked ridiculous so had to go back to the drawing board.
I came up with the metal tool box idea but I also wanted to retain the spare wheel so had to completely redesign the carrier.
After lots of cutting, grinding, head scratching and some swearing the design was ready and a friendly welder finished the job for me.
In the Nomad you are very exposed to the elements - we’re ok with rain being well equipped in wet gear but heat is a big issue. More on that later…
We got sponsored a CeramicPro treatment by the London branch. It took them almost five days of very hard work taking the car apart, covering EVERYTHING in this nano-amazingness but the car looked brand new afterwards and hopefully it will be very well protected during a trip like this.
As for the route - there was a rough idea of visiting every country in the EU but that’s pretty much it. Playing it by ear is our usual modus operandi and we change plans all the time so there wasn’t even a point of creating anything too in depth.
Main thing - we wanted to have fun, create amazing memories and footage for people to see.
The trip:
Day 1 - London to Bruges to Nurburgring
We left at 5am after having about 3h sleep. The plan was to attend one of the turistenfahren at the Ring on the weekend, so we wouldn’t have to wait until the following week.
Early morning drives are always fun but I didn’t expect what I saw driving on M25: there was a guy in another Nomad heading for the Channel!
Ruta says she never saw me this excited, come on - it’s still my dream car, every petrolhead will get it! I’ve never actually seen another one on the road apart from mine so it was a big deal. Ruta got some photos and videos and after an enjoyable drive to Folkstone we got there 20min earlier than anticipated
. Unfortunately we’ve lost our Nomad friend at the gates…
Channel crossing was uneventful as they always are apart from Ruta figuring out that Nomad’s top cage is a great place for doing sit-ups.
And also for some impromptu swing lesson - Ruta’s great hobby. Apparently I’m not too bad at it but I still think it’s just a positive reinforcement so she’ll have a dance partner wherever she wants one.
After leaving Calais instead of staying on a motorway all the way to Bruges we got off it to explore some French and Belgian countryside. This is where Nomad always shines. B-roads are what it was made for, together with an occasional off roading. Normally this section is a really boring hour of driving but the country roads are actually very fun in the area.
Due to the open cockpit design I needed a waterproof satnav so bought a motorcycle TomTom Rider. What a revelation that was! After many years of trying to find interesting and fun roads wherever we go I only recently discovered that TomTom Rider has an option to Plan A Thrill where basically you choose how twisty and how hilly you want the fun route to be and sat nav will take to wherever you want to go, while having fun in process. Granted - it’s not for all cars since we ended up on some really questionable gravel roads but for the Nomad it’s amazing!
Bruges was pretty as usual - we actually much prefer it to Venice or Amsterdam. It has this very unique charm being touristy but still looking like people actually live there. Shopping is great, food is very good and unfortunately for Belgians but fortunately for us, it’s not as popular as it used to be due to bombings in Brussels, so it’s actually very pleasant in terms of crowds, being able to get a table in the restaurant etc, even in peak season.
We were pretty knackered after not getting much sleep the night before so we headed straight for the Ring after spending few hours in Bruges.
After a very hot motorway journey we got to Adenau - it’s time to introduce you to Nomad’s biggest design flaw:
It gets ridiculously hot in summer! The heat is much more of an issue than rain and cold. The hot air from the radiator and cooling pipes in front is being pushed through the center tunnel and out through the handbrake, the hydraulic brake and gearstick surrounds. It’s constantly blowing it with great force. I’ve had other cars which generated a lot of heat - after few hours on a track in my Corvette the carpet around the centre tunnel shrank so much that there’s still a gap. But Nomad is much worse - in other cars it’s just heat, not blowing hot air. And what’s even worse - the faster you go, the hotter it gets. So motorway driving in summer is very tiring. I’m working on a DIY solution to this problem but we’ll get to that later.
That was the end of day one. Tomorrow - Nurburgring.
