The Tuscan, 2500 miles, hot sun, cold air lots of fun
Discussion
I have just returned from quite possibly the best driving of my life.....
Myself and the girlfriend went to a wedding in Siena, it was rude not to drive especially as the car has recently been restored (more on the restoration thread once things are 'sorted'
)
We went to Reims in france, thalwil switzerland, lake como and then siena, on the way back we went the other way round the alps, stopping at interlaken, basel and then reims again.
First off the roads are something else, snooker table smooth, sadly the day before i left i found the front passenger side wheel had a slight buckle, over here you couldn't feel it, there it was pretty hideous at 80+mph
still though not the end of the world.....
We took in the various passes in our time, the furka, sustenpass,grimsel,san bernadino and a couple of others i forgot. The sustenpass was imo a bit scary, it felt VERY high up and not that safe tbh, i'm not sure if that was because that day i had already done 7 hours of driving so felt a bit detached
The passes though generally felt like you couldn't push on though, narrow roads, extremely high drops, trackday tyres, occasional random wet bits from the melting ice and not knowing them made them feel a bit scary, i just enjoyed taking the right lines, the sound and down changing upto the hairpins- i did give it a bit in places though
I didn't realise how much power the car would lose though, i found out its about 10bhp per 1000ft, couple that with a full tank of fuel, luggage and me and the mrs i worked out that its would be equivilant to losing near 100bhp at times! It certainly felt very slow at times probably a good thing though tbh....
It was an awesome experience though, the roads are racetrack quality and the views are mind blowing really.
What shocked me was the reaction the car got. Every time we stopped people were taking pictures, people waved, smiled and generally loved it, the funniest for me was a bloke on a moped with a passenger on the back in heavy traffic through como leaning round and taking pictures
he looked totally out of control lol. The french probably loved it the most though, tey really did like it over there.
I dont know what road it was but we went from como down to tuscany and it was mayhem! at one stage i was overtaken by an x5 doing over 120mph, these people are crazy, sitting up your arse at 100mph at all times, i have never seen anything like it, still it made for good progress we had the roof off over the 6 hour or so trip and the sun was so hot it left my head badly peeling and i never burn. The sun was seriously hot!
Anyway i thought i had seen the best roads, until we got to Tuscany. The last 10 miles or so were like a special stage! Left right, left right, hairpin, left right, hairpin for miles and miles up what i can only describe as a mini mountain, the car felt like it lost a bit of power so i assume we were high up.
Over our stay i learnt these roads quite well- well enough to have a play
i have put a video on youtube which i have put a link below of, i'm possibly sorry for the 80's music but it felt so good at the time like something out of the buisness, me and my mate were driving through beautiful sceneray in an open top sportscar in 30+ degree weather- its hard not to realise its times like that we live for
I hope you enjoy watching it as much as i enjoyed driving it, you just cant see how steep it is from video either.
Onto the typical tvr reliability....
I think a lot of the people going to the wedding thought we wouldn't make it and even i had my reservations, i had a full 12k service at str8 6 before we left and lots of new parts, flywheel,bushes,clutch slave, new gaz monos among other things.
The car drove so so well, the gaz mono give a mercedes quality feel to the ride, so supple yet so stiff when needed, no bobbing at all what so ever, jason did a great job of the geometry, the car now handles so well, those saying the tuscan is scary i will agree it can be but i could if i wanted cruise at 120 with one hand on the wheel, 100mph is just bliss in this car, it ate the miles up!
I did have a couple of problems though, when we got to siena and i was driving the mountain road i could hear a creaking noise coming from the passenger side underneath of the car, with no access to a ramp and no obvious difference to anything i carried on.
I also developed a problem on the italian 'special stages' in that after a series of bends if you went to give it full throttle the car would back fire, it did this a few times and twice it actually cut out i thought at that stage i'd be using the euro recovery i had paid for, but after a couple of minutes it re started, i put this down to fuel starvation- in that the constant changes of direction and then full throttle was drawing air in but jason says it wouldn't be that, a couple of times as well completley what it seemed to be un related the car struggled to maintain idle, it actually cut out and i had to keep reving not to stall it, jason said it sounds like an electrical problem, i did notice very low voltage on one occasion as if the alternator wasn't charging and i do wonder if the heat was having an effect on the alternator?
