Sensible family daily wagon - Mercedes Benz S211 E500
Discussion
Whats in a name said:
Getting caught speeding happens to millions of people and in a lot of ways is one of those things.
Driving whilst then disqualified, and therefore also without insurance and then bragging about it online is totally different in my eyes.
Top lurking! Driving whilst then disqualified, and therefore also without insurance and then bragging about it online is totally different in my eyes.
How fast does it take to cease being 'one of those things', I wonder, on your sliding scale on criminality?
bolidemichael said:
Top lurking!
How fast does it take to cease being 'one of those things', I wonder, on your sliding scale on criminality?
Well, i would think its when you get an instant driving ban and have to suffer all the cost and inconvenience (and law breaking) that you are currently having! How fast does it take to cease being 'one of those things', I wonder, on your sliding scale on criminality?
Im amazed you havent been caught earlier - that is not to say i wanted you to be. Consequences rise rapidly above 170 kph, which is still very generous. Do not move to Australia
C'est la vie! It's the nature of my candid thread and the fellow (hopefully) enthusiast can choose to decide whether it is complete, partial or negligible truth, before committing their time to judging me and hoping that'll prompt a change in my behaviour (not you, braddo).*
Today, we got out in the E500 for a trip to a wine Chateau for a tasting. One of the advantages of being encouraged to stop driving by the law, I suppose, is that I can indulge in small pleasures.
We firstly stopped by a self service car wash and I gave it a once over with the lance, only -- certainly not using the scratchy brush -- the advantage of the paint protection is that some shampoo, lance and de-mineralised water do a good enough job alone. Certainly, the alloys which you may recall I protected in sub-optimal temperatures (-3°C ish) with Gtechniq C5 came out sparkling and free of brake dust residue with some direct spray from the lance. Impressive stuff!
After being a little scared for my life from oncoming traffic as we were straddling the other lane on left hand bends, whilst Mrs BoMi acclimatised to continental driving, we arrived at the town of Cabasse.
Typically, for this time of year, nowhere seemed to be open for lunch and we were steered towards to only option that we didn't want -- Thai cuisine! Being Londoners, one of the perks is the choice of a wide range of high quality global cuisine... however, we were delighted to have been proven presumptuous. I had a Massaman curry which was very well balanced and moreish. I polished off my son's pad thai, too.
Back in the car and we drove the short route to Chateau Bellini. It's a relatively new venture, though the owner has a lot of experience in developing vineyards. Regulars may recall that we visited last year, too. This time around, we entered via the entrance on the other road to the south.
We were introduced to the selection of wines across two different Chateau owned by the same chap -- one in Fox-Amphou, Bomont de Cormeil, we visited last year, on my VFR1200F though failing to live up to my self-styled-wild-one image, no wine was consumed on that visit!
There were two rose, two whites and three reds -- the difference in styles and grapes from the selection of vines suited to the soil, was quite remarkable (as one would expect) and having visited both the sense of place really illustrates the end product in the bottle.
The route home was using the Michelin app and the 'Michelin recommends' route... a pleasant drive which took us via the Lac de Saint-Suzanne. The level of the water was much lower than last year, reflecting the severe lack of rainfall -- this was already being acutely felt in August last year when we last visited.
Anyway, the car is packed with wine (we did pick up a few cases. in addition to bringing some over for a pal) and luggage ready for an early departure tomorrow. We do have an issue that I hoped would disappear and really I should've addressed when I arrived with the breakdown service. The engine misfires to a greater or lesser extent under load -- some more knowledgeable bargeistes seem to think that it's the 'coil pack' but we're unlikely to find out until we drive around eight hundred or so miles home. The service will be around four hundred miles overdue by then. Hopefully we'll make it without too much drama -- I'll be encouraging Mrs BoMi to stick below 170kph, too!
A final check on the tyre pressures and with a couple of little passengers and a maximum allowance of wine plus sparkling, with an additional 3psi for winter tyres, they were set to 41psi. Blimey!