Day 2 - Nurburgring
I love being there. Not just for the track but for the feeling of being surrounded only by like minded people. They just GET YOU. They understand your geekiness, they will get equally excited about your new tyres or the toaster that burns the shape of Nurburgring in your bread.
I have a great respect for the Ring. Like the one one has for the sea. It attracts me and scares me in an equal amount. I want to drive it fast but I also want to be able to get home afterwards and that’s the difficult balance to find.
Over the years I’ve driven the ring in the BMW 540, Z3M and the Corvette. Every one of them was different but I knew that doing it in a Nomad will be even more interesting.
Ruta was pretty afraid and when Ruta is afraid - that’s a big deal. In our relationship I’m the sensible one, she’s the risk taker. The only time that the roles reverse is when it comes to driving but I still often wonder how is she ok being a passenger on some of the roads we’ve driven. She says she trusts me and I would never abuse it.
We got to the ring pretty late after usual not being able to find correct car park when all signs and sat nav take you to the actual race track - one day I’ll learn. It was closed when we got there, somebody crashed and they had to remove the car. That was meant to be the story for the rest of the day.
For those of you who have never been to ring and plan your first trip - plan to give yourself maximum possible time to spend there. Aim for Sat early morning if you can if you have to be back on Sun. Very often track is closed for a long time due to accidents, weather can also ruin your travel plans. Earlier this year we drove there all the way in the Corvette just to be able to complete one lap in the car and two Ring Taxi ones before it started pouring with rain. And you don’t want to start your Nurburgring adventure in the rain! That’s why we also never go there during the week unless we’re in the area - too much risk of not being able to drive at all if the track is only open for few hours.
We chatted to some nice people, as always Nomad attracted a lot of attention. We filmed a bit in the carpark, plenty of interesting cars there. One guy drove a KTM X-Bow all the way from Spain and next to that Nomad looked VERY much like a Grand Tourer!
And then the track reopened and it was time for the lap. Since the car was already cold after standing for a while we went for a quick warm up drive - people normally don’t think about it but I strongly believe in warming myself up for a fast drive too. Not just the engine and the tyres. To put myself in the right mindframe of DRIVING FAST.
The laps are pretty expensive at 30 euro per lap but in my opinion it’s much better value for money than most of the trackdays in the UK. Silverstone or Brands Hatch are never below £200 and I’d much rather do 6-7 laps of the Ring.
When we got to the gate my heart sank - the guy who checks the cars said that removable steering wheels are not allowed!!! But he will let me do one lap as an exception...The only German not following “ordnung muss sein” mantra!
Nothing really prepares you for the attack on your senses that driving a Nomad on the Ring does. It’s normally loud but being surrounded and overtaken by many other very loud cars is something else. We didn’t bring helmets since there was no space for them at all so that magnified the experience. The car danced around corners and moved a lot under braking and acceleration but that’s what I like about driving it.
The lines I took were wrong most of the time, so time would have been crap, but it was more important for me to stay out of trouble and not slide into a wall or another car. Nomad is normally VERY tail happy and being on all terrain tyres doesn’t help while driving on the track. I glanced at Ruta few times and saw her squeezing the frame tightly. She was scared but enjoying it.
The Carousel is always our favorite section of the track. Nomad’s direct steering with no power assistance made it very twitchy and difficult to hold onto the line there but I made it. It was fun.
We finished the lap, got overtaken a lot but managed to overtake few. Another thing has been taken off my bucket list - I drove Ariel Nomad, MY Ariel Nomad on the Nurburgring. (green) Hell yeah!
Day 3 - Luxembourg
After leaving Ring area we headed towards Luxembourg. I’ve only been there once before and didn’t have any massive expectations but nevertheless it’s an EU country so we had to visit it.
On the way we decided to film a bit with the drone, I managed to clip a tree while following the Nomad but my Mavic is just as tough as my car so it survived without damage.
