Grossglockner first timer

[200Plus Club]

As part of trip to Austria I decided on a whim to hire a car for the weekend and drive 't top.
Local rental place had not much choice so beggars being choosers I picked an Abarth 595 as the most likely fun and it turned out to be a hoot in sport mode.
Weekend trip coincided with a massive Vespa tour of thousands of nutters many of whom didn't reach the top or almost died trying.

The views were stunning, the road fabulous. The little Fiat was fun, altho the brakes were steaming after a proper hard thrash up and back down. 200 euro for 2 days fun. Would have loved to do it in my R8 but this was cool tbh. 30c at the bottom and 3c at the top.

Saw many fast bikes, many decent cars on there and just generally lapped it up, fabulous motoring fun.

[Riley Blue]

Those photos take me back to May 1987 when I drove up the GG in my Golf GTI. It was sunny and hot at the bottom and we were dressed in shorts and T-shirts, at the top it was so cold we changed into trousers and fleeces - worth it though, a great drive.

[Zed 44]

Yeah, I did it last Friday. It was ok; certainly the best of this trip but just about any road that was reasonably smooth, wasn't clogged with cars and cyclists would have been an improvement on what has otherwise been a disappointing road trip. From the driving point of view, two other routes in the Haute Jura were quite good today.

Edited by Zed 44 on Saturday 22 July 17:23

Edited by Zed 44 on Saturday 22 July 18:29

[thebraketester]

Incredible road. Sadly I had the pleasure? of driving up it in an Audi A3 1.6 tdi. Got some ace pics somewhere.

[Pica-Pica]

I drove up it a few years ago as a trailer tow test for PAS temperatures on a Fiesta. The biggest trouble (remember I wanted consistent speeds) was the vast number of cyclists. We do have ETCs (Environmental Test Chambers) that can be set for load, altitude, sunload etc. It is often difficult to use an ETC at high altitude settings, you need a medical that shows adequate red blood cells to cope with the altitude. Latterly we built a robot/framework that could drive, change gears etc.

Edited by Pica-Pica on Sunday 6th August 14:08

[Yipper]

Was at Grossglock a few days ago.

For anyone thinking of going -- don't bother.

It may be high, but the roads are not that twisty, the scenery is not that great, the lanes are congested, and its ~£30 toll is a giant ripoff.

There are much (much) better driving and scenery roads and tunnels around Cortina (Italy) and Genoa / Monaco (Italy / France).

[200Plus Club]

you must have seen different scenery to the one i saw then as in the pics above! :-)
i cant comment on other places, but the scenery was rather nice the day we drove it. £30 toll, as a one off, not the end of the world, we had a full day on there with the stop at the glacier etc.

[dcb]

Yipper said:

Was at Grossglock a few days ago.

For anyone thinking of going -- don't bother.

It may be high, but the roads are not that twisty, the scenery is not that great, the lanes are congested, and its ~£30 toll is a giant ripoff.

There are much (much) better driving and scenery roads and tunnels around Cortina (Italy) and Genoa / Monaco (Italy / France).

Certainly, the tourists who don't know what they are doing go there
and pay daft prices.

Leaving more interesting roads for those of us who can read a map ;->

alpineroads.com has it all. I've done all the top ten in Bonnie Osterreich
and am busy getting 10 - 20 done.

[200Plus Club]

I had a hire car for the day in that area, I did ok :-)

[Zed 44]

dcb said:

Certainly, the tourists who don't know what they are doing go there
and pay daft prices.

Leaving more interesting roads for those of us who can read a map ;->

alpineroads.com has it all. I've done all the top ten in Bonnie Osterreich
and am busy getting 10 - 20 done.

The problem I had with Alpine roads.com, not having driven in Austria before, was the route selections seemed to be very bitty, 10-25km lengths and trying to put them all together into a good driving day or 2 of 100 to 150 miles was too much of a chore so I took the Grossglockner and got out.

[V8junkie]

Is there a preferential direction to do this?

[mr pg]

V8junkie said:

Is there a preferential direction to do this?

Whichever direction you go for (we did north to south), get there early. We arrived about 11am and spent the whole time crawling in 1st/2nd due to the sheer amount of traffic.

[200Plus Club]

I got there about 9.30am and spent an hour or two caning the ass out of the car. Mid afternoon was chokka with scooters as there was a big rally on. We never got stuck in any traffic luckily.

[plenty]

Zed 44 said:

dcb said:

Certainly, the tourists who don't know what they are doing go there
and pay daft prices.