Today, we got out in the E500 for a trip to a wine Chateau for a tasting. One of the advantages of being encouraged to stop driving by the law, I suppose, is that I can indulge in small pleasures.
We firstly stopped by a self service car wash and I gave it a once over with the lance, only -- certainly not using the scratchy brush -- the advantage of the paint protection is that some shampoo, lance and de-mineralised water do a good enough job alone. Certainly, the alloys which you may recall I protected in sub-optimal temperatures (-3°C ish) with Gtechniq C5 came out sparkling and free of brake dust residue with some direct spray from the lance. Impressive stuff!
After being a little scared for my life from oncoming traffic as we were straddling the other lane on left hand bends, whilst Mrs BoMi acclimatised to continental driving, we arrived at the town of Cabasse.
Typically, for this time of year, nowhere seemed to be open for lunch and we were steered towards to only option that we didn't want -- Thai cuisine! Being Londoners, one of the perks is the choice of a wide range of high quality global cuisine... however, we were delighted to have been proven presumptuous. I had a Massaman curry which was very well balanced and moreish. I polished off my son's pad thai, too.
Back in the car and we drove the short route to Chateau Bellini. It's a relatively new venture, though the owner has a lot of experience in developing vineyards. Regulars may recall that we visited last year, too. This time around, we entered via the entrance on the other road to the south.
We were introduced to the selection of wines across two different Chateau owned by the same chap -- one in Fox-Amphou, Bomont de Cormeil, we visited last year, on my VFR1200F though failing to live up to my self-styled-wild-one image, no wine was consumed on that visit!
There were two rose, two whites and three reds -- the difference in styles and grapes from the selection of vines suited to the soil, was quite remarkable (as one would expect) and having visited both the sense of place really illustrates the end product in the bottle.
The route home was using the Michelin app and the 'Michelin recommends' route... a pleasant drive which took us via the Lac de Saint-Suzanne. The level of the water was much lower than last year, reflecting the severe lack of rainfall -- this was already being acutely felt in August last year when we last visited.
Anyway, the car is packed with wine (we did pick up a few cases. in addition to bringing some over for a pal) and luggage ready for an early departure tomorrow. We do have an issue that I hoped would disappear and really I should've addressed when I arrived with the breakdown service. The engine misfires to a greater or lesser extent under load -- some more knowledgeable bargeistes seem to think that it's the 'coil pack' but we're unlikely to find out until we drive around eight hundred or so miles home. The service will be around four hundred miles overdue by then. Hopefully we'll make it without too much drama -- I'll be encouraging Mrs BoMi to stick below 170kph, too!
A final check on the tyre pressures and with a couple of little passengers and a maximum allowance of wine plus sparkling, with an additional 3psi for winter tyres, they were set to 41psi. Blimey!
*If anyone is genuinely concerned by my alleged actions, you are welcome to PM me or if you have my number, text or call me.
Edited by bolidemichael on Thursday 16th February 22:24
bolidemichael said:
C'est la vie! It's the nature of my candid thread and the fellow (hopefully) enthusiast can choose to decide whether it is complete, partial or negligible truth, before committing their time to judging me and hoping that'll prompt a change in my behaviour (not you, braddo).*
Albert, is it you? EdmondDantes said:
TyrannosauRoss Lex said:
Your name is one of the names/aliases of a character in one of my favourite books 
Mine also, was surprised the username was available. I’ll need to re read it again soon An early start today validated an organised boot packing operation last night. We're just on the limit of still wine for two people and well under for sparkling wine.
First was the usual sphincter clenching passage through the very tight entrance (unintentional euphemism, fnarr)-- I've figured over the years that driving in and reversing out is simpler, as I can see what I'm doing in reverse, line the car up more easily and see when I'm completely through. The only time this didn't work was on the first entrance with the FFRR, when Mrs BoMi told me that I "was okay", which still smarts.