We also went on a little excursion in the forest since there were no signs against it. Had fun in the mud, staying on the tracks until we met a very unfriendly guy in a 4x4 who insisted on blocking us, taking photos and threatening calling the police. Oh well, we left him to it and carried on driving towards Luxembourg in a properly muddy MudNomad
We got caught by some serious rain on the way, however it really isn’t as bad as people think it is - if you’re going fast enough you don’t get wet at all. The only problem is when you stop
The rest of the day 1 and 2 in Luxembourg were spent catching up on editing photos and videos and also on enjoying some amazing roads. In the rain...a lot. Today, we’re heading for Holland. It's raining again
I hope you like me sharing it, we are on all social media as "MUDNOMAD" if you wish to follow our adventures.
I would love to hear from you if you have any unusual ideas on routes, places to visit and explore in the Nomad.
EDIT
Added links to episodes on YT:
1) London - Belgium - Germany - Luxembourg
2) Nurburgring
3) Holland and Denmark
My partner and I popped in to Ariel factory on the way to Cornwall once, had a good look around one Nomad and I loved it even more but then the penny dropped - the waiting list for one is minimum 18 months. Generally, I'm not the most patient person, but when it comes to car purchases, and especially DREAM CAR purchases, that was too much for me so we just left it at that. I've been watching the market ever since and I think only two popped up for sale within that time. Not in the right specification until that one day in April when I saw my future car. I went to test drive it and I had to have it. Since then I put about two thousands miles on it already, going on roadtrips to Cornwall and Wales, checking its top speed on the beach at Pendine Sands, driving children around for charity at the Top Gear track during The SuperCar Event and generally loving every minute of the ownership.
That's the car part, now for the trip:
We were supposed to drive to mongolia this summer. First, as a part of The mongol Rally, then we changed our minds and decided to go independently. I didn't like the limitations that mongol Rally organisers apply on participants plus few other things. Later I got the Nomad and of course I didn't want to leave the car for months without driving it. Unfortunately, due to its value I wouldn't want to risk taking it outside of EU without cover of my UK insurance. Hence, the idea of the european trip. Then, of course, as always with our plans, it snowballed and from going to few EU countries it developed into going to ALL EU countries.
We call it The Brexit Grand Tour - going to every country of the European Union in a car built in the UK. In a way, showing what amazing company is UK leaving... The best bits of EU in one roadtrip, visiting amazing places in an amazing car.
That's the story. Now it's time to get ready, as you can imagine it requires a lot of planning to go anywhere further in the Nomad, not even mentioning three months of transcontinental travel, carrying photo and video gear, etc.
The preparation:
We normally travel light. As in one shared suitcase for both of us for up to a week. But travelling in a Nomad for three months takes it to another level. Especially with video making and editing in mind. Cameras, big laptop, lenses, drone and so on and so on. And unfortunately even bigger issue than the lack of space is the security - you can’t really leave anything on the Nomad and go exploring.
I’ve tried putting a roofbox on it
but it looked ridiculous so had to go back to the drawing board.I came up with the metal tool box idea but I also wanted to retain the spare wheel so had to completely redesign the carrier.
After lots of cutting, grinding, head scratching and some swearing the design was ready and a friendly welder finished the job for me.
In the Nomad you are very exposed to the elements - we’re ok with rain being well equipped in wet gear but heat is a big issue. More on that later…
We got sponsored a CeramicPro treatment by the London branch. It took them almost five days of very hard work taking the car apart, covering EVERYTHING in this nano-amazingness but the car looked brand new afterwards and hopefully it will be very well protected during a trip like this.
As for the route - there was a rough idea of visiting every country in the EU but that’s pretty much it. Playing it by ear is our usual modus operandi and we change plans all the time so there wasn’t even a point of creating anything too in depth.
Main thing - we wanted to have fun, create amazing memories and footage for people to see.
