advice travelling through France from Elise owners

[dcmp]

Hello!!!

First of I'd like to say hi to all. I have been a user of pistonheads for years as purchase car through here before but never needed to contribute - till now!

I hope everyone is enjoying the olympics.

Anyway, I'm about to travel to France in my Elise s2. I've looked on the web to see if there were any organised road trips to take part in (and on pistonheads) but found nothing so doing it solo. I plan on going to Monaco via champagne region and .... Well who knows.

So what advice do I need? Well the one thug that worries me is 'what if I break down?'. I will have breakdown and insurance but in order to minimise the former I would like advise from Elise owners on what I can do to minimise the chances.

Also, any tips on places to visit and routes would be most welcome.

Thanks

DC.

[adsvx220]

We did a euro trip in a vx220. We were worried about breaking down. We did a little trip to the isle of wight for the weekend a couple of weeks before to give the car a good run....obviously it's nowhere near the mileage we did in Europe.
Once we had done our first day of driving to Lyon we got more confident with the car. The car has never ran better than on this trip. We checked the oil everyday, took a few tools but didn't need to do anything to the car, it seemed to love the miles!

I would recommend stopping at Reims on your way through France. And from Monaco head over to the Italian lakes and into the Alps. Some great driving and beautiful scenery.

Driving in big cities like Lyon can be a pain if it's rush hour, I'd stay in smaller towns. We did 2 nights in Monaco, which was enough for us, it's not a big place, well worth a visit, but we probably wouldn't bother going back. We would probably spend more time in Switzerland next time we do it.

Last tip... Petrol stations can be manned, make sure the operator doesn't leave the pump to run automatically. Twice they let go of the nozzle and it popped out, crashes down the bodywork and sprayed fuel all over the car...with roof off. I imagine this would happen on the Elise as it did to our vx.

Adam

[Maryben]

Travelled down to Nice twice in the Elise and the only problem encoutered was one of front indicators jumping out when overtaking a HGV on the A26 near Arras. I now tape the indicator front edge over with tank tape as a precaution on autoroutes and peel it off on arrival.
Also, a word of warning. I decided to wash the Elise in the village near Nice where we were staying and it caused a bit of an uproar - the French objected to me wasting their water by washing a car which actually you have to agree with them.
We travelled down in three days as were not in a hurry and stopped near Troye the first evening, then Grenoble and then along Route Napoleon (N85) to Grasse
Ben

[na]

theses will (all?) apply to an Elise too, for classics I say

. drive the car regularly as this will keep it in better condition and you'll get to know your car better how it sounds, feels and goes and you'll get more used to what you car is capable of and how to drive it

. have the car fully and properly serviced a month before you go away and drive it regularly after to make sure the service work and parts are sucessful

. make sure the service covers items normally overlooked (if they've not already been done recently) like - brake fluid, brake pads (if old, little used and hard), tyres (age and condition,little used and hard, as well as at least 3mm thread), coolant (antifreeze part lasts longer than conditioning part), g/box and r/axle oils

. keep spare parts to a minimum by having the early servicing work and changing suspect parts

Edited by na on Monday 6th August 14:48