You guys can breathe easy, as I was only driving on private land and reversing the car onto the road and back onto the entrance (so that it was facing the correct direction for Mrs Bolide) was but the blink of an eye, insignificant when compared to an ice age, for example.
The drive to the A8 autoroute was as beautiful as one would hope for Provence in winter -- sunny, empty and twisty roads, wonderful scenery touched by frost and mist.
The glaze is evident on the field
As we joined the A8 at the mouthful of a town, Saint-Maximin-la-Saint-Baume, the fog started to envelop the road.
and a few clicks later, it was full fog light requirements. It still astounds me how few drivers use their fog lights (in the appropriate conditions).
Mrs Bolide was very gentle with the throttle, barely exceeding the speed limit and wafting along at around 80ish. As a passenger, the comfort levels of this well maintained are really high -- the only interruption being the misfire when the engine was under load, with the occasional burst of mild acceleration.
I would adapt the suspension according to the road conditions for Mrs B, firming to max when on the twistier and setting it to comfort on the autoroute. The weight is felt when fully loaded, especially with the wine mostly behind the rear axle and also on the near side of the vehicle, but the full airmatic is effective at negating any egregious body roll, noticeable even from the passenger seat.
I just say, she took to continental driving rather well, even down to the mimicry of French city parking.
Note, that this is a disabled bay...
I do love the 'aire' with no commercial element, just pull in, bishbashbosh and drive off.
Other than that, I had little to do but select music, nibble and supplement the sat nav with reassuring translations into wide-speak. These are potent.
I did top up when the reserve light came on -- we were already at 419 miles... so at 27ish mpg, we could've got another fifty miles out of the tank! That's astounding, to me. I recall when I first got the car and I knocked on the door of a local owner -- he told me that he could see over five hundred miles from a tank by sticking to about 60ish mph on the motorways.
We arrived in Reims at a civilised hour of before 6pm.
However, after five hundred miles of managing the symptoms, the car was really labouring at idle and close to idle at small throttle inputs. I hope it'll get us home and I am a little mindful of the need for quite a bit of slow driving tomorrow at the Chunnel.
We took a walk to see the cathedral before heading out for a bite to eat.
After having had Thai yesterday, the children opted for Japanese this evening! It wasn't actually that bad!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow... oh, and just for Macron
First was the usual sphincter clenching passage through the very tight entrance (unintentional euphemism, fnarr)-- I've figured over the years that driving in and reversing out is simpler, as I can see what I'm doing in reverse, line the car up more easily and see when I'm completely through. The only time this didn't work was on the first entrance with the FFRR, when Mrs BoMi told me that I "was okay", which still smarts.
You guys can breathe easy, as I was only driving on private land and reversing the car onto the road and back onto the entrance (so that it was facing the correct direction for Mrs Bolide) was but the blink of an eye, insignificant when compared to an ice age, for example.
The drive to the A8 autoroute was as beautiful as one would hope for Provence in winter -- sunny, empty and twisty roads, wonderful scenery touched by frost and mist.
The glaze is evident on the field
As we joined the A8 at the mouthful of a town, Saint-Maximin-la-Saint-Baume, the fog started to envelop the road.
and a few clicks later, it was full fog light requirements. It still astounds me how few drivers use their fog lights (in the appropriate conditions).
Mrs Bolide was very gentle with the throttle, barely exceeding the speed limit and wafting along at around 80ish. As a passenger, the comfort levels of this well maintained are really high -- the only interruption being the misfire when the engine was under load, with the occasional burst of mild acceleration.
I would adapt the suspension according to the road conditions for Mrs B, firming to max when on the twistier and setting it to comfort on the autoroute. The weight is felt when fully loaded, especially with the wine mostly behind the rear axle and also on the near side of the vehicle, but the full airmatic is effective at negating any egregious body roll, noticeable even from the passenger seat.