The trip:
Day 1 - London to Bruges to Nurburgring
We left at 5am after having about 3h sleep. The plan was to attend one of the turistenfahren at the Ring on the weekend, so we wouldn’t have to wait until the following week.
Early morning drives are always fun but I didn’t expect what I saw driving on M25: there was a guy in another Nomad heading for the Channel!
Ruta says she never saw me this excited, come on - it’s still my dream car, every petrolhead will get it! I’ve never actually seen another one on the road apart from mine so it was a big deal. Ruta got some photos and videos and after an enjoyable drive to Folkstone we got there 20min earlier than anticipated
. Unfortunately we’ve lost our Nomad friend at the gates… Channel crossing was uneventful as they always are apart from Ruta figuring out that Nomad’s top cage is a great place for doing sit-ups.
And also for some impromptu swing lesson - Ruta’s great hobby. Apparently I’m not too bad at it but I still think it’s just a positive reinforcement so she’ll have a dance partner wherever she wants one.
After leaving Calais instead of staying on a motorway all the way to Bruges we got off it to explore some French and Belgian countryside. This is where Nomad always shines. B-roads are what it was made for, together with an occasional off roading. Normally this section is a really boring hour of driving but the country roads are actually very fun in the area.
Due to the open cockpit design I needed a waterproof satnav so bought a motorcycle TomTom Rider. What a revelation that was! After many years of trying to find interesting and fun roads wherever we go I only recently discovered that TomTom Rider has an option to Plan A Thrill where basically you choose how twisty and how hilly you want the fun route to be and sat nav will take to wherever you want to go, while having fun in process. Granted - it’s not for all cars since we ended up on some really questionable gravel roads but for the Nomad it’s amazing!
Bruges was pretty as usual - we actually much prefer it to Venice or Amsterdam. It has this very unique charm being touristy but still looking like people actually live there. Shopping is great, food is very good and unfortunately for Belgians but fortunately for us, it’s not as popular as it used to be due to bombings in Brussels, so it’s actually very pleasant in terms of crowds, being able to get a table in the restaurant etc, even in peak season.
We were pretty knackered after not getting much sleep the night before so we headed straight for the Ring after spending few hours in Bruges.
After a very hot motorway journey we got to Adenau - it’s time to introduce you to Nomad’s biggest design flaw:
It gets ridiculously hot in summer! The heat is much more of an issue than rain and cold. The hot air from the radiator and cooling pipes in front is being pushed through the center tunnel and out through the handbrake, the hydraulic brake and gearstick surrounds. It’s constantly blowing it with great force. I’ve had other cars which generated a lot of heat - after few hours on a track in my Corvette the carpet around the centre tunnel shrank so much that there’s still a gap. But Nomad is much worse - in other cars it’s just heat, not blowing hot air. And what’s even worse - the faster you go, the hotter it gets. So motorway driving in summer is very tiring. I’m working on a DIY solution to this problem but we’ll get to that later.
That was the end of day one. Tomorrow - Nurburgring.
Day 2 - Nurburgring
I love being there. Not just for the track but for the feeling of being surrounded only by like minded people. They just GET YOU. They understand your geekiness, they will get equally excited about your new tyres or the toaster that burns the shape of Nurburgring in your bread.
I have a great respect for the Ring. Like the one one has for the sea. It attracts me and scares me in an equal amount. I want to drive it fast but I also want to be able to get home afterwards and that’s the difficult balance to find.
Over the years I’ve driven the ring in the BMW 540, Z3M and the Corvette. Every one of them was different but I knew that doing it in a Nomad will be even more interesting.
Ruta was pretty afraid and when Ruta is afraid - that’s a big deal. In our relationship I’m the sensible one, she’s the risk taker. The only time that the roles reverse is when it comes to driving but I still often wonder how is she ok being a passenger on some of the roads we’ve driven. She says she trusts me and I would never abuse it.
We got to the ring pretty late after usual not being able to find correct car park when all signs and sat nav take you to the actual race track - one day I’ll learn. It was closed when we got there, somebody crashed and they had to remove the car. That was meant to be the story for the rest of the day.
