Proud new Portofino owner

[pete]

The Portofino is a great grand tourer. Plenty quick and fun enough when you want to hoon around with the roof down, but a relatively relaxed motorway cruiser when you just need to cover miles (albeit with hyperactive steering, like all modern Ferraris). You could complain that putting the roof down moves the centre-of-mass too far back, or the lack of a "race" ESP mode and side slip control in the non-M model, but I would wager most of us would be having far too much fun just enjoying the experience. Either M or non-M is a lovely thing depending on your budget.

I'm leaving for Le Mans in mine tomorrow and frankly I can't wait to just drive it for a few hours. The back seats mean there's room for a serious quantity of camping gear even with the roof down, plus they mean we've been able to do occasional trips 4-up as a family, albeit with some contortion and certainly not as far as Le Mans. Just make sure you get one with a black roof - it's worth an extra 20bhp

As for routes to the south of France, I've done the old "EVO Car of the Year" Route Napoleon version, via Gap, Digne, and stopping in Castellane a few times. Not sure of too many fancy hotels on that one, but it's a wonderful road. Alternatively you can stay West a bit longer and blast up and over Mont Ventoux, then head through endless fields of lavender to get over to the coast or the mountains. Further north, there is a brilliant network of D roads from Troyes (surprisingly nice medieval centre) via Chatillon-sur-Seine to Dijon that are worth an extra hour compared to extremely dull autoroute.

On the way home, you can stitch a load of alpine passes together. It requires a small detour through Italy, but many years ago I had a memorable day driving the San Gotthard, Furka, Grimsel and Jaun passes north through Switzerland, with a stop at the Hotel des Trois Couronnes in Vevey. There is no shortage of grand lakeside hotels on Lake Geneva, just pick how grand you fancy! The route back north through the Jura mountains to Dole is also very nice.

You've got me planning another road trip now. Maybe I need to take my Porto back to its birthplace...

p.s. bennno - long time since the TVRCC Berkshire days?!

[willy wombat]

You’re getting me a bit depressed now (just kidding) because we’ve had to cancel our annual Portofino road trip to Italy and the South of France as my wife needs a reasonably urgent operation. The joys of getting older. We are optimistic that it will work out fine but it’s a reminder that if you’re thinking of a road trip, or anything else, just get on and do it, don’t keep putting it off.

[bennno]

pete said:

The Portofino is a great grand tourer. Plenty quick and fun enough when you want to hoon around with the roof down, but a relatively relaxed motorway cruiser when you just need to cover miles (albeit with hyperactive steering, like all modern Ferraris). You could complain that putting the roof down moves the centre-of-mass too far back, or the lack of a "race" ESP mode and side slip control in the non-M model, but I would wager most of us would be having far too much fun just enjoying the experience. Either M or non-M is a lovely thing depending on your budget.

I'm leaving for Le Mans in mine tomorrow and frankly I can't wait to just drive it for a few hours. The back seats mean there's room for a serious quantity of camping gear even with the roof down, plus they mean we've been able to do occasional trips 4-up as a family, albeit with some contortion and certainly not as far as Le Mans. Just make sure you get one with a black roof - it's worth an extra 20bhp

As for routes to the south of France, I've done the old "EVO Car of the Year" Route Napoleon version, via Gap, Digne, and stopping in Castellane a few times. Not sure of too many fancy hotels on that one, but it's a wonderful road. Alternatively you can stay West a bit longer and blast up and over Mont Ventoux, then head through endless fields of lavender to get over to the coast or the mountains. Further north, there is a brilliant network of D roads from Troyes (surprisingly nice medieval centre) via Chatillon-sur-Seine to Dijon that are worth an extra hour compared to extremely dull autoroute.

On the way home, you can stitch a load of alpine passes together. It requires a small detour through Italy, but many years ago I had a memorable day driving the San Gotthard, Furka, Grimsel and Jaun passes north through Switzerland, with a stop at the Hotel des Trois Couronnes in Vevey. There is no shortage of grand lakeside hotels on Lake Geneva, just pick how grand you fancy! The route back north through the Jura mountains to Dole is also very nice.

You've got me planning another road trip now. Maybe I need to take my Porto back to its birthplace...

p.s. bennno - long time since the TVRCC Berkshire days?!

Wow, yes, long time indeed! 24-25 years back……. Enjoy your trip to Le Mans, we are on the Le Havre ferry tomorrow but heading for Mille Miglia this year as an alternative, taking in all those passes in Switzerland you mentioned on route! Do you have any recommendations on times of day / which direction to do them in or places to stop on route for lunch or a mooch about?

[Lifesbloodygood]

We re in Italy's Langhe wine region at the mo, on our way back from croatia

Holy mother of god this place is beautiful!

Alps in the distance, rolling vineyard hills, all topped with castellis.