Anyway she got us there and back and did lots of detours so cant be all bad- tvr power rebuild did well with not a drop of oil burnt we averaged 25mpg, generally it would have seen 30 but the hard driving spurts and doing 100+ for periods saw it go down- pretty bloody impressive though.
The passenger side door dropped as well, meaning a little damage to the paint but thats getting sorted.....
Back home now the creaking has stopped so god knows what that was, a bolt which holds on the little bonnet came of near calais so had to drive home without it, i do wonder if it was something in that area but i wont know now.
Enjoy the pictures
seriously odd woman who actually agreed to pose for me
my mate who visibly enjoyed it
little interior shot
The pool at the location
youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEWKNcbQp-8&lis...
Myself and the girlfriend went to a wedding in Siena, it was rude not to drive especially as the car has recently been restored (more on the restoration thread once things are 'sorted'
)We went to Reims in france, thalwil switzerland, lake como and then siena, on the way back we went the other way round the alps, stopping at interlaken, basel and then reims again.
First off the roads are something else, snooker table smooth, sadly the day before i left i found the front passenger side wheel had a slight buckle, over here you couldn't feel it, there it was pretty hideous at 80+mph
still though not the end of the world.....We took in the various passes in our time, the furka, sustenpass,grimsel,san bernadino and a couple of others i forgot. The sustenpass was imo a bit scary, it felt VERY high up and not that safe tbh, i'm not sure if that was because that day i had already done 7 hours of driving so felt a bit detached
The passes though generally felt like you couldn't push on though, narrow roads, extremely high drops, trackday tyres, occasional random wet bits from the melting ice and not knowing them made them feel a bit scary, i just enjoyed taking the right lines, the sound and down changing upto the hairpins- i did give it a bit in places though
I didn't realise how much power the car would lose though, i found out its about 10bhp per 1000ft, couple that with a full tank of fuel, luggage and me and the mrs i worked out that its would be equivilant to losing near 100bhp at times! It certainly felt very slow at times
probably a good thing though tbh....It was an awesome experience though, the roads are racetrack quality and the views are mind blowing really.
What shocked me was the reaction the car got. Every time we stopped people were taking pictures, people waved, smiled and generally loved it, the funniest for me was a bloke on a moped with a passenger on the back in heavy traffic through como leaning round and taking pictures
he looked totally out of control lol. The french probably loved it the most though, tey really did like it over there.I dont know what road it was but we went from como down to tuscany and it was mayhem! at one stage i was overtaken by an x5 doing over 120mph, these people are crazy, sitting up your arse at 100mph at all times, i have never seen anything like it, still it made for good progress
we had the roof off over the 6 hour or so trip and the sun was so hot it left my head badly peeling and i never burn. The sun was seriously hot!Anyway i thought i had seen the best roads, until we got to Tuscany. The last 10 miles or so were like a special stage! Left right, left right, hairpin, left right, hairpin for miles and miles up what i can only describe as a mini mountain, the car felt like it lost a bit of power so i assume we were high up.
Over our stay i learnt these roads quite well- well enough to have a play
i have put a video on youtube which i have put a link below of, i'm possibly sorry for the 80's music but it felt so good at the time like something out of the buisness, me and my mate were driving through beautiful sceneray in an open top sportscar in 30+ degree weather- its hard not to realise its times like that we live for I hope you enjoy watching it as much as i enjoyed driving it, you just cant see how steep it is from video either.
Onto the typical tvr reliability....
I think a lot of the people going to the wedding thought we wouldn't make it and even i had my reservations, i had a full 12k service at str8 6 before we left and lots of new parts, flywheel,bushes,clutch slave, new gaz monos among other things.