I just say, she took to continental driving rather well, even down to the mimicry of French city parking.
Note, that this is a disabled bay...
I do love the 'aire' with no commercial element, just pull in, bishbashbosh and drive off.
Other than that, I had little to do but select music, nibble and supplement the sat nav with reassuring translations into wide-speak. These are potent.
I did top up when the reserve light came on -- we were already at 419 miles... so at 27ish mpg, we could've got another fifty miles out of the tank! That's astounding, to me. I recall when I first got the car and I knocked on the door of a local owner -- he told me that he could see over five hundred miles from a tank by sticking to about 60ish mph on the motorways.
We arrived in Reims at a civilised hour of before 6pm.
However, after five hundred miles of managing the symptoms, the car was really labouring at idle and close to idle at small throttle inputs. I hope it'll get us home and I am a little mindful of the need for quite a bit of slow driving tomorrow at the Chunnel.
We took a walk to see the cathedral before heading out for a bite to eat.
After having had Thai yesterday, the children opted for Japanese this evening! It wasn't actually that bad!
Fingers crossed for tomorrow... oh, and just for Macron
Edited by bolidemichael on Friday 17th February 20:20
We took a walk to see the Roman arch this morning, which delayed our departure. Was it worth the four mile round trip, by foot? Well, for the steps, yes, for the cultural experience...
The scaffolding was erected (fnarr) on Thursday!
However, Reims is quite elegant in the area behind the Cathedral, with a lovely setting for the food market.
This scene with the Triumph casually parked on the square made me smile
For a city of just 189,000 inhabitants, I'm really not sure what the case for ever tighter restrictions on LEZ are... the E500 is a '3' rating for French emissions and in Jan 2024 they'll be restricting access to the area in which we stayed to a '2'! My lovely V8 is being ostracised, despite the environmental impact having been amortised over a period of twenty years! Merde! (not that they'll enforce it for UK plated vehicles, I imagine).
Anyway, we hit the road with trepidation... increase by the fact that I was parsimonious with the fuel top up yesterday so as to minimise the SP98 outlay at the autoroute fuel station. I'd forgotten that, so we headed to a Carrefour en route and I topped up with sixty litres... they only had SP95 available at the pump we chose and it seemed to show in the fuel consumption -- whereas the previous day we were getting almost 28mpg on SP98, we were getting a return of under 25mpgees on SP95 -- perhaps it is more uphill towards Calais or summat, too. Mrs Bolide did a good job of getting us there at a constant speed of around eighty-ish and I jumped in the car once we arrived at the Eurotunnel terminal. It was very busy so we just stopped for a wee and joined the queue for customs.
To their credit, the staff were on hand to organise the queues, so there was minimal jostling and stress, it all seemed to flow smoothly.
My main concern was that the issue would arise and exacerbate when idling -- in fact, Magnus was as good as gold and whisper quiet. We wouldn't've been kicked out of a library. I suspect that it was the fine company that we were keeping, with nice cars all around.
A German M3 Touring
a 760iL V12 with budget tyres
There was also an RS6 -- they have astoundingly large diameter wheels and look quite striking at a distance.
Despite having missed our 1420hrs, they loaded us onto another and we departed at 1520hrs, so not bad considering our arrival time was 1420hrs!
We stopped in Folkestone for some lunch -- the 'creative arts' district is pleasant and has a number of interesting shops and nice eateries.
After that, we bimbled home at or under the nationals, with a route that minimised the number of junctions that we'd encounter.
The day's stats -- note the increased consumption, despite lower speeds
I'm not going to bother tipping up, since it'll have an oil and filter change soon enough.
The overall stats
Glad to be home, with the car and in one piece. All's well that ends well, right?
The next trip is to Venice via Austria, in March. I'll have to take a new route since the French don't want my kind spending money in their country for a while.
The scaffolding was erected (fnarr) on Thursday!