Its near the motorway; north to chamonix, south and left to portofino or right to cote d azur, airports a plenty

Been to many parts of Italy, most of the Amalfi coast and Tuscany but this area is something else.

We may have found a great place for a bolt hole..

Refreshing after the disappointment of Croatia.

Edited by Lifesbloodygood on Wednesday 11th June 16:20

[DeejRC]

I often wonder how many poncy motor boys started off in TVRs I have a vague and entirely unscientific hypothesis that TVR boys end up in Donkeys and Lambos, the hot hatch boys end up in BMWs and Pork.

[bennno]

DeejRC said:

I often wonder how many poncy motor boys started off in TVRs I have a vague and entirely unscientific hypothesis that TVR boys end up in Donkeys and Lambos, the hot hatch boys end up in BMWs and Pork.

You need a 3d axis for age, I'd wager most came through bmw and pork on route, along with v8 ftype, mustangs, amg on route.....

[Lifesbloodygood]

Could be so.. String of TVRs here i also went to a berks meet at basingstoke, maybe? in the early days.

i remember 2 people, guy with the cerbera thats a moderator here now, i think? & from memory, someone called carzee? in an audi tt?

[chuds285]

Thank you everyone for the great comments and advice.

It’s reassuring to know that the various routes have been tried and my wife is now busy looking at what to see and where to stop…..she is a far better planner than me!
Originally I was thinking about 2 weeks for the trip but now I think we will extend as you have all mentioned some pretty spectacular places to visit, it’s all very exciting 😀🏁

Thanks again

Ian.

[andyr]

There really is nothing better than a road trip in a Ferrari. Just a tiny fraction of people can do that - we are all very lucky indeed.

I’m having my 458 transported down to Nice next month and I’ve booked it into storage there for 6 months so I can fly down and take it out for long weekend drives. We will spend 3 weeks going from Nice to Lerici in Liguria in July. There are some great hotels along the way.

I would caution about having the hotel valet park your car unless it’s a hotel that regularly has super cars. My rear splitter was cracked by a valet driver who also very nearly reversed it into a pole. They are not used to right hand drive cars in many hotels.

The Hermitage in Monaco is fine though

[DeejRC]

I don’t think I’ve ever let a valet park one of my cars!

[bennno]

andyr said:

There really is nothing better than a road trip in a Ferrari. Just a tiny fraction of people can do that - we are all very lucky indeed.

I m having my 458 transported down to Nice next month and I ve booked it into storage there for 6 months so I can fly down and take it out for long weekend drives. We will spend 3 weeks going from Nice to Lerici in Liguria in July. There are some great hotels along the way.

I would caution about having the hotel valet park your car unless it s a hotel that regularly has super cars. My rear splitter was cracked by a valet driver who also very nearly reversed it into a pole. They are not used to right hand drive cars in many hotels.

The Hermitage in Monaco is fine though

Could I enquire what such transportation costs? We are near there this week and drive down, but it’s save a couple of days and hotels each way.

[andyr]

Going out of the uk it’s around £2.5k down to Nice. Coming back a bit cheaper. That’s with a recognised transport company in covered transporter.

I figure it would cost us about £1000 to drive down and the first half of the route is quite boring.

Then factor in the depreciation per mile - maybe £2 a mile ? In other words a 1000 miles knocks 2k of the value ?

That was my calculation. So I will still drive a 1000 miles on the trip but they will all be on decent roads in the sunshine !

[Batfoy]

Lifesbloodygood said:

We re in Italy's Langhe wine region at the mo, on our way back from croatia

Holy mother of god this place is beautiful!

Alps in the distance, rolling vineyard hills, all topped with castellis.

Its near the motorway; north to chamonix, south and left to portofino or right to cote d azur, airports a plenty

Been to many parts of Italy, most of the Amalfi coast and Tuscany but this area is something else.

We may have found a great place for a bolt hole..

Refreshing after the disappointment of Croatia.

Edited by Lifesbloodygood on Wednesday 11th June 16:20

We’re in Umbria just now and it’s scorchio. Not heard of the Langhe so will have a look online for that, thanks.

Funnily enough, my wife is from Croatia and I couldn’t agree with you more. Parts of it are beautiful but prices have gone stupid and it’s almost overvisited by tourists. The other angle is the customer service itself, not a patch on other countries.

[JJ77]

andyr said:

Going out of the uk it s around £2.5k down to Nice. Coming back a bit cheaper. That s with a recognised transport company in covered transporter.

I figure it would cost us about £1000 to drive down and the first half of the route is quite boring.

Then factor in the depreciation per mile - maybe £2 a mile ? In other words a 1000 miles knocks 2k of the value ?

That was my calculation. So I will still drive a 1000 miles on the trip but they will all be on decent roads in the sunshine !