For those of you who have never been to ring and plan your first trip - plan to give yourself maximum possible time to spend there. Aim for Sat early morning if you can if you have to be back on Sun. Very often track is closed for a long time due to accidents, weather can also ruin your travel plans. Earlier this year we drove there all the way in the Corvette just to be able to complete one lap in the car and two Ring Taxi ones before it started pouring with rain. And you don’t want to start your Nurburgring adventure in the rain! That’s why we also never go there during the week unless we’re in the area - too much risk of not being able to drive at all if the track is only open for few hours.
We chatted to some nice people, as always Nomad attracted a lot of attention. We filmed a bit in the carpark, plenty of interesting cars there. One guy drove a KTM X-Bow all the way from Spain and next to that Nomad looked VERY much like a Grand Tourer!
And then the track reopened and it was time for the lap. Since the car was already cold after standing for a while we went for a quick warm up drive - people normally don’t think about it but I strongly believe in warming myself up for a fast drive too. Not just the engine and the tyres. To put myself in the right mindframe of DRIVING FAST.
The laps are pretty expensive at 30 euro per lap but in my opinion it’s much better value for money than most of the trackdays in the UK. Silverstone or Brands Hatch are never below £200 and I’d much rather do 6-7 laps of the Ring.
When we got to the gate my heart sank - the guy who checks the cars said that removable steering wheels are not allowed!!! But he will let me do one lap as an exception...The only German not following “ordnung muss sein” mantra!
Nothing really prepares you for the attack on your senses that driving a Nomad on the Ring does. It’s normally loud but being surrounded and overtaken by many other very loud cars is something else. We didn’t bring helmets since there was no space for them at all so that magnified the experience. The car danced around corners and moved a lot under braking and acceleration but that’s what I like about driving it.
The lines I took were wrong most of the time, so time would have been crap, but it was more important for me to stay out of trouble and not slide into a wall or another car. Nomad is normally VERY tail happy and being on all terrain tyres doesn’t help while driving on the track. I glanced at Ruta few times and saw her squeezing the frame tightly. She was scared but enjoying it.
The Carousel is always our favorite section of the track. Nomad’s direct steering with no power assistance made it very twitchy and difficult to hold onto the line there but I made it. It was fun.
We finished the lap, got overtaken a lot but managed to overtake few. Another thing has been taken off my bucket list - I drove Ariel Nomad, MY Ariel Nomad on the Nurburgring. (green) Hell yeah!
Day 3 - Luxembourg
After leaving Ring area we headed towards Luxembourg. I’ve only been there once before and didn’t have any massive expectations but nevertheless it’s an EU country so we had to visit it.
On the way we decided to film a bit with the drone, I managed to clip a tree while following the Nomad but my Mavic is just as tough as my car so it survived without damage.
We also went on a little excursion in the forest since there were no signs against it. Had fun in the mud, staying on the tracks until we met a very unfriendly guy in a 4x4 who insisted on blocking us, taking photos and threatening calling the police. Oh well, we left him to it and carried on driving towards Luxembourg in a properly muddy MudNomad
We got caught by some serious rain on the way, however it really isn’t as bad as people think it is - if you’re going fast enough you don’t get wet at all. The only problem is when you stop
The rest of the day 1 and 2 in Luxembourg were spent catching up on editing photos and videos and also on enjoying some amazing roads. In the rain...a lot. Today, we’re heading for Holland. It's raining again
I hope you like me sharing it, we are on all social media as "MUDNOMAD" if you wish to follow our adventures.
I would love to hear from you if you have any unusual ideas on routes, places to visit and explore in the Nomad.
EDIT
Added links to episodes on YT:
1) London - Belgium - Germany - Luxembourg
2) Nurburgring
3) Holland and Denmark
Edited by rottie102 on Monday 17th July 04:41
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