However, Reims is quite elegant in the area behind the Cathedral, with a lovely setting for the food market.
This scene with the Triumph casually parked on the square made me smile
For a city of just 189,000 inhabitants, I'm really not sure what the case for ever tighter restrictions on LEZ are... the E500 is a '3' rating for French emissions and in Jan 2024 they'll be restricting access to the area in which we stayed to a '2'! My lovely V8 is being ostracised, despite the environmental impact having been amortised over a period of twenty years! Merde! (not that they'll enforce it for UK plated vehicles, I imagine).
Anyway, we hit the road with trepidation... increase by the fact that I was parsimonious with the fuel top up yesterday so as to minimise the SP98 outlay at the autoroute fuel station. I'd forgotten that, so we headed to a Carrefour en route and I topped up with sixty litres... they only had SP95 available at the pump we chose and it seemed to show in the fuel consumption -- whereas the previous day we were getting almost 28mpg on SP98, we were getting a return of under 25mpgees on SP95 -- perhaps it is more uphill towards Calais or summat, too. Mrs Bolide did a good job of getting us there at a constant speed of around eighty-ish and I jumped in the car once we arrived at the Eurotunnel terminal. It was very busy so we just stopped for a wee and joined the queue for customs.
To their credit, the staff were on hand to organise the queues, so there was minimal jostling and stress, it all seemed to flow smoothly.
My main concern was that the issue would arise and exacerbate when idling -- in fact, Magnus was as good as gold and whisper quiet. We wouldn't've been kicked out of a library. I suspect that it was the fine company that we were keeping, with nice cars all around.
A German M3 Touring
a 760iL V12 with budget tyres
There was also an RS6 -- they have astoundingly large diameter wheels and look quite striking at a distance.
Despite having missed our 1420hrs, they loaded us onto another and we departed at 1520hrs, so not bad considering our arrival time was 1420hrs!
We stopped in Folkestone for some lunch -- the 'creative arts' district is pleasant and has a number of interesting shops and nice eateries.
After that, we bimbled home at or under the nationals, with a route that minimised the number of junctions that we'd encounter.
The day's stats -- note the increased consumption, despite lower speeds
I'm not going to bother tipping up, since it'll have an oil and filter change soon enough.
The overall stats
Glad to be home, with the car and in one piece. All's well that ends well, right?
The next trip is to Venice via Austria, in March. I'll have to take a new route since the French don't want my kind spending money in their country for a while.
Edited by bolidemichael on Sunday 19th February 13:10
cwoodsie2 said:
Good to hear you’re back without incident BM. Great photos as usual. Our old CLK500 averaged 28ish mpg on a leisurely run to Spain many moons ago. Great cruisers and hope the repair costs are friendly
Leisurely indeed. I don't know how Mrs Bolide manages to just stroke the car along the autoroute in such a calm manner, but she was nodding off as we approached Reims!I'd love to see how much she could get out of a tank.
My current list for the now overdue service, lifted from my notes.
Magnus next service c. March 2023 183k ish
sunroof, slide rails and slide blocks cleaned & sun visors 5yrs (138k/04.2019)
spark plugs 4yrs/60k (104k/09.2015)
fuel filter 15yrs/150k (58k/01.2008)
engine oil and filter
Air cleaner 4yrs/50k (no record but around 4yrs ago)
Coolant renewal 15yrs/150k (no record)
replacement service book
centre caps?
front wipers changed?
Interruption under power -- coil?
Magnus next service c. March 2023 183k ish
sunroof, slide rails and slide blocks cleaned & sun visors 5yrs (138k/04.2019)
spark plugs 4yrs/60k (104k/09.2015)
fuel filter 15yrs/150k (58k/01.2008)
engine oil and filter
Air cleaner 4yrs/50k (no record but around 4yrs ago)
Coolant renewal 15yrs/150k (no record)
replacement service book
centre caps?
front wipers changed?
Interruption under power -- coil?
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