China Roadtrip in a Scirocco R

[ali_khl]

Hi,

I recently did a road trip from Beijing to Shanghai a couple of weeks ago for some navigation field tests there. The car did pretty well, considering that it is on summer tires and I had to drive on some pretty rough secondary roads because the highway got frozen and closed. It did lose its front right vent on the bumper (about 60 pound replacement cost!), and the front R badge however.

Absolutely nobody in China has any clue that winter tires exist at all, even though it reaches -20 deg C in Beijing during winter time). Actually even if you could pick up winter tires in the shops, nobody would buy them since Chinese hate to spend any money on a car after they buy it.

I also got the time to check out the service area of the Pudong Aston Martin dealer, which had all sorts of interesting stuff inside, including the Zonda 'Uno' which was experiencing some severe stalling issues with its automated clutch gearbox (check out the tire marks on the floor!).

Anyway...here are some pics.
























And from an earlier trip:

[31mph]

Nice pics

Also, I commend you for the brave colour choice on the Scirocco

[daydotz]

nice pics

[aka_kerrly]

Cool trip and cool car.

This though, I still find it amazing that VW China are bashing out Santanas which are a 30+ year old design with a slightly revised interior.