Forget the calculation, never crossed my mind, it s do you want to risk driving through France, after my car impounded, huge fine, and licence ending up in the prefecture over a bank holiday in the back end of no where, I will always transport through France on any Euro Trip. The only funny part of the story was when I had to get in the van for a chat, Ronnie Barker was in there, quite surreal, he and the French police were looking for his son on the run. That was decades ago, would never risk a spirited sports car run through France present day.

[Lifesbloodygood]

DeejRC said:

I don t think I ve ever let a valet park one of my cars!

Same, always got quizzical looks years ago, nowadays not so much as i think its more common

Batfoy said:

Lifesbloodygood said:

We re in Italy's Langhe wine region at the mo, on our way back from croatia

Holy mother of god this place is beautiful!

Alps in the distance, rolling vineyard hills, all topped with castellis.

Its near the motorway; north to chamonix, south and left to portofino or right to cote d azur, airports a plenty

Been to many parts of Italy, most of the Amalfi coast and Tuscany but this area is something else.

We may have found a great place for a bolt hole..

Refreshing after the disappointment of Croatia.

Edited by Lifesbloodygood on Wednesday 11th June 16:20

We re in Umbria just now and it s scorchio. Not heard of the Langhe so will have a look online for that, thanks.

Funnily enough, my wife is from Croatia and I couldn t agree with you more. Parts of it are beautiful but prices have gone stupid and it s almost overvisited by tourists. The other angle is the customer service itself, not a patch on other countries.

Yeah, they wont get away with continuing at those rates as the place isnt good enough to warrant those prices, since brexit apparently? its hurting the 3/4 star places badly already.

Everyone raved about the adriatic drive to, it was nice but not a patch on amalfi or cote d’azur imo

[Batfoy]

Lifesbloodygood said:

Yeah, they wont get away with continuing at those rates as the place isnt good enough to warrant those prices, since brexit apparently? its hurting the 3/4 star places badly already.

Everyone raved about the adriatic drive to, it was nice but not a patch on amalfi or cote d azur imo

I used to visit a lot pre-EU and I always got a sense of huge potential but it’s swung to an extreme with greed and absurd levels of crap customer service.

Croats can be wonderful people but they can also be insufferably defensive and insular with a strong take it or leave it attitude to hospitality. It can be quite shocking really.

It’s also not a big country and many citizens are arguing that too many people are visiting and that Croatians themselves are suffering because of inflated pricing on just about anything.

[bennno]

andyr said:

Going out of the uk it s around £2.5k down to Nice. Coming back a bit cheaper. That s with a recognised transport company in covered transporter.

I figure it would cost us about £1000 to drive down and the first half of the route is quite boring.

Then factor in the depreciation per mile - maybe £2 a mile ? In other words a 1000 miles knocks 2k of the value ?

That was my calculation. So I will still drive a 1000 miles on the trip but they will all be on decent roads in the sunshine !

So the man maths can either justify the cost of transport , or the driving option of costs & depreciation.

Guess the deciding factor is whether the drive is enjoyable, we tend to split journey at a cracking hotel in Cognac and enjoy drive, but 3-4 days extra holiday appeal.

[ted 191]

We have just done a euro trip, six cars transporter to Malaga airport, drive up through the middle of Spain/Andorra to watch the Monaco GP, cars picked up in Nice and delivered back to north UK, £1850 each car.

[andyr]

bennno said:

So the man maths can either justify the cost of transport , or the driving option of costs & depreciation.

Guess the deciding factor is whether the drive is enjoyable, we tend to split journey at a cracking hotel in Cognac and enjoy drive, but 3-4 days extra holiday appeal.

It’s 50/50 I reckon on costs. But I enjoy being able to get some extra days in and also just flying back home. The drive back to the uk isn’t the best way to end the holiday.

But this time, I’m leaving the car in Nice once we have completed our 3 weeks in Italy, until January. So I am planning several more trips. For instance, Nice to Barcelona maybe in Sept - about 600km.

And then various long weekend trips are planned with my mates.

[Lifesbloodygood]

andyr said:

Going out of the uk it s around £2.5k down to Nice. Coming back a bit cheaper. That s with a recognised transport company in covered transporter.

I figure it would cost us about £1000 to drive down and the first half of the route is quite boring.

Then factor in the depreciation per mile - maybe £2 a mile ? In other words a 1000 miles knocks 2k of the value ?

That was my calculation. So I will still drive a 1000 miles on the trip but they will all be on decent roads in the sunshine !

Its wise on mileage sensitive cars, as long as its a trusted or known transporter! some cars have gone missing recently so needs due diligence.

We ve transported a couple of ours to spain from france (cheaper if you send a couple (man maths cheaper) for our winter stays, the last few years now, means we can do the trip together in the Rangey together with all the gear and the dog in comfort.

Drops to about 1600 per car if theres two of them, thats covered and 2m insurance cover, which is another thing to check before employing services, actually phone the insurance company to verify to!