2012 Dodge Charger
Discussion
Episode One - A New Hope
I was debating whether to post this up as I guess technically it wasn't ever mine but over the 3 months I rolled around in this I formed quite a bond with it. Definitely wins the award for best ever hire car.
I am pretty lucky in the fact that as part of my graduate scheme there is opportunity for 3 month international attachments to pretty much anywhere round the world if you can put together a solid business case as to why you should be allowed to go - my choice, Montreal.
After putting a proposal together and presenting it to some more senior frowny (but nice) people, I was given the green light and then slowly made my plans for world domination.
I had sat in my work drawer for the past 5 months an Avis Preferred "Worldwide Upgrade" voucher that I was given as a reward for signing upto the corporate Avis preferred scheme. It was due to expire at the end of April 2012. I expect they often don't get used and expire silently in peoples draws but after stepping off the plane at 11pm on a Sunday (due to be in work at 8am) I bounded towards the Avis desk to claim my reward muahaha.
The look on the face of the woman behind the desk was priceless as she punched in the code and had to offer me a Ford Fusion, a Chevvy Impala, Ford Explorer or a Dodge Charger for 3 months without being able to run it past her manager first who presumably was tucked away in bed. I went straight for the Charger on a pure whim having no idea what any of them looked like in current guise and never looked back.
Here she is on pick up - with 2500KM's on the clock, as I wheeled around the corner my jaw dropped. I did have some more pics of my phone but some barsteward stole it the other day. Before I even put my bags in the boot I "popped the hood" as I was praying for a V8 - unfortunately it was the poverty spec model so I only had a 300PS 3.7L V6 to play with as oppoed to the 5 odd litre hemi, oh well I was sure I'd cope somehow.
The car had all the toys - touch screen sat nav, bose stereo, ipod integration, heated seats, electric everything, heated/cooled cupholders. I was well chuffed.
coolest bit by far - rear lights
Jumped in and drove it the 20 odd KMs from the airport to my apartment bang in the middle of downtown. All in pitch darkness in a city that felt very alien to me with absolutely no idea of local traffic rules, rusty french, and having just got off a 7 hour flight. It was the first time I had ever driven on the right (wrong!) side of the road - not the most relaxing of experiences but all went off without a hitch.
After doing some googling about my new motor I discovered that it had the brand new 8 speed auto box so would actually fetch pretty decent economy on the highway (~35 UK Mpg), which was good as I planned to use it ALOT, turned out that at about 120Kms it would barely be ticking over at about 1200RPM. Downside was that I discovered there was no way I would be able to totally disable the traction control. Boohoo.
Here endeth the first chapter (I am actually back in the UK now and so will post the rest until my fingers drop off)
I was debating whether to post this up as I guess technically it wasn't ever mine but over the 3 months I rolled around in this I formed quite a bond with it. Definitely wins the award for best ever hire car.
I am pretty lucky in the fact that as part of my graduate scheme there is opportunity for 3 month international attachments to pretty much anywhere round the world if you can put together a solid business case as to why you should be allowed to go - my choice, Montreal.
After putting a proposal together and presenting it to some more senior frowny (but nice) people, I was given the green light and then slowly made my plans for world domination.
I had sat in my work drawer for the past 5 months an Avis Preferred "Worldwide Upgrade" voucher that I was given as a reward for signing upto the corporate Avis preferred scheme. It was due to expire at the end of April 2012. I expect they often don't get used and expire silently in peoples draws but after stepping off the plane at 11pm on a Sunday (due to be in work at 8am) I bounded towards the Avis desk to claim my reward muahaha.
The look on the face of the woman behind the desk was priceless as she punched in the code and had to offer me a Ford Fusion, a Chevvy Impala, Ford Explorer or a Dodge Charger for 3 months without being able to run it past her manager first who presumably was tucked away in bed. I went straight for the Charger on a pure whim having no idea what any of them looked like in current guise and never looked back.
Here she is on pick up - with 2500KM's on the clock, as I wheeled around the corner my jaw dropped. I did have some more pics of my phone but some barsteward stole it the other day. Before I even put my bags in the boot I "popped the hood" as I was praying for a V8 - unfortunately it was the poverty spec model so I only had a 300PS 3.7L V6 to play with as oppoed to the 5 odd litre hemi, oh well I was sure I'd cope somehow.
The car had all the toys - touch screen sat nav, bose stereo, ipod integration, heated seats, electric everything, heated/cooled cupholders. I was well chuffed.
coolest bit by far - rear lights
Jumped in and drove it the 20 odd KMs from the airport to my apartment bang in the middle of downtown. All in pitch darkness in a city that felt very alien to me with absolutely no idea of local traffic rules, rusty french, and having just got off a 7 hour flight. It was the first time I had ever driven on the right (wrong!) side of the road - not the most relaxing of experiences but all went off without a hitch.