Leaving more interesting roads for those of us who can read a map ;->

alpineroads.com has it all. I've done all the top ten in Bonnie Osterreich
and am busy getting 10 - 20 done.

The problem I had with Alpine roads.com, not having driven in Austria before, was the route selections seemed to be very bitty, 10-25km lengths and trying to put them all together into a good driving day or 2 of 100 to 150 miles was too much of a chore so I took the Grossglockner and got out.

Not only that but the density of the Austrian road network is pretty low, meaning that traffic levels are high (quite a few of the passes on Alpineroads are major thoroughfares), and also passes tend to be frequently punctuated with towns meaning that you can't really get any decent rhythm going.

IMO the Grosseglockner is a must-drive if you're in Austria, but the country is far from the best that Europe has to offer in driving terms.

[V8junkie]

Hmm, just in the pre-planning stages of my next trip and I'm looking at stopping in Pinzolo for a few nights. Was thinking that the Grossglockner would be a day out. Google reckons on 4 1/2 hours to get there so what with doing the pass itself and then returning to Pinzolo it would be a long day. If it was really worth doing I could perhaps have an extra (read closer) stay somewhere nearer but I'm having my doubts now.

[plenty]

V8junkie said:

Hmm, just in the pre-planning stages of my next trip and I'm looking at stopping in Pinzolo for a few nights. Was thinking that the Grossglockner would be a day out. Google reckons on 4 1/2 hours to get there so what with doing the pass itself and then returning to Pinzolo it would be a long day. If it was really worth doing I could perhaps have an extra (read closer) stay somewhere nearer but I'm having my doubts now.

That depends on the objectives of your trip and your tolerance for covering distance. A round trip from Pinzol to the Grosseglockner via Cortina d'Ampezzo is pretty close to my idea of a heavenly day out, but if you have priorities other than driving then it might not be yours.

The route to and from Grosseglockner is itself a wonderful drive.

[Rushjob]

Beware of speed traps both within the toll section and just outside. A mate was there 10 days ago and was relieved of €35 I think for 92kph in a 70 section about 2km before the exit from the tolls and there was a second trap about 2km after the tolls

[dcb]

plenty said:

but the country is far from the best that Europe has to offer in driving terms.

Strange opinion.

I've only been driving in the Tirol for about thirty years and admittedly haven't
seen much east of Salzburg, but AFAIK, there's hardly a kilometer of straight and level
road in the Tirol area at all. The Alps tend to get in the way somewhat.

Ok the Tirol can get busy in the summer and winter with tourists, but the local
driving standards seem to be much above average for Europe, if not quite
German levels of precision.

If the Tirol doesn't provide some of the best driving in Europe, I'd be interested to find out
which places in Europe you think provides better driving.

Maybe Europe's best kept secret - the mountains of the Netherlands ;-> ?

[plenty]

dcb said:

plenty said:

but the country is far from the best that Europe has to offer in driving terms.

Strange opinion.

I've only been driving in the Tirol for about thirty years and admittedly haven't
seen much east of Salzburg, but AFAIK, there's hardly a kilometer of straight and level
road in the Tirol area at all.

No there isn't, but I didn't say there was. Tyrolean roads are indeed lovely however generally speaking the traffic volumes and the need to slow down every few km or minutes for villages means they aren't up there with the best driving roads in Europe. There are no doubt a few exceptions - I remember the Lienz area to be sparsely populated with superb sightlines.

dcb said:

If the Tirol doesn't provide some of the best driving in Europe, I'd be interested to find out
which places in Europe you think provides better driving.

Northern and northeast Spain, and northeast Portugal.

Look at a map and behold the heavy road densities versus light settlement densities. No shortage of mountainous terrain (if not as high as the high Alps) and a huge choice of different road types to please all tastes. I've personally mapped and driven approx 2,500 miles worth of routes in these areas and have only scratched the surface of what the network has to offer, whereas in Austria you'll be returning to the same stretches year after year. In Austria or in the UK you're doing well if you can get 15 minutes of open road without needing to stop for a town - in Spain/Portugal it's easy to plan routes that give you 30-40 minutes of uninterrupted NSL driving.

Spain in particular spends a huge amount on its roads (total spend behind only Germany and France in the EU, and ahead of the UK despite having fewer cars on the road than in the UK). Add to that excellent weather, relaxed local plod and the fact that Spain and Portugal are lovely places to visit in their own right and you have the recipe for driving heaven. Not to mention that unlike in Austria and Germany you can use Google Street View for proper, thorough route planning.

I used to think that the Alps were good until I started seriously investigating Iberia. I've not been back to the Alps since.