The car drove so so well, the gaz mono give a mercedes quality feel to the ride, so supple yet so stiff when needed, no bobbing at all what so ever, jason did a great job of the geometry, the car now handles so well, those saying the tuscan is scary i will agree it can be but i could if i wanted cruise at 120 with one hand on the wheel, 100mph is just bliss in this car, it ate the miles up!
I did have a couple of problems though, when we got to siena and i was driving the mountain road i could hear a creaking noise coming from the passenger side underneath of the car, with no access to a ramp and no obvious difference to anything i carried on.
I also developed a problem on the italian 'special stages' in that after a series of bends if you went to give it full throttle the car would back fire, it did this a few times and twice it actually cut out
i thought at that stage i'd be using the euro recovery i had paid for, but after a couple of minutes it re started, i put this down to fuel starvation- in that the constant changes of direction and then full throttle was drawing air in but jason says it wouldn't be that, a couple of times as well completley what it seemed to be un related the car struggled to maintain idle, it actually cut out and i had to keep reving not to stall it, jason said it sounds like an electrical problem, i did notice very low voltage on one occasion as if the alternator wasn't charging and i do wonder if the heat was having an effect on the alternator?Anyway she got us there and back and did lots of detours so cant be all bad- tvr power rebuild did well with not a drop of oil burnt
we averaged 25mpg, generally it would have seen 30 but the hard driving spurts and doing 100+ for periods saw it go down- pretty bloody impressive though.The passenger side door dropped as well, meaning a little damage to the paint but thats getting sorted.....
Back home now the creaking has stopped so god knows what that was, a bolt which holds on the little bonnet came of near calais so had to drive home without it, i do wonder if it was something in that area but i wont know now.
Enjoy the pictures
seriously odd woman who actually agreed to pose for me
my mate who visibly enjoyed it
little interior shot
The pool at the location
youtube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEWKNcbQp-8&lis...
Oh you lucky sod! Very envious.
Did a similar journey in 2003. Through France into Switzerland, into Italy and down into Rome. Night stop at Hotel Europe in Basel. Had a Cerbera at the time but actually took the wife's TT roadster as just thought... what if.... Although sure the Cerb would've made it.
Great drive though, great scenery etc. but more props to you for having the courage to take the Tiv.
The colour of your motor looks the nuts with the black roof and wheels and I love the interior too. Whole thing Looks ultra modern and well, just right.
I want one!!
Did a similar journey in 2003. Through France into Switzerland, into Italy and down into Rome. Night stop at Hotel Europe in Basel. Had a Cerbera at the time but actually took the wife's TT roadster as just thought... what if.... Although sure the Cerb would've made it.
Great drive though, great scenery etc. but more props to you for having the courage to take the Tiv.
The colour of your motor looks the nuts with the black roof and wheels and I love the interior too. Whole thing Looks ultra modern and well, just right.
I want one!!
Edited by gutu12 on Sunday 24th June 00:22
Edited by gutu12 on Sunday 24th June 08:51
Oh you lucky sod! Very envious.
Did a similar journey in 2003. Through France into Switzerland, into Italy and down into Rome. Night stop at Hotel Europe in Basel. Had a Cerbera at the time but actually took the wife's TT roadster as just thought... what if.... Although sure the Cerb would've made it.
Great drive though, great scenery etc. but more props to you for having the courage to take the Tiv.
The colour of your motor looks the nuts with the black roof and wheels and I love the interior too. Whole thing Looks ultra modern and well, just right.
I want one!!
Did a similar journey in 2003. Through France into Switzerland, into Italy and down into Rome. Night stop at Hotel Europe in Basel. Had a Cerbera at the time but actually took the wife's TT roadster as just thought... what if.... Although sure the Cerb would've made it.
Great drive though, great scenery etc. but more props to you for having the courage to take the Tiv.
The colour of your motor looks the nuts with the black roof and wheels and I love the interior too. Whole thing Looks ultra modern and well, just right.
I want one!!
Edited by gutu12 on Sunday 24th June 00:22
Edited by gutu12 on Sunday 24th June 08:55
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