After doing some googling about my new motor I discovered that it had the brand new 8 speed auto box so would actually fetch pretty decent economy on the highway (~35 UK Mpg), which was good as I planned to use it ALOT, turned out that at about 120Kms it would barely be ticking over at about 1200RPM. Downside was that I discovered there was no way I would be able to totally disable the traction control. Boohoo.
Here endeth the first chapter (I am actually back in the UK now and so will post the rest until my fingers drop off)
Episode Two - The Wall of Champions / Mur Du Quebec
My first little foray out in the car after my first week at work was to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. If you are not aware, the circuit is on an island right next to downtown and is only a 15 minute drive away from where I was staying. It is essentially a public road that you can drive round, albeit with a 30kmph speed limit... and here's the best part - it's absolutely free of charge throughout the year. Apparently some of my colleagues had spotted the police trying to drag a pander car out the tyres after a spirited lap in the snow one winter.
Got some nice snaps - you aren't meant to stop so these are a bit cheeky but it was deserted.
P1 - naturellement
View up to turn one
Fast forward a few weeks and I revisted the track on a few occasions going back in the dead of night to the track, purely to investigate the local wildlife of course...
This is probably the best place to include some of my F1 snaps (well it would have been rude not to!) from later in the year as well - during F1 week downtown Montreal basically becomes one giant street party, refreshing to see such a warm attitude towards motorsport. The absolutely phenomenal amount of hotties wandering about wasn't too bad either.
Gorgeous Racing GT3
Helicopter on a pontoon - standard.
F-18 flypast
It turns out F1 cars are flipping hard to photograph...
me looking like a tool
Here concludes the second chapter..
My first little foray out in the car after my first week at work was to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. If you are not aware, the circuit is on an island right next to downtown and is only a 15 minute drive away from where I was staying. It is essentially a public road that you can drive round, albeit with a 30kmph speed limit... and here's the best part - it's absolutely free of charge throughout the year. Apparently some of my colleagues had spotted the police trying to drag a pander car out the tyres after a spirited lap in the snow one winter.
Got some nice snaps - you aren't meant to stop so these are a bit cheeky but it was deserted.
P1 - naturellement
View up to turn one
Fast forward a few weeks and I revisted the track on a few occasions going back in the dead of night to the track, purely to investigate the local wildlife of course...
This is probably the best place to include some of my F1 snaps (well it would have been rude not to!) from later in the year as well - during F1 week downtown Montreal basically becomes one giant street party, refreshing to see such a warm attitude towards motorsport. The absolutely phenomenal amount of hotties wandering about wasn't too bad either.
Gorgeous Racing GT3
Helicopter on a pontoon - standard.
F-18 flypast
It turns out F1 cars are flipping hard to photograph...
me looking like a tool
Here concludes the second chapter..
Chapter 3 - Roadtrippin'
Over the 3 months I had the car I put a staggering 17,000kms on it so I got my fair share of use. I had to do alot of business miles over to Ottawa for rig testing that I was working on which contributed to a fair portion of it. What is interesting is that in Canadialand Ottawa and Montreal are next door neighbours, a short hop from one another. The Leeds and Bradford of Canada (..almost). Although it's only a 125 mile drive between the two, on several occasions I was there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and was surprised at the funny looks I got from everyone when suggesting it might make more sense if I stayed in a hotel in Ottawa rather than commuting there and back everyday.
Aside from this boring commuting, I took the car on several epic road trips which will stay with me for years, turns out between cities is a giant (beautiful) wasteland and that boredom quickly sets in.
Trip One - Tonts, Onts. + Niagara
Toronto is about a 6 hour drive from Montreal, crossing deeper into Ontario, it seems like a long way (550kms) but the Charger is perfectly suited to this sort of work and gobbled up the journey in it's stride, at no point did I ever feel tired or fatigued and only stopped once to grab some lunch. I could get used to this...
Not got many journey snaps unfortunately and they'd be pretty boring but here are some holiday snaps haha..
you want to go where!? - Maid of the mist @ Niagara falls
lots of water
arrival in Toronto outsde the Rogers centre
I can confirm the CN tower is flipping ridiculously massive.
Wish our fire engines looked like this:
Stunning skyline:
If you are ever in Toronto, I cannot recommend enough a tour of the Steam Whistle Brewery, they make a really good pilsner that you can only get in Ontario unfortunately, ask to see some of their machinery too:
On the road again:
Over the 3 months I had the car I put a staggering 17,000kms on it so I got my fair share of use. I had to do alot of business miles over to Ottawa for rig testing that I was working on which contributed to a fair portion of it. What is interesting is that in Canadialand Ottawa and Montreal are next door neighbours, a short hop from one another. The Leeds and Bradford of Canada (..almost). Although it's only a 125 mile drive between the two, on several occasions I was there Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and was surprised at the funny looks I got from everyone when suggesting it might make more sense if I stayed in a hotel in Ottawa rather than commuting there and back everyday.
