The Petrolhead’s Dream European Roadtrip

[OssAndy]

I thought I’d put up this post to describe the trip I’m undertaking in June. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but never had the chance before. I completely underestimated how monumental a task the planning is – it’s like organising 16 separate day excursions and overnight stays which also have to all link into each other! After hours and hours of research and route planning I’ve pretty much nailed it down. In summary, it looks like the ultimate petrolhead roadtrip:

11 days off work
16 days driving round Europe
3000miles
3 race tracks
10 car museums/factories
Famous alpine passes

The car that will carry me on this journey is my 1.8 turbo MX-5:


Unfortunately I’ve got to go on my own – all my friends have got to work, have kids or other plans which just reinforces my belief that I need to do this before life takes over again and prevents me. For anyone who is thinking of a similar trip, here’s my plan – feel free to copy it. I’ve also got TomTom itineraries for every part of the route which I’d be happy to share. I copied much of this route from the other road trip posts I found on pistonheads!

I’ve booked a couple of hotels and hostels at the moment but I’m hoping for reasonable weather and will be taking a tent to try and keep costs down.

Day 1:
Home to Calais (Eurotunnel), Calais to Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France.
Highlights: Reims GP buildings, D994 and D966
Google route

Day 2:
Morning: Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France to Mulhouse, France
Highlights: Route des Cretes over Col du Grand Ballon, Cité de l'Automobile (Schlumpf museum)
Google route

Afternoon: Mulhouse, France to Aosta, Italy
Highlights: Lake Geneva, Great St Bernard Pass
Google route

Day 3/4/5:
Aosta, Italy to Menton, France
Highlights: Colle San Caro, Little St Bernard Pass, Route des Grandes Alpes, Bonneval-sur-Arc (apparently the most beautiful village in Savoie region), Col de l’Iseran, L'Esseillon Forts, Col du Telegraphe, Col du Galibier, Col du Lauteret, Col d’Izoard, Col du Vars, Fort de Tournoux, Col de la Cayolle, Col de la Couillole, Ouvrage Rimplas (bunkers), Col de Turini, Notre-Dame de la Menour
Google route part1
Google route part2

Day 6:
Menton, France to Monaco, look around Monaco and relax on south coast of France.

Day 7:
Menton to Ferrari themed hotel, Maranello via Monza circuit
Highlights: A10 coast road, Monza
Google route

Day 8:
Rest day in Maranello and Modena. Visit Ferrari museum, and Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari, also trying to arrange the Pagani factory tour

Day 9:
Another site seeing day, official Lamborghini museum, and hopefully Centro Studi e Ricerche Ferruccio Lamborghini (Family museum) then up to Lake Como for the night.

Day 10:
Lake Como, Italy to Chur, Switzerland.
Highlights: Stelvio Pass, Ofenpass, Fluelapass
Google route

Day 11:
Chur, Switzerland to somewhere near Zurich, Switzerland (probably Lucerne)
Highlights: Oberalp Pass, St Gotthard pass, Nufenen pass, Furka pass, Grimsel pass, Susten pass.
Google route

Day 12:
Switzerland to Munich in the morning. BMW museum in afternoon
Highlights: BMW museum
Google route

Day 13:
Munich to Stuttgart in morning, Porsche museum afternoon. Mercedes museum too if there is time.
Highlights: Porsche museum, Mercedes museum
Google route

Day 14:
Stuttgart to Sinsheim and then Hockenheimring. Hockenheimring to Nurburg in afternoon
Highlights: Sinsheim museum, Hockenheimring
Google route part1
Google route part2
Google route part3

Day 15:
Rest day at the Nurburgring

Day 16:
Nurburg to Calais (Eurotunnel) then home
Google route

[SimonV8ster]

sounds great !! Hope you and the car have a great time !! We expect a full report with photos after.

[audidoody]

If you're on your own in a RHD car life will be easier if you get a Telepeage transponder for the autoroute tolls in France.


https://www.saneftolling.co.uk

[W1TAK]

Can highly recommend the two museums in stuttgart they are great, will keep you entertained at least 2 hours each. Good luck with the trip it sounds cracking.

[carreauchompeur]

Sounds brilliant. Well done for going out there and deciding to do it.

[GuyWMD]

Sounds like a fantastic trip! I'll love to see how this goes.

[Sortie 10]

For bragging rights you should include the Col de la Bonette - laying a pretty strong claim to be the highest road in Europe. Wikipedia shows a couple that are higher, but these are dead ends IMHO the Bonette is not a road to a summit but connects two places (albeit the dastardly French have added a loop as well), so should take the crown.