Aside from this boring commuting, I took the car on several epic road trips which will stay with me for years, turns out between cities is a giant (beautiful) wasteland and that boredom quickly sets in.
Trip One - Tonts, Onts. + Niagara
Toronto is about a 6 hour drive from Montreal, crossing deeper into Ontario, it seems like a long way (550kms) but the Charger is perfectly suited to this sort of work and gobbled up the journey in it's stride, at no point did I ever feel tired or fatigued and only stopped once to grab some lunch. I could get used to this...
Not got many journey snaps unfortunately and they'd be pretty boring but here are some holiday snaps haha..
you want to go where!? - Maid of the mist @ Niagara falls
lots of water
arrival in Toronto outsde the Rogers centre
I can confirm the CN tower is flipping ridiculously massive.
Wish our fire engines looked like this:
Stunning skyline:
If you are ever in Toronto, I cannot recommend enough a tour of the Steam Whistle Brewery, they make a really good pilsner that you can only get in Ontario unfortunately, ask to see some of their machinery too:
On the road again:
Trip 2 - A trip to end all trips...
Our next trip was one of the most awesome weekends I had whilst out there, the idea was to just drive and keep driving and drive some more and see how far we got over the bank holiday. Picture of the route below - which doesnt look like much but we did about 3000kms over the course of a bank holiday weekend. Not bad going - I think it equated to about 24 hours in car time
. Fuel is cheaper in Canada but not that cheap (nowhere near US prices) so luckily I had 3 chums to share the experience (ie. cost) with over the weekend. I did the vast majority of the driving, only relenting to give other people a go up the "Magnetic Hill" and for a few of the return leg stints. This car just wafts you along and if propped up with energy drinks and food you just seem to never get tired. It's a world apart from the bone shaking rollercoaster that I'm accustomed to in the C900 or the Caterham and I was beginning to really quite like it.
When you do that sort of epic mileage in a car you begin to invent some awesome games, a 20 minute stint of car sauna ( recirc on, heaters to full, heated seats on,) followed by a 10 minute blast of car freezer was a great way to pass the time. I got pretty sick of I spy as all there was to see was "giant wasteland". It was here I started to play with the traction control on some of the quieter roads and learnt what it was like to slide a 2 ton 300HP pendulum around on the loose. Terrifying but actually quite controllable.
The route:
Montreal - Quebec City - Lac Saint Jean (Meteor Crater Lake) - Tadoussac - Frederickton - Prince Edward Island - Halifax- Bristol - Montreal....phew.
Doesn't look that far but Canada is a bigggg country.
Dawn at the wheel
Dodge journey accompanied lead the way on our travels
Breakfast in Quebec city
par for the course view:
obligatory road trip shot
Lac Saint Jean
These guys had the same idea as us it seemed and we followed them for quite some time before the ferry over the St Lawrence
our best interpretation of the spirit of ecstacy on the bonnet - I still ahve this and it was flipping gross after 3000KMs, flies plastered all over it:
not a bad looking barge:
This was the best moment of the whole trip, after finally arriving at Prince Edward Island and finding somewhere to stay we decided to get up for dawn to watch sunrise over the atlantic, cue an impromptu 20km rally stage esque dash across the famous PEI red sands at 4:45AM to catch the sun coming up. My heavy right foot unfortunately meant that we ran out of fuel as we approached the beach, We coasted to a halt literally right on the shore and hung around whilst the other car went to correct my embarrassing mistake.
Here you can see the bad ass RALLY build up of PEI sand that stayed on the car until I returned in, totally unwashed over the whole 3 months:
you can just make out the 13km confederation bridge in this one which crosses from mainland Canada onto PEI.
on the bridge starting the 1200km ish return leg
had some good fun with this guy (nohomo)!
To you random ferrari guy with the hot wife
FIN
Honestly never wanted this trip to end. I can't recommend doing something like this enough. We found so many awesome little roads and stuff just diving off the highway every so often to break it up and got a really good feel for what some of Canada is like away from the bright lights.
Our next trip was one of the most awesome weekends I had whilst out there, the idea was to just drive and keep driving and drive some more and see how far we got over the bank holiday. Picture of the route below - which doesnt look like much but we did about 3000kms over the course of a bank holiday weekend. Not bad going - I think it equated to about 24 hours in car time
. Fuel is cheaper in Canada but not that cheap (nowhere near US prices) so luckily I had 3 chums to share the experience (ie. cost) with over the weekend. I did the vast majority of the driving, only relenting to give other people a go up the "Magnetic Hill" and for a few of the return leg stints. This car just wafts you along and if propped up with energy drinks and food you just seem to never get tired. It's a world apart from the bone shaking rollercoaster that I'm accustomed to in the C900 or the Caterham and I was beginning to really quite like it.When you do that sort of epic mileage in a car you begin to invent some awesome games, a 20 minute stint of car sauna ( recirc on, heaters to full, heated seats on,) followed by a 10 minute blast of car freezer was a great way to pass the time. I got pretty sick of I spy as all there was to see was "giant wasteland". It was here I started to play with the traction control on some of the quieter roads and learnt what it was like to slide a 2 ton 300HP pendulum around on the loose. Terrifying but actually quite controllable.
The route:
Montreal - Quebec City - Lac Saint Jean (Meteor Crater Lake) - Tadoussac - Frederickton - Prince Edward Island - Halifax- Bristol - Montreal....phew.
Doesn't look that far but Canada is a bigggg country.
Dawn at the wheel
Dodge journey accompanied lead the way on our travels
Breakfast in Quebec city
par for the course view:
obligatory road trip shot
Lac Saint Jean
These guys had the same idea as us it seemed and we followed them for quite some time before the ferry over the St Lawrence
our best interpretation of the spirit of ecstacy on the bonnet - I still ahve this and it was flipping gross after 3000KMs, flies plastered all over it:
not a bad looking barge:
This was the best moment of the whole trip, after finally arriving at Prince Edward Island and finding somewhere to stay we decided to get up for dawn to watch sunrise over the atlantic, cue an impromptu 20km rally stage esque dash across the famous PEI red sands at 4:45AM to catch the sun coming up. My heavy right foot unfortunately meant that we ran out of fuel as we approached the beach, We coasted to a halt literally right on the shore and hung around whilst the other car went to correct my embarrassing mistake.
Here you can see the bad ass RALLY build up of PEI sand that stayed on the car until I returned in, totally unwashed over the whole 3 months:
you can just make out the 13km confederation bridge in this one which crosses from mainland Canada onto PEI.
on the bridge starting the 1200km ish return leg
had some good fun with this guy (nohomo)!
To you random ferrari guy with the hot wifeFIN
Honestly never wanted this trip to end. I can't recommend doing something like this enough. We found so many awesome little roads and stuff just diving off the highway every so often to break it up and got a really good feel for what some of Canada is like away from the bright lights.
Chapter 3 - JDM Monday Meets
So having started to put down roots and meet some locals it turns out that Montreal has a pretty thriving modified car scene. Not something I had heard of before but a friend of some girls we were talking to in a bar told me to go check it out. I went straight from work (felt a bit out of place around all the hipsters) to a giant parking lot and was greeted by a gathering of about 300-400 modified cars at 6pm on a MONDAY NIGHT, this used to happen EVERY MONDAY without any major objection/intervention from the police. (there were a few people racing/doing burnouts that copped it but otherwise it was a really good atmosphere) One of the best car shows I have been to and there wasn't even anything to "do" - just a gathering of like minded people organised purely by word of mouth. Like most things Montreal a surprising amount of wimmins for a car show too, they even seemed to be enjoying it. Unfortunately I forgot my wedding sack.
I'm going to steal some of Serg's photos here to show the sort of off the wall stuff that turns up as I didn't have a camera and he is much better at it than me. Most of you will probably think the cars are all s
tboxes as did I at first, but they just have a very different taste over there. Very soon, you start to appreciate some of the finer details, although some of them are just plain ridiculous. If you like his pictures feel free to like him on wallface (Chaotik Photography)
I'm told that these meetings got banned after I left for whatever reason but I am sure they will just move to somewhere else. Bit like the Bham street racing but less st.
So having started to put down roots and meet some locals it turns out that Montreal has a pretty thriving modified car scene. Not something I had heard of before but a friend of some girls we were talking to in a bar told me to go check it out. I went straight from work (felt a bit out of place around all the hipsters) to a giant parking lot and was greeted by a gathering of about 300-400 modified cars at 6pm on a MONDAY NIGHT, this used to happen EVERY MONDAY without any major objection/intervention from the police. (there were a few people racing/doing burnouts that copped it but otherwise it was a really good atmosphere) One of the best car shows I have been to and there wasn't even anything to "do" - just a gathering of like minded people organised purely by word of mouth. Like most things Montreal a surprising amount of wimmins for a car show too, they even seemed to be enjoying it. Unfortunately I forgot my wedding sack.
I'm going to steal some of Serg's photos here to show the sort of off the wall stuff that turns up as I didn't have a camera and he is much better at it than me. Most of you will probably think the cars are all s
tboxes as did I at first, but they just have a very different taste over there. Very soon, you start to appreciate some of the finer details, although some of them are just plain ridiculous. If you like his pictures feel free to like him on wallface (Chaotik Photography)I'm told that these meetings got banned after I left for whatever reason but I am sure they will just move to somewhere else. Bit like the Bham street racing but less s
t.
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