By all means PM me for some ideas on the middle section of your Mulhouse/Aosta day - I know some cracking roads between Pontarlier and Lake Geneva that have been tried and tested in an MX-5! Sortie 10 routes tend to be slightly off-piste (so free of shed-draggers) and often are more direct (& certainly more fun) than sticking to major roads. If you can be at Lake Geneva for Sunday lunch/early afternoon you will see a wonderful array of expensive cars out for a cruise.

[g3org3y]

Sounds great. Best of luck.

In Reims, worth visiting the motor museum there. Lots of random old rare cars on show.

Annecy is somewhere worth spending a night if you can squeeze it in.

Important to get the rest/driving balance right.

[AJI]

Looks like a great trip!
Seems like you have done a good mix of rest days and driving days. This is actually quite an important part of doing holidays like this, making sure you have the rest/relax periods at the right times. Otherwise, as fantastic as the roads and scenery are, you'd otherwise get very tired of driving.

[Hugo a Gogo]

the Technik Museum has two places, Sinsheim and Speyer (which is closer to Hockenheim)
worth taking both in
Speyer has the Russian Buran space shuttle and a few other things

[OssAndy]

Thanks for the comments - I'll take a look at the suggestions, the plan is certainly not set in stone yet. I'll make sure I get some good pictures and do a write-up when I get back.

[DJRC]

Passes in June? Check the webcams, ensure they are open. Be prepared for caravans, the passes frequently arent as much fun as they sound.

Er, daft question though...why was it so tricky to organise?

[AJI]

Noticed that your Day 12 route would be more scenic if you went via Fussen.

The Neuschwanstein castle will be on your right once you have left the town.

[marcosgt]

I 'heard' they'd knocked down the pits/stand at Reims, is that not true?

I keep thinking of going on a tour of Mercedes', Porsche's and BMW's museums (maybe squeezing in Audi - Do they have a museum?), but it's finding the time.

I did a tour of BMW's old museum getting on for 20 years ago and at the time you could do a factory tour too - That was excellent.

M.

[oblio]

Brilliant

I'v certainly done some of the routes/visited some of the places mentioned but not in one uber-trip like this

Oh to be young (I'm guessing here ) and free to do this

Not that I'd swap anything to do with my life which is just brilliant (in case Mrs O is tuning in )

[Bradgate]

This sounds like an excellent plan, but don't underestimate how tiring the driving will be. At an average of 45 mph, 3000 miles is 67 hours behind the wheel!

I have visited many of the museums you are planning to do over the last few years, although not on quite such an ambitious itinerary.

Mulhouse : Cite de l'automobile is fascinating. The Bugattis are the main attraction, of course, and Mulhouse is the best place in the world to see them. Mulhouse itself isn't great, it's a sort of French version of Derby, but there is also a large railway museum, www.citedutrain.com , which is worth a visit while you are there.

Col du Turini : there is a cafe/bar at the summit which is packed with rally memorabilia, definitely worth a stop.

Munich : BMW offer tours of their Munich assembly plant, which is close to the museum. Tickets can be bought at BMW Welt, and some tours are in English. Highly recommended.

Stuttgart : The Porsche museum is interesting and well worth a few hours of your time, with the Le Mans cars being the highlight, but the Mercedes-Benz museum across town is something else entirely. This is the best automotive museum in the world, in my view. The history of Mercedes-Benz is the history of the automobile, and they set out to tell the story in full. The first exhibit is a horse. You then learn how Gottlieb Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach and Karl Benz each contributed to the invention of the car, and how the business they created grew and flourished as their invention took over the world. Allow most of a day.

Sinsheim : This place is vast, and includes automotive, rail and air transport. The undoubted highlights are the supersonic twins Concorde and the Tupolev TU-144, which are displayed together on the roof. There is a smaller sister museum in the beautiful city of Speyer, which is also well worth a visit.

Have a fantastic time!

Edited by Bradgate on Sunday 14th April 01:46

[OssAndy]

Thanks, I'm well aware that the driving will be tiring, I've tried to decrease distances and increase rest days as the trip progresses.

I'll just be fitting this trip in before I turn 30, the last big blow out of my 20s I suppose!

I'm very concerned that some of the passes will be closed still in June, especially considering the cold winter Europe has had. I'll be keeping an eye on the appropriate websites and webcams in the week before I leave and can always divert onto different roads if necessary.

[satans worm]

Re Switzerland side of things, i live here (near Zug) and I have to say, keep to the speed limit, cameras are really hidden ,slim grey affairs, you will not spot them and your tom tom wont have them listed as its illegal to have a device that does.
Lucerne is really pretty, so a good choice, better than Zurich i think.
See if you can do the entire trip with the roof down

[RobGT81]

Did you manage your trip Andy??

[don logan]

RobGT81 said:

Did you manage your trip Andy??

Take a look here - http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...